The coronavirus pandemic has paralyzed the entire world, locked us in our homes, and completely changed our lives. Schools, universities, institutions, restaurants, hotels, public transport, religious sites were all closed and everything was transferred to the online world. In moments that were extremely difficult for the entire planet, during the very beginning of the pandemic, the religious holidays of most religions were coming. The spiritual life of people has also undergone a transformation, it has undergone certain changes. Although spirituality and faith are not strictly related to religious sites, yet the community and what the place of worship provides could hardly have been completely replaced by online services and prayers at home, but still this had to be adapted.
For this reason, Youth for Peace, in cooperation with Religions for Peace, decided to implement a project that will show the other side of the pandemic and show how religious leaders, women, and youth coped in this period, how they transformed their lives and nurtured spirituality in the age of the COVID 19. From April to October 2020, Youth for Peace conducted interviews with 25 participants and released 19 videos covering various topics related to life during the pandemic. In addition, in September we visited some of the participants, talked to them, and made an additional 3 videos in which we could talk to the participants in person about how they reflect on the period behind them, and what are the most important things and messages they learned from the period since COVID 19 pandemic started.
During the project, more than 6,000 people saw our videos that were posted on the Youtube channel and the Facebook and Instagram pages of Youth for Peace. You can read more about this project on the Religions for Peace website in the text "Youth for Peace" Deliver Hope and Spiritual Resilience in Bosnia and Herzegovina during COVID-19 which was created as a result of an interview with our program coordinator Emina Frljak.
During the weekend of November 16th and 17th, 2019. a meeting of members and volunteers of Youth for Peace was held. The meeting was held at the Student Dormitory "Dr. Dragutin Dujmušić” at Stup, Sarajevo, where 25 members and volunteers of the organization were present. The meeting served as an opportunity for members coming from different parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina to meet in one place and discuss past, current, and future activities of the organization. During the first day, a cross-section of activities implemented in the period from last year's gathering of members until now was made.
In the afternoon, the working group in charge of creating the development strategy of Youth for Peace presented their conclusions. The evening was reserved for a team-building activity, during which members had fun, relaxed, and better connected with each other while discussing the importance of teamwork for the functioning of the organization.
On the second day of the gathering, the 7th annual assembly of the organization was held. All the assembly members were present, but the assembly was also open to volunteers who were interested to attend. After the assembly, sessions dedicated to planning future activities of Youth for Peace and mapping the needs of members and volunteers were held. Participants also discussed opportunities for their further engagement in the organization.
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The URI Europe Assembly was held in Ohrid, Macedonia on October 2-6, 2019. URI members from across Europe (including 15 countries and 32 Cooperation Circles) gathered to exchange ideas, enjoy productive conversations, and plan future collaboration and activities – with special excitement for URI Europe’s upcoming 20-year benchmark. Participants were graciously hosted by the local URI Cooperation Circle, Community Development Institute – Tetovo. Among their other activities, the participants also found time to clean garbage from the picturesque shore of Ohrid Lake (pictured above).
This assembly took place 22 years after the first-ever regional URI summit, which was held in Oxford in 1997. Thanks to the hard work of the URI Europe team over the years, URI peacebuilders currently thrive in Europe through the work of 60 Cooperation Circles in 22 countries
Emina Frljak, a representative of Youth for Peace, organization that has been part of the URI for 5 years, attended this gathering. Also in Ohrid was Daniel Eror, URI Global Council Trustee. This was a very good opportunity for Youth for Peace representatives to talk with potential partners, organizations across Europe, who share similar values and goals for peacebuilding
Youth for Peace at the Educational and Youth Office premises celebrated its 5th birthday and looked back at its business successes as well as happy moments lived through various activities that were carried out.
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RYCO Pilot Capacity Building Training was held in Podgorica, Montenegro, in the period from May 7th - May 11th for the beneficiaries of the first RYCO open call for project proposals.
