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Most Mira - Bridge of Peace
Annual Review 2011/2012
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What is Most Mira?
Three words: Bridge of Peace. We seek to build a better, more peaceful future for the young people
of Prijedor and its surrounding areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
We seek to do this by engaging young people through the creative arts and thoughtful play activities,
with crucial help from our volunteers—young people from all over the world.
The concept is simple: carve out a safe environment for the young people of Prijedor to be able to
engage with each other, form new friendships, develop sympathy and understanding and become
leaders in their communities.
We hope that through such shared experiences, the young people of Prijedor will promote a culture
of collaboration and mutual respect. We hope that as a result of working with Most Mira, these young
people will better be able to contribute to a stable and peaceful future in the region.

And this is why...
The Prijedor area witnessed horrendous violence during the war in the early 1990s, including the
infamous camps of Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje. The war has left its mark – 20 years on, this is a
deeply divided community living in ethnically segregated areas, struggling with high unemployment and
a stagnant economy. The generations of young people who were born and brought up after the war are
not being given a fair chance in life. Young people of all ethnicities are stuck between a traumatic past,
a depressing present and an uncertain future. In 2008, the UN Human Rights Council identified the
two main issues affecting the right to education in Bosnia and Herzegovina as being: 1) the excessive
fragmentation and politicization of the education system and 2) the segregation between ethnic groups
and assimilation processes based on ethnic motives. Recent history of this region is a warning that we
cannot afford to ignore this reality, or the threat it poses to peace in the region, and in Europe.

According to the most recent World Bank
data (2008), youth unemployment in Bosnia
is the 4th highest in the world for males
(44.7%) and 5th highest for females
(51.9%). According to The Economist’s
‘Pocket World in Figures’ (2011), Bosnia and
Herzegovina is no. 1 on the list of the
countries with “brain drain” — it has the
highest rate of emigration in the world.

Since 2009, Most Mira has delivered this mission through
Most Mira can make annual Youth Festivals. In 2011, at the most recent festival,
108 volunteers from 17 countries spent a week in creative
a difference. We workshops with 465 children from Ljubija, Hambarine,
Kozarac, Omarska, Prijedor and Trnopolje. The young
people loved learning new skills and getting to know each
know how to change other in arts, drama, music, dance, media and circus
workshops.
attitudes and lives. In December 2011, generous support from the Sir Halley
Stewart Trust enabled us to employ a Most Mira worker in
Prijedor, to provide training and support to a network of

We turn challenges young volunteers who will take the ethos of Most Mira
forward on the ground, in their schools and local
communities, and amongst their friends and families.
into opportunities.
In spring 2012, thanks to a grant from the SDL Foundation,
Most Mira purchased a 1,200 square metre plot of land at
the Festival site, which is at the crossroads between the
We are making a villages Kevljani and Petrov Gaj.
This is a first step in the development of the Most Mira
difference and International Youth Centre, an independent cultural
and social educational space for all young people in the

inspiring the next region.
The Youth Centre will provide local youth with an
generation. opportunity to host young people from all over the world, to
learn about other countries’ history of peacebuilding, to
offer and receive training through arts activities, to share
their skills and knowledge with others, and to build
relationships and networks for a better and brighter future.

In 2011, at a ceremony in Prague, Most Mira was
awarded the ERSTE Foundation Award for Social
Integration. It was a big achievement just to be one
of the organisations shortlisted among 1,850
applicants from 30 countries.

The award is a true recognition of Most Mira’s hard
work and an active role in the social integration of
fragmented communities in Northwest Bosnia.

The ERSTE award financed the 2012 Most Mira
pilot drama and arts workshops, which took place
throughout the year.

In August, arts and drama volunteers from Prijedor
and the UK worked with young people from Ljubija
Youth Centre, Most Mira’s longstanding partner.
The young people wrote and produced a play about
their experiences of family life and the challenges
they experience in growing up in one of the most
economically deprived areas of Europe.

Young artists also decorated the derelict building at
the site of the future Most Mira International
Youth Centre, symbolically marking the new
beginning for a generation that has to build life for
itself on the ruins they inherited from the previous
generations.

Most Mira Beyond 2012
Most Mira is developing exciting ideas and initiatives and strengthening our presence on the ground in
Prijedor area. In 2012 we made a major step towards our dream of building the permanent base for our
work - Most Mira International Youth Centre for local youth and international volunteers to learn, play
and work together by purchasing land and obtaining planning permission. We will continue fundraising for
the annual Youth Festival but we wish to be more present and supportive all year round in a productive
and useful way. Therefore, next year we plan to deliver the following activities for Prijedor’s youth:

Training and Networking Drama and Arts Workshops Youth Festival

Most Mira will continue to deliver Most Mira will continue to work A week of creative workshops
useful training programmes for with schools, youth groups and proved to be very effective in
young Most Mira volunteers, to young people on arts and bringing divided communities
further their skills, broaden their drama projects that will help together. International volunteers,
networks and build their capacity them to interact, express with their skills and enthusiasm,
to run and govern the Youth themselves and develop skills, are the key to success. Most Mira
Centre in the future. better mutual understanding continues to fundraise for the 2013
and new friendships. Youth Festival.

