Sarajevo to get a new entertainment and educational center spanning 6,500 square meters

Construction of the "IKRE" center for children and youth has begun in the Sarajevo settlement of Zabrđe. The project is financed by the Majlis of the Islamic Community Sarajevo – Zabrđe community, and is intended for additional education and upbringing of children and youth, reports the Patria News Agency.

Simultaneously, under the slogan "Learn, Work, Build!", an informational campaign has been launched to present all the details of the construction of the future center to the public, as the most significant project of its kind in the Sarajevo Canton.

So far, 340,000 KM has been invested in the purchase of land on Avdo Palić Street and the equipping of new premises. The plan is for a modern restaurant with a cafeteria and a divanhana to be available to the center's users as early as next year. The center itself currently has 220 m2 of space, of which 180 m2 is rented out as commercial space.

-We conducted research in the Sarajevo Canton that showed us that people, in response to shaken moral and life values, are seeking refuge and a way to resist the aggressive onslaught on the normal, healthy, and useful. Our goal is to create an educational center with diverse and rich content for our children, youth, and adults.

In this way, we want to get children and youth off the streets and out of betting shops, and offer them an alternative place where they can have fun and get educated at the same time. We are aware of the circumstances we are in, and it is clear to us that unhealthy and useless content is everywhere. That is precisely why, together with everyone who will recognize this project as their own, as well as significant for Sarajevo and beyond, we want to build the "IKRE" center as a place for gathering, learning, upbringing, work, and socializing on the foundations of healthy values" – these are the words of Safet Mešanović, president of the Construction Board of the "IKRE" center.

Thanks to the active engagement of the Zabrđe community, which has recognized the needs of today's children, youth, and parents, users will get a place that offers quality content for the whole family. On an area of 6,503.25 m2, the "IKRE" center will offer a kindergarten, sports halls and fields, a library, overnight rooms, an open-air stage, offices and commercial spaces, professional training, foreign language and IT courses, instructional teaching, a restaurant, a cafeteria, and much more.

-The "IKRE" center will be built in stages in several phases. "We opted for this construction concept for the simple reason that we can host as many people as possible who want to use its facilities as soon as possible. This means that as early as next year, we will be able to start realizing our goal," explains Mešanović.

The complex of the "IKRE" center will consist of a total of four buildings, which will include the existing building – the mosque, the new central building, an underground garage, a new sports and recreation facility, and a clock tower.

-By addressing the public, we have actually started the informational campaign "Learn, Work, Build!" in which we will strive to explain all the details important for the construction of the "IKRE" center in Zabrđe," says Mešanović.

The final completion of the construction of the "IKRE" center is planned for 2019.