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Dialogue session "Constructive use of veteran experience", organized by Youth for Peace, ReMI network and Konrad Adenauer Foundation, in their room was held on September 8th.
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Tenth anniversary of Learning to Live Together program (LTLT) was celebratedon September 26th 2018 in the premises of Gazi Husrev-bey's Library in Sarajevo. This program has been implementing in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2011.
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President of the Youth for Peace Organization, and a member of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Youth Delegation - The Konrad Adenauer Sarajevo Foundation attended the Blakan Summit, which was held in Brussels in December 2018.
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In front of BBI center, on Sarajevo Children’s Square, pop up exhibition “Peace belongs to everyone” was organized and hosted by War Childhood Museum. This exhibition consisted of toys and belongings of Syrian refugee children, thus showing their experiences to visitors.
The exhibition was organized on 19th of August – World Humanitarian Day, and partners in organization were Caritas Italiana, Youth for Peace and UNHCR. This event was open from 11 until 19 o’clock and it was free of charge for all visitors. Seventeen exponents and stories tied to them that were collected in refugee camps in Lebanon were exhibited.
Besides the exhibition, workshops and animation activities organized for children were organized. This made the event suitable for families, so parents could leave their children in the hands of experienced Youth for Peace facilitators, visit the exhibition and have a look at exponents. Children had the opportunity to write, draw and color, but also to make their own toys of plasticine, wood and other materials.
More about exhibition and photos from it can be found on the following links:
Link 1
Link 2
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On February 13th 2014. Youth for Peace was founded and now four years after, it grew, it became known and it attracted many young people and many new members. Youth for Peace started with couple of young people who shared the same passion for coexistence and desire to make change in their community and whole Bosnian society.
Today, for years after Youth for Peace counts 43 members, 43 young, active, dedicated people who share their passion to live together, to contribute to this society and strenghten its capacities and potentials. This was a reason for us to gather on Saturday, 17th of February 2018. in the restaurant of Jewish community in Sarajevo and celebrate our 4th birthday and all the successes that, together, we managed to achieve.
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In hotel Level Up on Trebević from October 6th until October 8th 2017, Youth for Peace staff retreat was held. This meeting gathered 30 members of the organization, who met there to talk about past activities of Youth for Peace, but also to work on future plans.
The first day of the retreat was reserved to reflect on the past activities, i.e. those that were realized in the period from last year retreat that was also held in October, until this year retreat. Members also made their individual reflections about their participation in past activities, their involvement in the work of Youth for Peace, and they also had a chance to express themselves in which fields of the organization's work they see themselves in the future and how much they want to progress in these fields.
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In cooperation with United Religions Initiative (URI), Youth for Peace organized Interreligious Peace Evening on September 14th 2017 in hotel Europa in Sarajevo. This evening was organized as an ending event of URI Global Leadership Gathering which was held in Sarajevo.
More than 200 people coming from different parts of the world i.e. from North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia gathered on this event. Representatives of different religious communities and traditions, government representatives, civil society representatives, both local ones and international ones, Youth for Peace partners and friends attended this evening.
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In the period of September 9th – September 15th 2017, in hotel Saraj in Sarajevo, URI Global Leadership Gathering was held. Youth for Peace was host and co-organizer of this event.
More than 100 people from different parts of the world, from all continents, representing various religious communities and traditions were present on this meeting and made Sarajevo a place where representatives of more than 50 countries and nations all over the world gathered at the same time. Participants of this meeting talked about the future of URI as a network that gathers 890 organizations from the whole world, with the accent on the role and importance of these organizations and what they represent for this network.
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Youth for Peace in corporation with Italian Embassy in BiH and Caritas Italiana has presented themselves at the Kids Festival. On 4th of July, there was a lot of smile, fun and creativity, which sprang up a plenty of colourful works of the youngest visitors. The heat has not blocked YfP from developing and presenting interesting workshops to hundreds of children who visited the tent during the day. The happiness of the children is visible on the pictures, while the special thanks go to the organizers of the Kids Festival and the partners.
