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 Peer2Peer Confidence Building In cooperation with Integra (Pristina) Voice of Future (Prizren) Future Without Fear (Strpce) Center for Peace and Tolerance (Pristina) Center for Social Development (Gracanica) Supported by the American Embassy in Belgrade The mission of NGO Fractal is: Improvement of communication, trust and cooperation of people with different background. This mission is especially challenging in ethnically divided contexts since it addresses peace itself, and in our belief peace could be defined as a state of sustainable reconciliation. Reconciliation is not an event but a constant direction; a direction that requires many levels and tracks of communication, but also concrete channels and domains for cooperation among all communities and people. We strongly believe that process in such direction, because of its depth and significance can become one of the driving forces of overall social change, economic development and a stepping stone for creating a brighter future. The Peer2Peer Confidence Building project was launched in March 2007 and aims at giving a modest, but still important, contribution to creating a foundation for further youth exchange and a peer to peer confidence building process between the youth from Serbia and Kosovo. It is designed to create opportunities for high school students from Serbia and Kosovo to meet, share with, and learn about and from each other, while taking part in educational as well as entertaining program activities. During 2007 and 2008 NGO Fractal organized 5 peer to peer meetings in several locations around Serbia with youngsters from the Serbian community in Kosovo, from Strpce and Gracanica, as guest speakers. During these meetings, young people from Serbia had the opportunity to learn more about the situation in Kosovo, the everyday life, the interests and needs of their peers, especially in relation to educational and cultural life. They also discussed the role and potential of the youth in order to address problems and issues that they would like to improve and how they could make a difference. In addition, youngsters from Kosovo invited their peers from Serbia to visit them in Kosovo. Based on expressed interest, the willingness to travel to Kosovo to meet their peers in Pristina, Prizren, Strpce and Gracanica, demonstrated leadership skills and open-mindedness, two groups of high school students coming from different towns in Serbia (Belgrade, Mladenovac, Novi Sad, Nis, Vranje, Raska, Kragujevac, Jagodina, Petrovac na Mlavi, Presevo, Bujanovac) were formed. In cooperation with the partner organizations Voice of Future from Prizren, Future Without Fear from Strpce and Integra from Pristina, NGO Fractal organized in December 2007 and July 2008 two visits to Kosovo for selected groups of youngsters from Serbia. The agenda of the visit was designed in order to offer an opportunity to youngsters for generating a comprehensive picture on the internal Kosovo context, as well as on the future perspectives, challenges and opportunities for relations between Kosovo and Serbia. Youngsters had the opportunity to meet their peers in Serbian enclaves, Strpce and Gracanica, also in Prizren and Pristina, to talk with civil society representatives, and to visit cultural heritage sites such as monastery Gracanica, Visoki Decani, St. Arhangel, Pec Patriarchy, town Prizren and Prisitna etc. After they had returned to their home towns, the participants initiated further peer to peer dissemination of information, exchange of views and experiences in their schools and towns, as well as new joint activities. One example of a joint initiative that emerged out of the Peer2Peer visit to Kosovo is a research on the topic Inter-ethnic understanding among young Serbs and Kosovo Albanians. This research was initiated, designed and led by Peer2Peer participants and conducted among peers in their home towns. You can read and download their research here. With interesting and insightful P2P meetings, warm welcome in each place in Kosovo that we visited, and eagerness of youngsters from Serbia to welcome their peers from Kosovo in Serbia, NGO Fractal and partner organizations are inspired to facilitate and enable more regular P2P meetings and activities in the future. It is our intention to enhance a process that will merge new generations of responsible young leaders on both sides of present inter-community void.  |