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.
In Lužnica, a place near Zagreb, from March 30th until April 2nd, 4th regional interfaith conference titled „By building Peace, we celebrate God“was held. The conference was organized by regional initiative Believers for Peace. Believers of abrahamic traditions from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia gathered on this event, talking about the topic “Re: Action – Believers for Peace in the time of nationalism and xenophobia”.
Members of Youth for Peace Emina Frljak, Lamija Hubanić, Daniel Eror and Emir Mujkanović also attended this conference, where they had the opportunity to listen to lectures delivered by reputable religious and academic authorities, thus enriching their knowledge about interreligious dialogue and ways of combating nationalism and xenophobia, and by doing so strengthening their own, but also Youth for Peace’s capacities. Besides the lectures, participants on this conference had the opportunity to experience above mentioned in practice through various interactive exercises, which allowed them to connect the knowledge with practical experiences.
Youth for Peace members also had a chance to present the organization to other participants on the conference and by that to establish regional cooperation with them. This helped them to exchange experiences regarding dialogue and peace building and think about future common projects and initiatives.
On 13th February this year, Youth for Peace has celebrated its 3rd birthday in the premises of the Jewish community in Sarajevo. Many would say that YfP is young organization, but when we look back, we can see many implemented projects, thousands of children and students with whom we have learned, talked, grown, laughed and cried.
3rd birthday has been an opportunity for all members of organization to relax and have fun. Beside members, the event has hosted friends of Youth for Peace. The program has reminded everyone of the most beautiful moments of the Organization in the last three years. This was just a short break from work; YfP team goes back to hard work and new challenges in the upcoming year.
It's nice to be part of Youth for Peace – that would say anyone who had realized how good is to do quality things with us.
Together with their teachers, 113 students of elementary school Vladimir Nazor had the opportunity to visit Banja Luka. Students and their teachers of Catholic and Islamic religious class decided to visit this Beauty on Vrbas River, as part of the field work, organized by Youth for Peace.
In Banja Luka they visited the most important sights of the city - the central street called Gospodska, Republic Square, a monument called "Krivi sat" (raised in memory of the victims of the earthquake that struck Banja Luka in 1969), and the famous fortress Kastel.
The main reason for schoolchildren visiting Banja Luka was a tour of the most important religious buildings in this city. So they visited Ferhat Pasha's mosque (Ferhadija), which official opening after years of reconstruction was scheduled for 7th May, 2016. They then had the opportunity to visit the Cathedral dedicated to St. Bonaventure, which is also the seat of the Diocese of Banja Luka and the Bishop of Banja Luka Franjo Komarica.
In the end, the students also visited the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, consecrated and renovated in 2007, as one of the most recognizable sights of the city on the banks of the Vrbas. In all places of worship, students and their teachers were kindly welcomed by representatives of religious communities, and they described in details the history of objects. Given the fact that some students had an opportunity to visit a religious building of some other religions for the first time, this was a great opportunity to gain new knowledge about other religions.
Youth for Peace hosted a group of 75 young people from Trento. During many years, organization ‘Trentino con i Balcani’ is organizing various activities and visits to Bosnia and Herzegovina. This time a group of high school students came to the seven-day trip through BiH. Youth for Peace has spent one day with a group socializing and sharing experiences. Also, there was a visit to religious sites of Sarajevo, and youth from Italy had a chance to see why many generations before them are calling Sarajevo ‘The European Jerusalem’.
Delegation of Youth for Peace attended Info day on EU Erasmus + program, held on March 29th, 2016 in the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Youth for Peace delegation, together with 40 representatives of youth organizations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, spoke about the opportunities that this program brings, as well as possible cooperation in the application process and implementation of projects.
Info Day was organized by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Commission for Coordination of Youth Issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in cooperation with PRONI Center for Youth Development.
