From August 22nd to August 31st, 2023, the 15th Summer School of Peace, an educational volunteer camp, was held. This year, the School was held in a slightly different format than previous years. In addition to staying in Banja Luka, the participants and facilitators spent part of the Summer School in Vittorio Veneto, so this year's School was held in two countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy.

As in previous years, the participants of the Summer School were young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy. The first six days of the Summer School were held in Banja Luka, while the last three were held in Vittorio Veneto. During their stay in Banja Luka, the participants had the opportunity to participate in workshops related to this year's topic, "Culture and identity in the service of peacebuilding", where they learned with the facilitators about the issues of identity, peace, and intercultural dialogue, through the use of interactive methods and tools. In addition to the workshops, three volunteer activities were also implemented, which included the arrangement and painting of the canopy and entrance of the Agricultural Cooperative Livac, painting and arranging balcony fences in the Social Center of Caritas of the Diocese of Banja Luka "Ivan Pavao II" - Home for older people, and cleaning and arrangement of the library at the "Marija Zvijezda" monastery. On the last day of the School in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the participants visited Jajce and the surrounding picnic areas.

During their stay in Vittorio Veneto, participants and facilitators took part in volunteer activities, visited the weaving and carpentry workshops of Caritas Vittorio Veneto, which operate according to the principles of social entrepreneurship, visited Caritas Treviso, got to know their volunteers and learned more about their activities. In addition to the programmatic part of the School, the participants had time for a tourist visit of Vittorio Veneto and Treviso guided by the host. The last evening of the visit was devoted to folkloric dances. Hence, the Summer School participants and young people from Italy and Brazil danced to the music and rhythms of folkloric dances from all three countries.

The Summer School of Peace is a long-term project jointly implemented by Youth for Peace, Caritas Banja Luka, and Caritas Vittorio Veneto. The Summer School is traditionally held every August in Banja Luka, and from this year, also in Vittorio Veneto, Italy.

In the period from 19th to 26th August 2022, the 14th Summer School of Peace, an educational-volunteer camp, was held in Banja Luka. After a two-year break, due to the pandemic caused by a coronavirus, Banja Luka once again hosted young people who wanted to learn and talk about peace. As in previous years, the participants of the School were young people from Italy and Bosnia and Herzegovina. This camp was organized in cooperation with Caritas Banja Luka and Caritas Vittorio Veneto from Italy and Youth for Peace. Every year, the educational part of the camp focuses on a different topic, and this time the topic was "Migration processes, interreligious and intercultural dialogue". The young people discussed their experiences with people on the move, about their integration and assimilation into society, as well as about creating a space for dialogue between different religions and cultures. During their free time, the participants had the opportunity to visit religious sites in the city of Banjaluka, the Cathedral of St. Bonaventure, the Temple of Christ the Savior, and the Ferhadija Mosque. They also got to know other sights of the town of Vrbas and had the opportunity to visit the waterfalls in Krupa on Vrbas and the Ethno village Ljubačke doline.

When it comes to volunteer activities, thanks to the successful cooperation with the Red Cross in Banja Luka, as well as the engagement of the staff from the Center for Life and Family, two socially vulnerable families were found and helped in the form of rehabilitation and painting of two residential buildings. In addition, 3 classrooms in the regional elementary school in Donji Podgradci were renovated and painted. You can learn more about the volunteer activity at the school in Donji Podgradci in the report of RTV Gradiška at this link. You can read more about Summer School of Peace in the article "Dajana Umićević on Peace School 2022: Young people are our future, but what is more important our present" on the Megafon portal, as well as in the ELTA TV video clip, where Dajana Umićević talked about activities within the School of Peace during the show Kafa u 5. 

From 21st to 31st of August, in Banja Luka was held the 13th Summer School of Peace. The Summer School was held in collaboration between Youth for Peace, Caritas Banja Luka and Caritas Vittorio Veneto from Italy.

The Peace Summer School gathered 25 young people, coaching staff and members of Youth for Peace - coming from different cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy. This year's theme of the school was "The issue of peace in Europe", where participants, through discussion, short lectures, simulations, role plays, and workshops, which were weakened by the learning experience, and learned through examples to talk about topics related to peace, but also conflict in Europe.

