Youth exchange with Gorazde
Mr. Belik and Mrs. Klepo with young people from Gorazde
Report
The meeting of our youth club Youth United and a youth group from Gorazde was a very special event. The enclave of Gorazde in Bosnia-Herzegovina is about 100 km east of Sarajevo and suffered severly during the Bosnian war. It was cut-off by the outside world, so that the inhabitants had to bear quite a lot. It was hard-fought, but nevertheless the inhabitants could repulse all attacks of the Serbian military and in this manner prevent that they had to suffer a similar destiny like the inhabitants of the enclave of Srebrenica.
The wounds of war are still present everywhere in Gorazde; life is still stamped by the experience of war.
Thus is was really important to give a group of youngster the opportuniy to come to Munich and share their experiences with other young people.
The participants communicated in Bosnian, English and German. That was possible as some German participants were able to speak Bosnian and some of the guests from Gorazde learned English and German at school. To relieve the German hosts, the youngsters were accomodated for 5 days in a youth hostel in the Munich city centre. That turned out to be a big ease for the programme.
At a special wish of the guest group from Bosnia-Herzegovina several meetings with the Bosnian Diaspora were carred out in Munich. The youngsters received intensive information about the life in Germany and could as well describe their personal and social problems in their hometown. Thus closer contacts and friendships arose from that visit which will outlive the exchange.
The offered ranges of topics and roundtable discussions met big approval and it always came to an intensive exchange of ideas. The youngster often had to find out that subjects and problems like job search, graduations and study chances play a big role - here like there. With the subject „Prejudices and negative group images– how can one handle with it?“ the guests could introduce her experiences, while the German partners who mostly are themselves migrants, contributed her experiences in Germany.
In the townhall
A visit of the Bavarian Parliament which was enabled by the CSU delegate Mr. Unterländer was perceived quite well. Another highlight of the programme was the receipt in the Munich city hall which was organised by the SPD c ity councillor Mr Belik. The guests felt honoured by both events and they enthusiastically reported about it after their return to Gorazde.
The highlight of the meeting was the participation at the 3rd Munich Balkan Days which took place from the 13th to the 15th November. The youngsters could take part in the different talks and readings, partially even in their mother tongue. They also had the possibility to wear their national costumes and to present themselves with songs and dances from their home country to a bigger audiance - at the official opening of the Balkan on Friday and on the Balkan bazaar on Saturday.
They were acknowledged with big applause and thus confirmed once more the fact that youth work and cultural work belong together. Further more it became obvious,that youth- and cultural work are an important community building element, which on the one hand prepares them for their role in the society and – on the other hand - is he basic for intercultural communication.
The German hosts were highly impressed and consider how they themselves could threngthen the cultural contents in their work to present it accordingly at a possible return visit.
As appeared in the final discussion , the youth exchance was a complete success: The content as well as the social aims could be reached. We thank our guests but also all who have contributed to the fact that the meeting became possible and such an extensive programme could be carried out.
München, November 25, 2009
Andi Pfützner
Chairman of the youth club Youth United
