Zagreb will get a Crafts Center after 100 years

Zagreb’s Mayor Milan Bandić signed two agreements on joint cooperation for the realization of the URIHO complex and the Crafts Center with an educational institution as part of the Kajzerica project.

He emphasized that both the City of Zagreb and craftsmen and persons with disabilities have long awaited this day, and the start of the project’s realization means a lot to them. The agreement for the Institution for the Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities through Professional Rehabilitation and Employment (URIHO) was signed by the President of the Croatian Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Andrija Halec and the Director of the URIHO-Zagreb institution Josip Držaić, while the agreement for the Crafts Center was signed by the President of the Zagreb Crafts Chamber Ivan Obad and the President of the Association of Craftsmen of the City of Zagreb, Vlado Crkvenac.

– This is a great day for Croatian craftsmanship, especially for the craftsmen of the City of Zagreb – assessed Ivan Obad before the signing of the agreement at the City Hall, thanking the mayor and everyone who worked on the realization of the Kajzerica project.

Obad stated that the construction of the Crafts Center with an educational institution will enable Zagreb craftsmen and entrepreneurs to acquire quality and competitive knowledge and to sell goods and services in the large EU market, expressing satisfaction that the project is also supported by the Government.

– After 100 years, Zagreb craftsmen will for the first time gain ownership of a place where they will create a Crafts Center that will serve everyone – he said, noting that this will encourage young generations to choose one of the many craft professions.

Vlado Crkvenac, on behalf of the Association of Craftsmen of the City of Zagreb, the largest of 116 such associations in Croatia, reminded that they have cooperated well with the City of Zagreb in recent years, especially regarding annual scholarships for students in craft professions, favorable loans for entrepreneurs, reducing monument rents and minimums for craftsmen, as well as opportunities for purchasing business premises owned by the city.

The Director of the URIHO-Zagreb institution Josip Držaić said that the agreement with the City of Zagreb will mean a lot to both URIHO and persons with disabilities in terms of employment and professional rehabilitation. Noting that until now URIHO has been discussed as an institution with problems, he expressed satisfaction that after 12 years he managed to implement a program of rehabilitation and restructuring and that URIHO has its place in the Zagreb and Croatian economic environment.

– In order for the institution to continue its development, it needs new spaces, and I am glad that it is no longer questionable whether the institution will survive and whether people with disabilities will seek their rights on the streets – said Držaić, noting that URIHO today employs 500 people and has 300 participants in workshops.

The President of the Croatian Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Andrija Halec also stated that persons with disabilities will achieve a better standard in realizing their life ambitions, especially from the Association that has participated in URIHO’s workshops for more than 50 years.

The Kajzerica project includes the arrangement of traffic infrastructure, the construction of a kindergarten and school based on the principle of public-private partnership, the construction of a church, and several capital facilities: a Home for Persons with Disabilities and the URIHO rehabilitation complex, the Crafts House, and the Regional Center for the Development of Entrepreneurial Competencies of Southeast Europe at the Ministry of Economy. Mayor Bandić announced that the construction of the school and kindergarten will begin in the spring and expressed confidence that all institutions will be completed in three to four years.