Most Mira International Youth Centre
Most Mira has to date engaged with 1,500 young people of Bosniak, Croat, Serb, Roma and Ukrainian
ethnic origin, as well as their teachers and parents. Young people told us about their disillusionment
with the state of Bosnian society and their prospects within it. They told us that they need an
independent learning space to interact with each other and with international volunteers, to learn,
organise and build a better, more integrated and stable society. We are working on making this happen.
Here are some of their practical ideas and dreams for the future:

Be Creative Be Smart
Young people told us Young people told us
they want a space they want to improve
where they can make their existing skills
music, write plays and and learn new ones.
poetry, design art, be They want to learn
young and have fun languages, practice
together. They need a digital skills, learn
safe space, open to more about
all who want to photography,
.
collaborate and have journalism and the
fun. creative arts.


Be Included
Young people told us they feel
Be Connected excluded from processes and
Young people told us that structures that effect their lives
their interactions and (economy, politics and civil
friendships with volunteers society). They feel
from different countries are disconnected from each other
important to them. The and the rest of the world.
volunteers told us how They want skills and the
transformative it was to work confidence to influence change
with young children in in their schools, communities,
Bosnia, to make a country and the rest of the
contribution and learn first world. They want to participate
hand about post conflict in democracy and grow up to
society and peacebuilding. be responsible active citizens.
.

International Youth Why We Need a Youth Centre?
Twenty years ago, Prijedor was a site of terrible
Centre Activities war crimes. Neighbours and friends turned against
each other and within days detained, tortured,
killed and expelled the local non-Serb population,
destroying their property.
The peace agreement in 1995 ended the war but
the process of reconciliation has been
painstakingly slow. Prijedor is the area of highest
return by refugees, but different ethnic
communities are physically segregated, unable to
reconcile.
Their children are educated in ethnically
segregated schools, taught different versions of
history and taught not to trust ‘the other’.
Generations of young people are growing up
confused, unable to talk about the past and
disillusioned abut their future.
The lack of independent safe space for young
people to come together and interact with each
other in a creative way as young people and away
from ethnic divisions and identities is an obstacle
in moving forward and building long term peace.

Prijedor is just an hour drive away from the new EU Border and yet for young people it is a world away.
If young people are not supported to build bridges between their communities and the rest of the world,
if they don’t get a chance to come to terms with their past and work on their future together,
the peace in Bosnia — and therefore in Europe — will remain under constant threat.

International Youth
Young people told us that the new
Centre Activities International Youth Centre should
feature a Cinema, a Library, a School
of Rock, an Internet Radio Station,
Photography Workshops, Live Music,
an Arts and Crafts Design Studio,
Dance Workshops, a Drama Studio
Internet Cafe and a Website...

They also want training workshops in
Civic Participation, Dialogue and
Collaboration, Protection of the
Environment, Social Enterprise,
Foreign Languages Classes and a
Media School...

They want to have the capacity to
regularly host international students
and visitors who wish to learn more
about post conflict societies and
engage with young people of Bosnia in
meaningful way, by offering skills and
knowledge in return.

Partnership Opportunities
We want to work with a select group of philanthropists, individuals, trusts and companies that are
committed to the power of ideas, and who would be willing to support and share our dream to build the
Most Mira International Youth Centre.
We need support for our mission of peace and equality.
We are looking forward to discussing ways in which you could help underwrite and add to what we have
achieved already.
If you are interested in a tailored package to meet the needs of your organisation, we would be happy to
discuss further.

Partnership Levels

• Cash Partnerships
We want to make it as easy as possible
for our partners to contribute, so we have
a range of supporter options. We realise
• In-kind Partnerships

that your brand, time and money is
Partnerships can be developed to sponsor
extremely valuable and we want to ensure
specific elements of Most Mira activities
that you get something rewarding in return and events and the International Youth
for your contribution. Centre building project.

Funding Partnership Opportunity
This is an opportunity for you to become a partner of Most Mira. That means that you will share in our
mission of spreading the ideas of peace, inclusivity and equality in a very practical way. You will join
our community of dedicated supporters and volunteers, and benefit from an individually tailored
sponsorship experience. As Most Mira’s partner, you'll be part of this journey and directly contribute to
the building of a more tolerant and stable society.