Objectives of Info days:
- presentation of the EU Erasmus + program: Youth
- presentation and promotion of projects funded from BiH and Republic of Serbia
- mapping quality projects that will be presented as examples of good practice
- supporting and networking of organizations whose projects are not approved
- improving cooperation between the two contact points: "PRONI Center" from Brčko District and ‘Hajde da' from Belgrade
- connecting and encouraging organizations from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republic of Serbia to submit joint proposals for EU Erasmus + program
Students of elementary school "Ivan fra Franjo Jukić”, local school "Žabljak" from Sivša, paid a visit to Sarajevo on 3rd of February 2016. Group of fifty-one students together with their RE teacher, Mladen Jozić, visited religious objects in Sarajevo as a part of their school program. The goal of the visit was to get to know the religious objects, practices and traditions of other religious groups. During a one-day visit, members of Youth for Peace were hosts for the group and they took them for a tour to visit The Cathedral of Jesus' Sacred Heart, Serbian Orthodox Church, Gazi Husrev Bey's Mosque and Ashkenazi Synagogue. Students had an opportunity to hear interesting information about the objects, prayers and the life of a believer. They had open space to ask questions.
The goal was fulfilled and as their teacher said: "This visit will stay with my students for sure, but what is the most important thing of all is that they will appreciate the future and other religions."
50 youth leaders from the world’s major religious organizations, including representatives of Youth for Peace, as well as representatives of the United Nations and intergovernmental institutions, experts and practitioners from civil society organizations, met in Paris, France on 26 -28 November 2015 for the Global Religious Youth Leaders’ Summit on “Welcoming the Other: Multi-religious Youth Respond to the Challenges of Violent Religious Extremism, Refugee Crisis and Climate Change". The Summit served also as the 2015 Religions for Peace (RfP) International Youth Committee (IYC) meeting.
The Summit participants condemned the violence committed in the name of religion and rejected any attempt to fuel distrust and cycles of discrimination and violence to polarize and divide our communities. The youth leaders committed to further strengthen their effort to advance Peace. A two-year action plan was developed and a strong multi-religious statement was issued defining our future actions and our firm commitment to ensure its implementation.
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Teambuilding activities for the members of Youth for Peace were held in “Hotel Napretkov dom” at our nearby mountain Trebević. Training for the members who recently joined the team was done in the field of workshop management. Trainers Zlatko Malić and Tanja Raič-Tarčuki worked with newly admitted members on preparation and implementation of workshops for youth and children. Most of the participants reached the second phase of knowledge - awareness of the lack of it, after which they started working on gaining necessary knowledge through practical exercises and simulations of workshops. Experience is what makes a great trainer, but the base is a necessity for the beginning.
The energy among the members and high motivation for future projects couldn't pass by unnoticed. The combination of our trainers’ experience, innovativeness and creativity from the new members is what creates the greatest power of Youth for Peace. We talked about possibility of future cooperation with other organizations and implementation of future projects. From the start of the year 2016 many interesting and demanding projects awaits Youth for Peace.
Sarajevo, capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is famous because it is considered Europe's Jerusalem. It is a city where the world's four major religions meet, and, together, live a life of harmony, peace and tolerance. The Jewish community of Bosnia and Herzegovina has a rich and varied history, having suffered through World War II and the war in Yugoslavia 20 years ago. Because of this very interesting and turbulent history, celebrating International Peace day in Sarajevo has special meaning.
The International Day of Peace (IDP) is observed annually on September 21st. Three days later, the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah had begun, which was why Youth for Peace decided to celebrate IDP and welcome Rosh Hashanah at Jewish community in Sarajevo. Our youth trainers coming from different religions backgrounds organized a workshop for children aged 5-11. Through different games, plays and songs we sent messages of peace and tolerance. We also discussed the importance of friendship and mutual understanding, eating symbolic foods such as apples dipped in honey to evoke a "sweet new year". We also drew and wrote messages of peace, hoping that those children would help to bring new century of peace, tolerance and a better future for all of us.
Beside longterm cooperation between Youth for Peace members and URI, in August 2014 YfP became officialy Cooperation Circle of URI. It was announced alongside four other CCs from different sides of world. YfP is looking forward to cooperation with other URI's CC and sharing common idea and vision. On official URI Website our CC is presented as: This Cooperation Circle, formed by young people from different spiritual backgrounds from Bosnia and Herzegovina, is active in working with interfaith youth groups from local and international organizations. With unique professional backgrounds in psychology, economics and tourism among other things, they have organized activities, workshops, seminars and conferences for young activists. They established Youth for Peace as a non-governmental organization on national level and currently have more than 15 active members. Through interfaith projects, they hope to contribute to peacebuilding and interfaith dialogue by highlighting the importance of young people in the process. They strive to empower young people to be initiators of positive change in order to create a better future by building a society of equal opportunities without prejudices in local communities.
