NEWSLETTER No. 4

KUCEVO

NGO activities in the region

The last days of 2002 were rather dynamic and active for the association of citizens "Kucevo Enthusiasts". A forum and a workshop within the on-going project, the action of fundraising for the kindergarten "Lane" on the occasion of the 20^ieth anniversary of this institution as well as organising a celebration on the occasion of the third anniversary of our association. But, let’s take one thing at a time.

• The forum titled "Tolerance, encounter of differences" was held on 25 November and represented quite an event, both for the participants and guests. Prof.Dr. Cedomir Cupic, Prof.Dr. Ratko Bozovic and Prof.Dr. Djuro Susnjic, as well as the forum participants gave Kucevo a pleasant, instructive and useful evening. Due to the importance of the very guests, who happened to gather in one place, the forum officially started by a broadcast on the Kucevo PEK radio station, where the broad topic of tolerance was only touched upon, and was continued in the gallery of the Culture Centre. The forum started in a slightly unusual way. At the very beginning, pupils from the primary school "Ugrin Brankovic" recited poems from the book "My kind of tolerance", published by the Federal Ministry of National and Ethnic Communities, containing the works on tolerance by children of their age from the entire Serbia. Then, a cacophony of Balkan music ensued. In two minutes, while the  "noise" lasted, we could hear Serbian, Montenegrin, Vlach, Romany, Croatian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Macedonian and Hungarian music. The sound was not at all pleasant to the visitors’ ears. The goal of this sound experiment was to explain to people that not all of us should sing the same song, but on the other hand, if everyone sang their own, regardless of the others, it caused unpleasant noise. The guests of the forum, each one in their own way, spoke of tolerance: in everyday life, among nations and among politicians. It rarely happens that Kucevo citizens take active part in such meetings, but the guests managed to provoke a few of them to become involved in the discussion, through their comments and questions. This forum was the occasion to promote the book "Tolerance, encounter of differences", by the Federal Ministry of National and Ethnic Communities, presented by Tatjana Zivkovic, Public Relations Counsellor to the Minister Rasim Ljajic and the book editor. We conducted a little survey as well among the visitors of the forum. At the hall entrance we distributed a mini-questionnaire to them on the following subject: 

I THINK I AM A TOLERANT PERSON BECAUSE:

• I can put up with different things, 

• I have understanding for everyone, 

• I am ready to accept differences, 

• I am ready to change my points of view. 

There was also an option: "I am not a tolerant person". At the end of the forum we informed the participants of who was sitting around them. Most of the attendants, 36 of them, chose the "C" option. 18 of them chose the "D" option, 11 decided to choose the "B" option, whereas 8 of them responded "A". There were two people in the hall who admitted they were not tolerant. The forum ended with a tolerance cocktail party. The food served consisted of Serbian sweet bread, Croatian sweet bread, Vlach cake, buns and dates.  Lemonade and raspberry juice were offered as drinks.

• During the same week, or more precisely, on 31 Nov. and 1 Dec. there was a workshop titled "Minority - majority". The workshop facilitators were Sanja Nikolin and Jasmina Kijevcanin from the NGO "CRS" from Belgrade. In an excellent working atmosphere, both trainers and participants had two very pleasant days. Talking to the citizens who wanted to take part in the workshop with this topic, we got very positive results. The workshop addressed the following concepts: minority and majority, political culture, prejudices and stereotypes. The technique of organising citizens and forming stakeholder groups was developed for the purpose of  specific social goals, recognising general interest and working on the minority-majority relation. The simulation of forming a coalition was the most attractive for the participants. 

• Our NGO celebrated its third anniversary on 12 Dec. 2002. In the morning that day, the kindergarten "Lane" received a gift – a forest hut with a slide – to the joy of the little ones. The gift was bought from the funds raised by our NGO from organisations and private individuals through the action "For the kindergarten". The gift was handed in by Nenad Milosavljevic, Vice-President of our NGO. The main event on the occasion of our third anniversary was the public filming of the theatre play "Stereo-drama" by the Kucevo Amateur Theatre working under the auspices of "Kucevo Enthusiasts" and the Culture Centre. The public filming was organised for the needs of the Pozarevac television "DUGA". The play was followed by the anniversary cocktail party, when the President of "Kucevo Enthusiasts", Mirko Petrovic, delivered a grant to the Malenovic family from Kucevo in the amount of 6,000 dinars. The grant was provided by the members of our organisation who gave up their fees received from CESID for monitoring the last presidential election. The reason for granting the money is the following: this family consists of husband and wife, both athletes and participants in the campaign "Play for life", who are also the parents of the only twins born on the day our organisation was founded.

• At the very end, we are presenting an NGO from our surroundings. We have chosen the Pozarevac NGO "Alka", which has existed for over two years now. The mission of this organisation is protection, improvement and promotion of human rights and freedoms, through education, psychosocial support and material assistance. "ALKA" encourages and helps the founding and work of NGOs and professional associations, and realises projects with other NGOs. Here are some of their activities so far: the project "From women to women" aimed at women to rouse and become self-conscious, in cooperaton with the Fund for an Open Society, partner projects with the Group for Promoting Women’s Political Rights and the Women’s Movement, Women’s Network from Belgrade, European Movement in Serbia, Civic Initiatives and the Centre for Liberal Democratic Studies. "ALKA" has also organised a school of democracy, a camp of friendship and the project of supporting community boards. They have cooperated with the World Bank and USAID. They plan to implement the following: European High School, Eurodemocratic camp, Euroinfo centre, Safe women’s refuge and education of citizens for democratic relations and dialogue.