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Kids for Peace camp raises awareness on children’s rights
The Eagle Down Foundation together with World Vision Switzerland recently funded a Kids for Peace camp in Kosovo. The report that follows highlights the success of the camp as the children were introduced to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and how it can be implemented in their local communities:
A Kids for Peace Camp held in Brezovice/Brezovica in March 2010 was another positive step forward in making children more aware about their rights and how they can be ‘agents of change’ in their schools and communities across Kosovo.
The three-day winter camp involved 32 Kids for Peace club leaders who were accompanied by 12 chaperons (teacher/volunteers).
“Being aware of our rights, now we are more self-confident to address important issues in our school not just to other students, but also to teachers and even to the School Director,” said 13-year-old Benita Elezi, who participated in the Kids for Peace Winter Camp.
As a peace initiative, founded in 2002, the Kids for Peace project promotes responsible and tolerant living through theory sessions, games and a range of interactive activities.
The project operates in six Kosovo municipalities with 16 Kids for Peace clubs. Around 400 children participate in regular activities, which include basic Peace Education with a special emphasis on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, HIV & AIDS, gender equality, the environment, and the inclusion of disabled and other marginalised groups in society.
As part of this project, the winter camp was focused on reflection, activities, training on the rights of children, and initiatives on how children’s voices can be heard.
“Children in Kosovo do not have the possibility to raise their voices,” said Rita Llula, Kids for Peace Project Coordinator. “So the main goal of this camp was to make children’s voice heard by others and for children’s rights to be respected.”
“What I liked most about this camp was the way children’s rights were presented by the Rahovec club members through examples and games,” continued Benita.
The children participating at the camp were enthusiastic about the opportunity to discuss issues about child rights awareness and come up with solutions to address them. “If people are more aware about these rights they will respect them more”, said the participants.
“The children were active in developing a plan on peer-to-peer interaction in their schools to raise awareness about their rights,” said Rita Llula.
Milica Marjanovic, a 12-year-old Serbian girl, and Kids for Peace Club member likes everything that is new and enjoys her time spent in club activities, learning about other views on life. She wants to learn how to be a good listener and become a better communicator.
“Human/Children’s rights is a very interesting topic to learn about,” says Milica. “I’m really happy that I had this opportunity here at the camp.”
Benita, Milica and their peers from the Kids for Peace Clubs had the opportunity not only to learn many things about their rights, but at the same time meet with friends from different cities. They shared experiences of every day challenges experienced in school, sport, music and fashion. They had the chance to have fun and enjoy each other’s company.
“It was very nice in the camp. We were like a big family,” says Milica.
But the most important thing achieved from the winter camp is that the children are becoming active in promoting their rights.
“The children have demonstrated a great change in their self-esteem by breaking the barriers that they had about child rights issues,” said Rita Llula. “Now children can find help by themselves by going to schools or other institutions for their voices to be heard”.
Into the future, the children will continue to raise awareness among their parents, communities, and schools through peer to peer programmes, so that their rights can be heard, promoted and respected.
“For the future we are looking to increase the awareness about children’s rights and to support the Kids for Peace Clubs to apply their rights by peer to peer initiatives,” said Rita Llula.
She added, “Also, in the future we want to involve the school structures more to raise awareness about children’s rights”.
Peace forum unites children and youth around a common vision
Children from Lebanon, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Abkhazia met to celebrate their vision of peace and learn from each other’s experiences during an innovative regional children and youth peace forum held in Lebanon. This forum was funded in part by The Eagle Down Foundation. Please see the link below for more information:
www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/wvmeero/5235b204cb7b008e498faf183261c268.htm
Messages of Peace and Friendship in Bosnia
The following article came to us from World Vision Bosnia who recently implemented one of our Peace Camps in Bosnia:
Children from Bosnia villages performed at the main square in the Capital of Sarajevo
“Where are you from? What is your name?” – these were the opening questions of the children’s street theatre performance, which was a grand finale of World Vision’s Peacebuilding Summer Camp 2010, funded by The Eagle Down Foundation and World Vision Switzerland.
“Jelena, Mirza, Benjamin, Hanka… Olovo, Kalesija, Zvornik, Visoko…”, echoed at the main square of the Capital on 8th of July 2010.
53 girls and boys (Serbs, Bosniaks, Croats, Roma) from 7 municipalities were working hard for 5 days at Jahorina Mountain to shape their messages of peace and friendship into a street theatre performance. This was a result of various workshops during the Summer Camp: peer education in peacebuilding, evening debates on inter-religious tolerance and gender equality, art and music workshops and a theatre laboratory under the supervision of Maja Mitic and Jugoslav Hadzic, experienced actors from DAH Theatre from Belgrade.
Some topics were freely and openly discussed and other, of more sensitive nature, were processed in the theatre laboratory through movement, play, music and drawing. For the first three days children worked in three groups in order to produce scenario, scene and music for the street performance and the last two days they were rehearsing all together for the final event. Excitement was at its peak in the bus to Sarajevo and during the walk from the Cathedral to the Children of Sarajevo Square.
Of course, it was not all work: a lot of fun and free activities (walking, swimming, sports) helped in strengthening the new friendships that emerged during the camp.
“I was happy to meet many new friends of different ethnic and religious backgrounds and there were no divisions among us”, said one of the many messages the children shared in their Camp Journals.
Another one: “It is important that your opinion is respected.”
And: “I was proud because everybody applauded when I sang. It meant that I was accepted.”
At the end: “It is so sad that we have to part. Greetings to those who made this possible!”
And yes, many tears were shed after the long-lasting applause of the audience in Sarajevo, because of mixed feelings of happiness and sorrow. The children have promised that friendship would not end but would last longer than the Camp itself. To start fulfilling the promise a new Facebook group was formed immediately upon their return for sharing friendship, joy, love, jokes, photos and serious matters…
“I think our objective was met,” says Adis Jamakovic, one of the teachers who accompanied children from Krivaja, “and that is the strong friendship between children of different backgrounds. You might not believe it, but they are still in daily contact two weeks after the Camp! Someone would say this is not much, but I think that nobody has done such a wonderful thing after the war in Bosnia… Kids from all parts of Bosnia have showed us there is hope for friendship and respect beyond the religious differences…”
Children celebrate peace in Kosovo
Children gathered in Kosovo’s divided city of Mitrovicë/Mitrovica delighted in a visit by actress and Good Will Ambassador for UNICEF, Alyssa Milano, on the occasion of International Children’s Day, but even more they celebrated how far they have come in recent years in bridging the gap between peers of different ethnicities.
The Kids for Peace program in Kosovo has received annual support from Eagle Down since the founding of our foundation in 2004.
See link below for more information on the Children’s Day:
http://meero.worldvision.org/news_article.php?newsID=2064&countryID=8
CNN.com Article
The following two articles appeared on CNN.com today. The first link quotes our Board of Directors member, Fatmire Feka, while the second one is an article dedicated to Fatmire and her work.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/04/16/afgh.kosovo.forgiveness/index.html