NEWSLETTER No. 3

LESKOVAC

NGOs in Medvedja Region:

Multiethnic Centre (MeC) is a non-governmental organisation active in the territory of Medvedja Municipality. It was founded towards the end of January 2001 at the initiative of a group of young people, concerned with the current political and military situation, as well as with the the escalation of conflict between military and police forces and paramilitary formations of Kosovar Albanians.

At present, this organisation has about sixty members of various national affiliations, the most of whom are Serbs, Albanians and Roma. Apart from these three ethnic communities, a certain number of Montenegrins, Muslims, Croatians and Askalia live in Medvedja.

The mission of MeC is regaining the trust of young people belonging to different ethnic communities in Medvedja, through organising joint activities and exchange of experiences with organisations and individuals from other multiethnic regions.

The work of Multiethnic Centre is carried out by seven people, who make up the Management Board: four Serbs, two Albanians and one Roma. Anyway, MeC has about sixty members, who are included in different kinds of activities by the Management Board, as necessary.

We have also formed a network of non-governmental organisations from the territory of Medvedja Municipality, in order to build a joint position and programme referring to participation in the work of the Executive Board of Medvedja Municipality.

We had an interesting action during the traditional summer tournament in five-a-side football, when we walked into the field as a multietnic team, and once more showed the citizens of Medvedja that in sport, as well as in many other spheres of social life, the racial, gender or any other affiliation of participants does not matter.

Apart from a series of small-scale projects, MeC started two long-term projects as well last year. The first one is “Newsletter for Medvedja” which we are realising with the financial support from UNICEF, and the second one is “Internet centre for multicultural education”, realised in cooperation with UNDP and UMCOR.

The project “Newsletter for Medvedja” is a youth magazine, the goal of which is spreading the idea of multiethnic environment among the young, the idea of non-violence and tolerance among the citizens, as well informing the citizens of Medvedja of the activities of the Multiethnic Centre. The magazine comes out on a monthly basis, and is printed in three languages, Serbian, Albanian and English. 

The project “Internet centre for multicultural education” works on regaining trust among people of different nationalities through various educational programmes and socializing of young people of different nationalities. 

Presently the Multiethnic Centre is starting the project “The English language course”. This project is aimed at employed people who would achieve better results at work owing to the knowledge of the English language.

| Kragujevac | Smederevska Palanka | Paracin | Kucevo | Kraljevo | Uzice | Pozega | Knjazevac | Nis | Leskovac | Pirot |