Introduction and Summary of the report

 

 

Third year of CNA work is coming to an end in September this year. In this report you will find short descriptions of major activities throughout the past 12 months, one part of the evaluation of the CNA work in the past 3 years, latest stand concerning localisation process and the announcement of our future plans.

 

These three years of work would not have happened, have we not had support from our friends and colleagues in Germany and elsewhere. We are deeply thankful for the commitment of our supporters throughout this time.

 

The most important activity that we pursued during the past year is the Programme Training for Trainer II, with 15 participants from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia. The potential of the group we estimate as very big and we all feel happy about it and the work that we have done with them so far. A valuable contribution to the Programme gave also our training team member Goran Bozicevic from Centre for Peace Studies, Zagreb, Croatia.

Besides this Programme we organised and conducted two Basic trainings in nonviolent conflict transformation with activists from the region of former Yugoslavia, one pilot training for activists from the whole Balkan region (in English language), and about a dozen of other workshops and seminars in cooperation with other organisations.

 

Since last year, Adnan Hasanbegovic joined the CNA team with an intention to carry on with the work in Sarajevo on long term. Adnan who participated in our first Programme Training for Trainer has been a trainer in the second programme this year and he will be the pillar of Sarajevo office in the near future.

Our international volunteer Cara Gibney quit her work in May this year, after 18 months spent with us. Unexpectedly at short notice, we lost one member of staff (Jasmin Redzepovic) who took on another job. Jasmin’s farewell letter explains his motives. In our annual report 1997-98 we wrote:

The specific situation of insecurity that concerns many people in the country and their concern for their future (ability to secure a minimum for living) is very present. For this reason it may also prove to be difficult to engage people with a long term commitment in this work which offers hardly any security concerning the future. The question “Will there be money for NGO work in two years in BiH?” scares many people to commit themselves on long term for this work.

Despite the fact that CNA still receives more or less sufficient and regular support, thanks to our connections in Germany where most of the money comes from, we will probably never be able to grant a secure income to our staff. The hardest times we ever had were at the beginning of Summer this year, as we received no wages for 3-4 months.

 

Nevertheless we are not short of future plans, including plans for 2-4 new volunteers who should gradually join CNA in the coming 6 months, potential new office to be opened in Skopje / Macedonia next year and additional activities to our usual programme (more about it in the chapter “Future plans”)

 

 

 

Major activities

In chronological order

 

Report of activities between Sep 1999 and May 2000 have been described in more detail in our regular three-month reports.

 

 

 

1st Quarter, September 1999 – December 1999

 

 

Workshop on organisational identity for ‘Nove nade’

21st September in SHL House Sarajevo

 

CNA was requested by OSCE to conduct a workshop with a network-like organisation called ‘New Hopes’ (Nove nade).  The initial request from OSCE was that CNA conducts 5 to 7 day training for Nove nade staff in teamwork, decision-making and nonviolent communication, identity/national identity and leadership. CNA rejected this idea because it did not come from the people themselves, and we agreed to conduct a one-day workshop in order to facilitate a process of needs assessment and strategizing for the future.

 

 

Conference on Conscientious Objection and Alternative Services in BiH

Sarajevo 23.9.1999

A member of CNA participated at a Conference on Conscientious objection and alternative service in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was organised by the Legal Department of the Office of High Representative (OHR) for BiH. Representatives of NGOs attended the Conference from both entities of BiH, The Ministry of Defence of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, The Army of Republika Srpska, the President of the Federation of BiH, the OHR, the Council of Europe and the Swiss Institute for comparative Law. The main reason for this conference is BiH application for membership in the Council of Europe. The law on alternative service is one of the conditions of this membership.

 

 

Meeting on the future of fundraising in BiH

Sarajevo 9 November 1999

 

Two members of CNA attended a meeting organized by Quaker Peace Service (QPS) and the International Council on Voluntary Action  (ICVA) about future financing and fundraising of NGO’s in BiH. The meeting was attended by around 30 donor organizations and local and international NGO’s, including e.g. CIP – the NGO Information and Support Centre, Save the Children, The World Bank, and various Embassies.

 

At the meeting presentations were made about the state of the NGO sector and financial perspectives for the future.  Concerns about the present tendency for donors to leave Bosnia were discussed, and at the same time, about whether local NGO’s have not shown enough initiative in regard to self-sustainability. Within this it was discussed whether there needs to be more concern about what is actually needed on the field, rather than following what the donors are prepared to fund.

