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.
