Working in Vukovar, Croatia

Vukovar lies in the east of Croatia, on the border with Serbia. The town was razed to the ground in 1991 during the Coatian War for independence. Since the end of the war, the Serb and Croat communities remain deeply divided and schools are segregated so that children and young people have little to no opportunity for meeting or making friends across the dividing lines.

 

In 2010, Elizabeth of iFacilitate worked with Consol and helped to facilitate a weekend of interactive workshops with Serb and Croat children at Osnovna škola Blage Zadre, Vukovar. In January 2011, the team, including people from France, Cyprus, the UK, the Central African Republic, Serbia and Croatia travelled once again  to Vukovar to work with the schoolchildren. Elizabeth designed and co-ordinated the workshop process and supported the team in runnning the sessions, providing feedback and input as needed. 

 

Consol's approach enables children from both communities to work together and to build relationships in a fun, interactive and creative way, whilst learning and developing sklls of communication and critical inquiry in the process. This is done through engaging the children in experimentation and problem solving activities, games and discussion, and the theme of this weekend of workshops was 'the magic of water.' The children experimented together, learning of the properties of water and exploring its importance in our lives, whilst continually being asked questions of each other and of the team. Their laughter, energy and enthusiasm was a joy to experience and demonstrated how children bring with them a hope and vitality for the future. 

 

Read more about Consol's work in Vukovar here and of developing approaches to addressing community division here.