To be part of something To link up people of Prijedor, For more than just a logo
meaningful Bosnia and Herzegovina and
the world We’re not interested in selling one-
Most Mira is helping the young off ad space; our goal is to create
people of Prijedor to deal with The Most Mira community in
lasting partnerships with individuals
humanity’s toughest questions: Why Bosnia, London and around the
and organisations that want to be a
did the war happen? Why did world is an extraordinary breed:
part of something bigger and add
neighbours and friends turn on each open-minded, outward looking,
depth to Most Mira’s mission and
other? How can we overcome the curious, intelligent and hungry to
experience.
legacy of war and division? What learn more.
Each partnership opportunity is
can we do to help prevent it from Most Mira brings the most
crafted to meet your goals as well
happening again? Most Mira is committed and innovative
as the needs of young people in
answering these difficult questions international volunteers to Prijedor
Bosnia. We work very closely with
with innovation, enterprise and to interact with brilliant and inspiring
our partners to ensure that they are
optimism. We seek to inspire young young Bosnians, to share ideas,
participating in a way that reflects
people to change their lives, their have fun, express themselves and
the values of both organisations.
communities and their world. build a better future together.

Kevljani, Bosnia

May 2011 August 2012

2013 and beyond

In-Kind Partnership Opportunities
In-kind Partnerships
In addition to cash partnerships, there are several ways you can participate and support our work. We
need you to spread the word about Most Mira achievements, our mission and our dreams. We need you
to be our Ambassadors. We have identified a number of practical options for your kind contributions, but
the range of possibilities is wide open for you to tell us how you can contribute.

• Volunteer skills and time
• Catering & refreshments
• Printing
• Design services
• Filming and post-production
• Participants’ clothing
• Accommodation
• Transport
• Building and construction
services and material

Most Mira People: Most Mira Trustees:

Kirsteen Tait, Kemal Pervanić, Sue Macmillan,
Zrinka Bralo, Duncan Stewart, Minna Javernpaa,
Most Mira is run by a group of volunteers from
Laila Sumpton and Miloš Stefanović
around the world currently living, studying and
working in the United Kingdom. In 2012, the success of Most Mira would not
have been possible without the hard work and
support of hundreds of Most Mira volunteers
This year we were able to employ one member of
and supporters and this year we are especially
staff in Bosnia which increased our capacity to
grateful to:
deliver training and support to a growing network
of dedicated Most Mira volunteers and supporters Angela Trotter, Charlotte Freeman, Dajana
in the Prijedor area. Desnica, Danijel Rodić, David John Evans, Del
Taylor, Djordje Bilbija, Elise Phillips, Ian Napier,
James Macmillan, Jeremy Hardy, Joanna Pink,
Kasim Pervanić, Katherine Gill, Kirrily Pells,
Kristina Hemon, Maja Milatović-Ovadia, Monica
Mukerjee, Mr.and Mrs Freeman, Nick Micinski,
Samuel Hodge, Sanela Avdić, Sanja Božović,
Senka Spasojevoć, Slaven Trebovac, Sonja
Živak, Vahidin Omanović and Zoran Ergarac.

Our Partners in 2012 are:

Ljubija Youth Centre, Serious Road Trip, Centre
For Peace Building Sanski Most

Partners and Supporters
In 2012 Most Mira worked with and was supported by:
Sir Halley Stewart Trust, Erste Foundation Award, the Jefferson School Georgetown USA, SDL
Foundation, Canada
Past Funders
The British Council (Youth in Action EU funding), The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, ArcelorMittal
Foundation, Spencer Hart Charitable Trust, SDL Foundation, Canada/UK, The Funding Network, W.F.
Southall Trust, Alan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust.
Participating Schools and Youth Groups
Ćirilo i Metodije School, Trnopolje; Kozarac Primary School, Kozarac; Vuk Karadžić School,
Omarska; Branko Ćopić School, Prijedor; Hambarine Youth Group; Ljubija Youth Group.
Partners
Serious Road Trip from Romania, Demokratija-Organizovanje-Napredak – DON from Prijedor,
Partnerski Omladinski Pokret – POP from Banja Luka; Positive Play based in Sarajevo; Scouts from
Prijedor, BiH Armed Forces, BiH Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Education RS; Kent College, The
Frontline Club, Acumen Design, Migrant and Refugee Communities Forum.
Sponsors
Prijedorcanka and Vatrogasci Prijedor, Mira/Kras, Marbo

Special thanks to hundreds of individual donors and volunteers
whose cash and in-kind support make Most Mira possible.

Connect
Please contact Most Mira at
info@mostmiraproject.org
or write to us at
2 Thorpe Close, London W10 5XL

Find out more
For short films, evaluation reports
and more about Most Mira, visit
our website at
http://www.mostmiraproject.org/

Join us on Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/mostmira

Registered Charity No: 1120122
Donate Limited Company No: 7014954
https://mydonate.bt.com/charities/mostmira Udruženje građana Br. 11062326

Join us in making dreams come true
www.mostmiraproject.org

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Most Mira - Bridge of peace - Annual Report 2012

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