Anti Bias and Intercultural Learning in Context of Youth Work and Informal Education
Report of the third Antibias Seminar and Conference held in Vukovar from 18 to 23 september 2008
From September 18th to 23rd , 2008 Vukovar Institute for Peace Research and Education in Vukovar, Croatia, hosted seminar and the Third Conference of the Anti-Bias project.
Participants of the seminar were Anti-Bias trainers and representatives of RAA Brandenbourg, and trainers and representatives of partner organizations in the project, namely bbjshare.it from Palermo, Italy, ODN/Civilitas from Poland, and VIMIO from Vukovar, Croatia. All participants in the seminar had signed the List of participants that were collected by the overall project coordinator Astrid Nickel from RAA Brandenburg.
The program of the seminar, that was previously prepared in coordination with acting project coordinator Oliver Trisch, was fully implemented. The program was created in two levels – first one was based on the experience from the first two seminars in Potsdam and Palermo, and it was an upgrade on practical level in order to increase knowledge and skills of trainers of Anti-Bias method from the four countries.
The second part of the program was created with an aim to introduce the City of Vukovar, Croatian Danubian Region and the political situation during and after the Homeland War in the Republic of Croatia from 1991 to 1998. Political context in the City of Vukovar was very significant because it was the main reason for creation of VIMIO in the first place.
Program for trainers of Anti-Bias method was created and implemented by anti-bias trainers Maggie Penie and Oliver Trisch, with support of the project coordinator Astrid Nicle. Work with anti-bias trainers included workshop, consultations, individual and group work led by German anti-bias trainers.
Second level of the program was consisted of historical and political sight seeing in the City of Vukovar, and surrounding land marks that were marking the horrible events of the Homeland war in Vukovar in 1991 (Museum in the Vukovar City Hospital, Ovcara Mass Grave Memorial, Memorial Place Ovcara, Memorial Graveyard in Vukovar, Wathertower).
Participants of the seminar had chance to see projection of the movie “The Final Cut” - story of a last war in Croatia, which was made in join Croatian and Serbian production. After the movie the authors from the Croatian side Drago Hedl, journalist from Osijek, and Marija Molnar, journalist from Vukovar, participated in the panel discussion and provided the participants of the Anti-Bias seminar with additional answers about the Homeland war in Croatia.
One day participants had chance to be present at the Fair of Traditional Customs and Crafts in Erdut. The significance of the Fair was that it is a project of Local Democracy Agency, non-governmental organization from Osijek, that is trying to support local development, increase diversification of rural touristic offers, and increase economical situation and life standard in general in the region that was more than five years under Serbian occupation, and still belongs to the most undeveloped regions in Croatia.
During the visit to Erdut, in the premises of Local Democracy Agency, coordinators from each organization had meeting related to the Youth Encounter that will be organized in July 2009 in Germany and Poland. The second topic of the meeting was Fourth Seminar and Conference in Zielona Gora in Poland.
CONFERENCE
On September 22, 2008 the Third Anti-Bias Conference has been organized in the VIMIO premises in Vukovar. The conference has been attended by the representatives of local VIMIO partner organizations: Local Democracy Agency from Osijek, PRONI Centre for Social Learning from Osijek and Vukovar, European House from Vukovar, Youth Club from Tompojevci Municipality, Youth Club from Borovo Municipality, Youth Club from village of Berak and others.
During the Conference project coordinator Astrid Nickel presented the Anti-Bias project in general and lead organization RAA Brandenburg. Oliver Trisch present Anti-Bias method on theoretical and experiential level and then each partner organization presented their work and interest in their own countries.
After the break, president of VIMIO Anica Birac presented the method “Eight Steps in Peaceful Reconciliation” created by Dudley Weeks, who was substantial creator of VIMIO, VIMIO’s mission and methodology. Vice-president of VIMIO Gordana Bujisic presented psycho-social projects implemented by VIMIO, and program coordinator Sladjana Stojanovic presented previous and present VIMIO projects, particularly projects including youth.
Additional value to the Conference was non-scheduled visit to the European House, a nongovernmental organization in Vukovar, located in the same street as VIMIO, and presentation of their work and projects by the president Ljiljana Gereke.