"We have decided to dedicate this Summer School to the topic of peace in Europe, because we believe that this issue is extremely important for young people, with all the turbulence that is currently shaking the European Union and other countries on the continent of Europe. We addressed topics such as extremism and its causes, hate speech that relies on xenophobia, racism and nationalism, and the risks that threaten peace. What we were particularly trying to point out, and what we did through simulating the pre-World War II situation, is to draw a parallel between what Europe went through 70 years ago and what it is going through now, and to tell young people how important it is to talk about the above topics and not allow prejudice and stereotypes to grow into discrimination. " - said Youth for Peace facilitator and member Emina Frljak.

In addition to quality education and discussions, the youth also marked this summer peace school with volunteer activities in Banja Luka, which included painting and cleaning houses, painting a fence in the cemetery and around the Caritas building, cleaning the riverbeds of the Vrbas river, arranging the Mladen Stojanovic park and finally, cleaning yards and painting the table and bench of the Day Care Center for the old people.

About his experience on this camp, participant Samir Salkic from Cazin written: “In the last 10 days I could write a lot, but I don't think that would be enough either, I met many new friends, many people who will remain in my heart, with whom I will always remain friends. It was a lot of time to laugh, to make friends, to love, but a little time to forgive.
I had the most wonderful moments of the summer with you, the most peaceful but the best. Thanks to the whole organizational team for doing something like this because it connects us young people, gives us new friends, best friends, teaches us something about this, and on this occasion I want to thank you and hope that you will do this for many, many years, and continue to make new friends and new people. There was plenty of time, but little left for forgiveness. "

Also, another statement by Edin Topovcic, a participant from Teslic, points to the atmosphere that prevailed during the summer school: “10 beautiful days spent with wonderful people. Some new friendships and memories have been made that will be hard to forget and will always be remembered. Thank you to the Youth for Peace organization for hosting such a school that has taught us a great deal but also extended our perspectives to other nations. In addition to the workshops we taught about peace in Europe, we also conducted volunteer activities to help people in need. A lot of laughter, fun, tiredness, but in the end we turned that tiredness into a laughing stock and leaving fond memories. Thanks for the wonderful memories of those 10 beautiful days. "

The USAID campaign "Meet the Real Heroes" follows the life stories of students from Jajce, Nevesinje, Konjic, Donji Vakuf and Banja Luka, in which they prove how to live in BiH without any divisions and to fight them personally, respecting all faiths and nations, building inseparable bridges of friendship, honestly.

This year, the main characters of one of the three USAID "Real Heroes" stories are participants of the Youth for Peace Summer School of Peace. The story follows Melika, Ivan, Zorana and Mateo who have worked together with their colleagues from BiH and Italy on renovation of the house when they replaced the roof of Mrs. Mara’s house from Banja Luka.

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Eleventh Summer School of Peace was held from August 19th until August 28th in Banjaluka. Each year Youth for Peace organizes this school in cooperation with Caritas Banjaluka and Caritas Vittorio Veneto from Italy. On this event 30 young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy gathered, where they learnt, discussed and talked about conflict, resolution of it, and about consequences that conflict can cause.

Like in the last years, summer school consisted of educational part, where participants talked about conflict, with the case study of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and from voluntary activities, which there was 11 this year, in order to celebrate 11 years of existence of Summer School of Peace. In the educational part, through short lectures, interactive workshops, role play, experiential exercises and simulations participants had the opportunity to learn something about conflict, but also to experience and feel what is conflict and what are the consequences that conflict can bring if it is not solved on time and by using nonviolent means.

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From August 21st until August 30th 2016, tenth Jubilee Summer School of Peace was held in Banja Luka, organized by Youth for Peace, in cooperation with Caritas Banja Luka, Caritas Italiana and Caritas Vittorio Veneto. The School gathered 25 participants from Italy and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as 10 Youth for Peace trainers.

During the first days of Summer School of Peace, participants had the opportunity to attend the workshop about assertive communication, active listening and interreligious dialogue, and to get to know something about religious traditions that exist in Bosnia and Herzegovina. So, they listened to about Islam, Islamic holidays and tasted Eid baklava, and during workshop about Judaism, they had chance to see Jewish wedding. Workshop about Orthodoxy gave them plenty information, Orthodox Slava (celebration) and wedding were showed as well. Guests from Italy prepared workshop about Catholicism. Besides workshops, participants visited Banja Luka and got to know city better thorough interactive game.

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