Near Prijedor, in the village of Kevljani, since 2009 , a series of events have been held in the organization of Mosta Mira, which focus on peace and art, architecture, democracy, and youth. All of them are aimed at building peace in this region but also in the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Building peace often sounds quite abstract and somewhat unattainable. How is peace built ? What are the basic needs in building peace? The questions keep coming… I participated in these activities on several occasions, and seven years ago I remember that under the impressions of everything we listened to, I wrote: “Through this project, I realized that, regardless of all the divisions and problems in our communities, we can take today into our hands. And that’s important.” Therefore, peace is built through young people and their awareness of the power they have in social change. The tireless Mosta Mir team realized this already in 2009, and the experiences of people who have been part of their projects in the past years have been mostly described as transformative.
This year’s Summer School on peacebuilding and human rights brought together young people from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the end of last month, participants researched, among other things, ways of promoting dialogue, politics of memory in Prijedor, but also how to develop critical thinking skills. Some of the lecturers at the summer school include Giovanni Scott, Refik Hodžić, Goran Ognjenović and Heleen Touquet. One of the lecturers is Kemal Pervanić , the person behind the complete organization of Mosta Mira from the very beginning.
All persons participating in the Bridge of Peace projects are given the task of writing a short review, in any form, of their experience in the project. Their experiences are largely determined by the places they come from, the disciplines they practice or want to practice, but also their personal understanding of peace, art and memory.
We bring clips of some of the observations of the participants of this year’s school, and you can read all the blogs on the social networks of Mosta Mira .
“The theater doesn’t recognize a divided community… It doesn’t even recognize racio…
The key is to understand… Yourself… Others… Only that…
That’s what theater teaches us…
This is what peace teaches us…
That’s what life teaches us…” – Amar Velagić
“This July 20, heavy rain demarcated and indicated the space, that is, the spatial organization conducted by the organizers. Tents and the space between them unexpectedly gained importance. Bilge and mud gained in importance. All those dry suits and titles gained importance. “The sky was crying”, people would say…” – Amel Bešlagić
“You will discover the price of freedom and courage once you come here. It does not hide there, but trapped in time lies the calm scream of the past, the memory of pain and injustice, until in the silence of life hope appears, like a mist in the morning dawn, to rebuild what was once lost.” – Ishak Sikira
“Every conversation, every workshop, every quiet reflection stimulated something in me, something I didn’t know existed. It was a sense of responsibility – a responsibility to carry these stories with me, to share them, to fight for justice and truth. At the end of that trip, as we all gathered together, I felt fulfilled, but also changed. I was no longer the same.” – Tarik Rizvić
Source: povjici.ba
