Peace Camp 2004 - Montenegro

“Let me tell you about oranges and peace building…”

“A mother had only one orange but two teenage daughters who both wanted the plump fruit. She saw no option but to decide between her two daughters. It seemed inevitable one would get the orange and the other would be disappointed, even angry,” the instructor explained.

A large group of children between 10 to 16 years listened intently. Then the instructor asked them, “She faced a dilemma. What to do to keep both daughters happy and avoid a highly probable conflict? What would you do?”

After a long and thoughtful pause, the bolder children began offering suggestions. One Serbian boy suggested the mother cut the orange in half. A young Bosniac (Bosnian Muslim) girl thought she had a particularly good answer when she suggested the mother not give the orange to either daughter since neither would be happy with only half an orange. The participatory spirit caught on and soon all the children, Serbian, Bosniac and Albanian, were shouting suggestions in their own languages and the interpreters were racing to keep up.

The children had all traveled to a small village on the Adriatic coast in Montenegro for a one-week “Building Bridges of Peace” summer camp from countries and provinces whose names were synonymous with ethnic hatred and violence in the last decade of the twentieth century. The project, partly funded by The Eagle Down Foundation and implemented in partnership with World Vision offices in Bosnia and Kosovo, consisted of workshops and games introducing the young players to concepts of identity, tolerance, differences and similarities, peace education and strategic planning.

Fatmire, 16, an ethnic Albanian girl from Kosovo and a nominee for the “1000 Women of the Nobel Peace Prize”, commented in her broken English “I came here because I want to learn about making peace. It’s always easy for people to say yes to peace but it’s much more difficult to do yes for peace. I want to learn about making peace,” she stressed.

Children adapted quickly. Although at first they couldn’t communicate in each other’s languages, within only a few days the children had taught themselves each other’s traditional songs and sang them at the top of their lungs during the many bus trips to visit local cultural sites.

One of the interpreters for the summer camp, a Serbian architectural student at the University of Pristina in Kosovo, commented, “This is what it was like in Yugoslavia before the wars here.  We all shared our cultures, our songs and our traditions. We sang together and we cherished our differences.  What happened to us? What happened to us?”

A significant outcome of the summer peace camp was the ideas for follow-up projects that the children came up with themselves. The Serbian and Albanian children from Kosovo, mostly from the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica, are already planning a "clean-up day" were Albanian and Serbian children will get together to pick up the garbage around the city; a big problem right now along the shores of the Ibar River that separates the predominantly Serbian North of the city from the Albanian South.  They plan to involve their parents and schoolteachers.

The children also decided they needed to better understand each other's cultural heritage. They agreed to organize visits to Serbian Orthodox religious sites to learn more about the orthodox faith and the history of the Serbian people. They anticipate a subsequent visit to the central mosque in Mitrovica to learn about the Islamic faith and Albanian culture. The Serbian and Albanian kids will participate in both visits with the tours led by local religious leaders. 
This small project is made deeply significant by the fact that only a few months earlier in March there were riots that, besides displacing 3,000 people, saw 30 churches and monasteries destroyed or damaged in Kosovo. Some of those dated back to the 14th century. In Belgrade a 16th century mosque was destroyed.

The children also committed themselves to regularly communicate with each other via e-mail over the next 12 months in order to continue to support each other in their efforts. 

Most of the children that participated in this summer peace camp in Montenegro were also active members of the Kids for Peace program.  This 2-year old program encourages and supports inter-ethnic communications and building cross-cultural relationships, increased cooperation and dialogue and promotes peace and multi-ethnic coexistence among youth throughout the province of Kosovo.

The Kids for Peace program has been a huge success with the number of clubs now reaching 14.  This peace movement today directly supports over 350 children and youth representing four different ethnic groups from across Kosovo. 

Given the current enthusiasm and dedication to their Kids for Peace clubs, there is no doubt that these children will commit themselves to completing these small projects that they conceived during their time together in Montenegro.
At the end of the camp, the 28 children and eight staff could not contain their emotions. They hugged each other and shed tears as they said their goodbyes.

But what about the orange? 

The instructor told the children at the end of their enthused offerings of solutions:

“The mother decided to ask her two daughters some questions to clarify their wishes and their needs, what they thought they wanted versus perhaps what they really needed. She discovered the potential conflict could easily be resolved.

“One daughter wanted to eat the orange. In other words she wanted the juicy meat of the orange and was going to throw away the peal. The other wanted the peal to make a cake.”

As everyone said their tearful goodbyes I asked a Serbian girl what she would remember most from the summer camp. She knew immediately.

“I will always remember the story of the orange. Now I know how to tell the difference between what people think they need and what they really need. Understanding this can help us avoid conflict.”

Let’s salute these children for both their vision and their commitment to a better and more peaceful world. They are a symbol of unity and cooperation in a part of the world divided along ethno-religious fault lines. They find dignity, beauty and value in their differences rather than cause to shed blood and inflame bitterness and hatred.

Given the chance to share their message and experiences with wider audiences they hold the potential to inspire others to do the same. World Vision and the Eagle Down Foundation hope to bring the children back together for a camp next summer so they can review their accomplishments, plan next steps, and renew and strengthen their bonds.

Next year’s summer peace camp hopes to bring together not only children from the Balkans but also children from other conflict-prone areas such as the Caucasus, the Middle East and possibly even from Afghanistan and Iraq.  In order to repeat the success of this summer peace camp, we need to raise an additional US$45,000, or about US$1,500 per child.

To imagine a world where these children can live in safety, protected from the scourges of war, we have to give them every opportunity to create that world.

Rudy Scholaert, President of The Eagle Down Foundation.

This project was funded by The Eagle Down Foundation in partnership with World Vision Switzerland (www.worldvision.ch).