DONOR: Netherlands embassy
DURATION: 1. November 2014. – 31. March 2015.
LOCATION:
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Una-Sana canton, Fajtovci, municipality Sanski Most
Republic of Srpska, Slatina, municipality of Laktaši
Project goal:
Provide children, teachers and parents with the appropriate tools, knowledge and skills in order to initiate

their active communication which will contribute to development of the mechanism for supporting the process of reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as precondition for overall development and poverty reduction.

Beneficiaries/target group:
Project “Rebuilding peace and trust among children and schoolteachers” will be executed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 2 primary schools:
• 1 of them is located in Republika Srpska (Primary school “Holandija”, Slatina, Laktaši municipality) and
• 1 primary school is located in Una-Sana canton, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Primary school “Fajtovci”, Fajtovci, Sanski Most). Project target groups are pupils, teachers and school management from 2 targeted primary schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina:
– 30 schoolteachers teachers (15 teachers per school)
– 60 pupils / peer educators (30 pupils per school)
– app. 250 pupils will be educated by trained peer-educators
– over 600 children will benefit from equipped computer & video classrooms.

Planned activities:
Activity 1. Joint teachers seminars:
• Schoolteachers will jointly participate in four (4) educational seminars.
• Each seminar will last for approximately 5 hours
. • In total, 30 teachers will participate in seminars (15 teachers per school).
• Two seminars will be held in Sanski Most (teachers from Slatina will travel to S. Most to have seminar with their colleagues from Fajtovici).
• Two seminars will be held in Banjaluka (teachers from Fajtovici will travel to B. Luka to have seminar with their colleagues from Slatina).
• Schoolteachers will acquire the necessary knowledge about following topics:
o coexistence
o reconciliation
o tolerance
o stereotypes and prejudices
o communication I: Verbal and non-verbal communication
o communication II: Active listening, “I” messages, rules for good communication
o etc.
• Through their participation in joint seminars, schoolteachers will be provided with appropriate tools, knowledge and skills that will initiate their active participation in development of the mechanism for supporting of the process of reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Activity 2. Peer support workshops
• Set of specially designed workshops will be used for training of a group of selected pupils on peer support methodology. These pupils will be educated on topics such as: coexistence, reconciliation, tolerance, stereotypes and prejudices, communication I: Verbal and non-verbal communication, communication II: Active listening, “I” messages, rules for good communication, peer-education skills and methodologies, etc.
• Peer supporters along with their teachers will identify and organize specific models of peer support activities in order to apply and integrate their knowledge into school and after school activities.
• One peer support workshop will last for 45 minutes (one school class).
• In total, 60 pupils will participate in peer support workshops (30 pupils per school). In each school we will form 2 groups of future peer-educators, consisting out of pupils of different age groups.
• In total, there will be 40 peer support workshops organized (20 workshops per school / 10 workshops per group).

Activity 3. Connecting two schools through improvement of internet facilities and enhancing communication between them.

Expected results/Impact:
This project aims to point out the danger of ethnic distrust and animosity, further conflicts and a conspiracy of silence.
Our project aims at countering this silence with opening up spaces for communication and cooperation through:
• Enhancing information and skills in areas of conflict resolution and prevention, promotion of diversity and intercultural understanding, child rights and social inclusion, and communication skills; amongst the direct and indirect beneficiaries of the project, by conducting workshops on those issues.
• Increasing bonds and cooperation and reducing fear and prejudices amongst the direct and indirect beneficiaries of the project, by conducting workshops and trainings.
• Enabling teachers to continue with workshops on the core project topics, by training them on those issues in teacher trainings.

Specific project results are:
• 4 educational seminars for schoolteachers successfully organized and conducted
• 30 schoolteachers participated in 4 seminars and are successfully educated about project selected topics
• 40 peer support workshops successfully organized and conducted
• 60 pupils participated in 40 peer support workshops and successfully educated about project selected topics
• two targeted schools have better equipped IT classrooms