28 September 2009
Serbian, Montenegrin Youth Learn Civic Activism, Reconciliation
Community organizing brings promise of interethnic cooperation
Belgrade, Serbia — Serbian and Montenegrin secondary school and college-age students donned yellow rubber gloves and headed to the wooded banks of the Danube River September 23, not just to pick up trash but to highlight the importance of civic activism.
The students learned about the importance of good citizenship and volunteerism when, as exchange students, they participated in similar projects in U.S. communities. Now back in Serbia, past participants of the American Serbia & Montenegro Youth Leadership Exchange (A-SMYLE) have spent the past year cleaning school grounds, parks and riverbanks in their own communities.
Picking up trash, furniture and even dead animals is not typically a fun task. But the students took on the project believing they could make a difference. “We can make changes. They are small, but we can do something,” said Ana Brzakovic.
As young people, “we may not have much experience, but it doesn’t mean we can’t organize and do something successfully,” Brzakovic said.
Eager to draw others to their cause, the students planned a public relations campaign. They handed out thousands of flyers on the street and made their own media contacts, even organizing their own press conference. They planned art shows and musical performances to coincide with cleanups so people would see the cleanup activity as part of a day’s worth of community events. At cleanups across the country, alumni were joined by citizens of all ages. One alumnus convinced an entire volleyball team to join. Another student organized a cleanup event attended by her local mayor.
Cleaning involves “simple things we can do without lots of financial support; it takes just time,” said Philip Gurjanov. The students received some small grants and assistance from the U.S. embassy and other organizations for things like transportation and cleaning supplies. But they also did their own fundraising, convincing Serbian companies to contribute small financial contributions or supplies to their cause.
Although it can be tough to get large amounts of financial assistance, said Dushan Ilic, “little by little you get a bunch.”
They also found sponsors. At the Danube River cleanup, about 20 members of the Hyatt Regency hotel’s “green team” joined the cause. The hotel also donated food and a conference room for the students’ press conference.
COMMUNICATION AND RECONCILIATION
The students learned a great deal about organizing for a good cause with the help of the nongovernmental organization Fractal, a Belgrade-based group founded in 2001 by 12 people all under the age of 27. They learned about leadership, teamwork and how to identify community priorities. “It’s been really exciting to see these actions going on. … [The students] are really eager,” said Ana Rankovic, one of Fractal’s founders.
After years of ethnic conflict, Fractal’s young founders believed that peace and reconciliation would be brought about through increased civic activism and communication among people of different backgrounds. They organize civic-activism training and activities that bring youth of different ethnicities together so that they can become “bridge makers” for their communities.
Years after Fractal’s founding, communication among different communities in the region is still as challenging, Rankovic said. This “urges us to think of new creative ways” to do their work in Serbia and with its neighbors, she said.
One creative method was through the filming of a reality television show, CooperaTIVa, a program inspired by the U.S. and U.K. program The Apprentice, which calls on business leaders to take on a series of group challenges. On CooperaTIVa, a nine-episode series that aired on Serbian television, Serbians and Kosovars were required to work together on teams to complete a series of competitive tasks. Through competition, the participants learned about confidence-building and inter-ethnic cooperation, Rankovic said.
Although Serbians and Kosovars have a long history of distrust of one another, Rankovic found that after a few days of filming, the groups focused on their teamwork. The competition “was about purple and yellow [teams]; it was not about ethnic issues at all. They forgot about it after a few days after they met each other,” Rankovic said. Participants of CooperaTIVa continue to keep in touch with one another.
Due to security concerns, the show filmed in neighboring Montenegro, but Rankovic is hopeful that one day Fractal may be able to organize a similar filming in Serbia or Kosovo. Security issues can be an issue for many of their programs, Rankovic said, but participants in Fractal’s exchange programs are eager to one day be able to host one another in their countries.
More information about Fractal is available on the organization’s Web site.
