Gathering students from three different high schools from three countries – two of which were at war in the nineties – is a complicated feat in itself, but to gather them to hear multiple personal accounts from that war might be a first in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and this region. Yet USAID’s PRO-Future project – developer and promoter of its ‘Platform for Peace’ – did just that.

USAID organized a ‘Speaking Out’ event just for them, these children born in the years after that brutal war, and they came with open hearts and open minds: from the Technical High School of Chemistry and Food from Belgrade, Serbia; the Vasil Antevski High School of Economy and Law from Skoplje, Macedonia, and the ’28 June High School’ from Eastern New Sarajevo.

During the event, held in late 2018, three wartime detention camp survivors Janko, Amir, and Krešo had shared their own war experiences and conveyed messages of peace that triggered reactions from the audience. They were from different ethnic groups, different ‘sides’ of the war, but with stories that were impressive for their humanity and honesty and nothing else.

Students from Belgrade, Sarajevo, and Skopje gathered at the Eastern New Sarajevo Cultural Center to hear war victim stories, as part of a USAID PRO-Future event.

USAID PRO-Future project

“This was the first time I attended a public speaking event of this kind, where I had an opportunity to hear personal war stories of persons belonging to three different ethnic groups. I have watched several testimonies on YouTube, but this experience was way more emotional. It is important to learn about the past in this manner,” said Andrea Rajičić from the Technical High School of Chemistry and Food in Belgrade, Serbia.  

“We were born after the war and did not hurt each other in any way, nevertheless, there are still young people raised in a manner that supports hate towards others and everything that is different, but events like this one can change that,” Rajičić said.

“I think that other young people should hear stories like these, told by several speakers in the same place,” said Nenad Miletić, also from the Belgrade school. “Some people from my own close surroundings do not tend to share their opinions and see certain things from only one point of view. But I think their attitudes would change if they came here and heard what Janko, Krešo and Amir had to share. I will share these stories with them,” he said.

The idea to host the multinational and multi-ethnic event for high school students was the brainchild of Renata Tešić, a professor at the ’28 June High School’ and experienced participant in previous initiatives of USAID’s PRO-Future project.

Several USAID PRO-Future activities – including the final adoption of the Platform for Peace by the BiH Parliament, the ‘Lično (Personal) Exhibit: Portraits of War Victims’, multiple Speaking Out events and reconciliation workshops – led to this collaboration, showing how systematic and continuous work in a community can create long-term results.

The event created possibilities for new cross-national collaborations: The Belgrade students and academic staff expressed their wish to invite Janko, Amir, and Krešo to speak at their school back home and are even considering airing it on the national public television network in Serbia. Stay tuned…

Janko, Amir, and Krešo speaking in Sarajevo about their wartime experiences to students from Bosnia, Serbia, and Macedonia in October 2018, at a USAID PRO-Future ‘Speaking Out’ event.

USAID PRO-Future project

USAID’s PRO-Future project is implemented in 70 municipalities in BiH by Catholic Relief Services in partnership with the Institute for Youth Development KULT, Caritas, Forum of Tuzla Citizens, Banja Luka Helsinki Citizen Assembly, Nansen Dialogue Center Mostar, and the BiH Interreligious Council.