 

 

 

 

Basic training in nonviolent conflict transformation, Trebinje

19-29.11.1999 with participants from countries/regions of former Yugoslavia

Planned to happen after the two trainings in Macedonia (which were cancelled), the Trebinje training was one of our long-term planned projects (since November 98).

The participant group in Trebinje was to a great extent made up of participants who applied for Macedonia, and additional effort was made to find participants from Kosovo and Montenegro to come to the training in Trebinje in Eastern Herzegovina, in the entity of Republika Srpska.

 

The participants came from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. The age range was 20-35, in average 25 years. Their professional background included:

• Work with traumatised children
• Youth centre leaders
• Activists of human-rights groups and political parties
• Media
• Peace group members
• Children’s rights
• Civic initiatives
• Student activists and civil resistance activists
• Women rights
• Democratisation and training sections of OSCE.

 

The workshops often lasted longer than originally planned, sometimes up to 10 hours a day. Whenever confronted with the question ‘Should we leave out an exercise in order to finish on time?’ the group overwhelmingly requested more work. The energy of the group energised us in the team as well, but it was at times exhausting and difficult to keep up. It was a challenging but wonderful experience.

 

Some of most interesting moments of the training were in the second half, as the group had formed by this stage and was ready for open communication and confrontation even about the most controversial/taboo issues. The theme of gender brought out very strong emotions among participants. Strong emotions appeared again in the ‘constructive conflict transformation’ workshops, which were conducted with the method of ‘forum-theatre’, done in the form of a role-play that participants set up themselves and then tried to change the violent situation (structural or direct).

 

The theme power and leadership revolved around issues of individual and group power, responsibility, and often not perceived possibilities to challenge oppressive power. This was also very emotional and appeared to bring on strong personal re-questioning within the individual participants. In the leadership workshop the group’s and the individual’s understanding of ‘leader’ was analysed. This included their expectations, responsibilities, and the relationship a group establishes to a leader. Widespread feelings of fear towards an idea of group leader were transparent, as the understanding of the leader role focused on that of one that oppresses and less than of one that serves, and has special responsibilities defined by the group (including leaders).

Training Documentation “Ovo je KASA-POPARA! Toliko se zepetljalo” is available at request – in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, 70 pages.

 

 

Seminar organised by “ABRAHAM” in Livno (F BiH)

Theme:  Human rights with the accent on the freedom of the religion of Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks in the area where they are in the minority, 4. – 6. December 1999.

 

“Abraham” – a local association for peace work and inter religious dialogue from Sarajevo, organised a seminar in Livno, BiH. The main topic was ‘human rights and the religious freedom of Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks in areas where they were the minority.’ It was the first of three seminars on this theme, which were planned to happen in three different cities in BiH.  A member of the CNA team was a facilitator at the seminar. Around 30 people attended, including representatives of local NGO’s, media, political parties and other public persons from each of three constitutional nations of BiH.

 

 

 

2nd Quarter, December 1999 – February 2000

 

 

Preparation of the CNA evaluation,

with the support of Quaker Peace & Service (QPS) sponsored consultation meeting. 

11 January 1999

 

In September 1999 QPS organised a weekend seminar on the theme of ‘Evaluation’ in which a member of CNA participated. QPS offered follow-up meetings to the participants of this seminar, aiming at giving support and offering advice to the organisations in which they are active.

CNA decided to use this offer to help us prepare for the evaluation.

Marina Skrabalo (Centar za mirovne studije- Centre for Peace Studies-Zagreb) and Natasa Milenkovic (Autonomous Womans Centre – Belgrade), came to advise us on how to move forward with the evaluation.

 

The actual meeting dealt with three points, which were:

Looking at evaluation methods we had been using until that point (on which level we had implemented evaluations in the past and how much of this is documented etc.)

Going through the prepared questions on what CNA wants to evaluate and how, working out indicators and interest groups

Working out the plan for developing the evaluation e.g. who, when, what etc.

 

 

Preparation of Training Manual

Development of a ‘Handbook for Trainings in Nonviolent Conflict Transformation’

Study trip, January-February 2000

 

At the end of January Nenad Vukosavljevic spent two weeks on a study trip, concerning the preparation of a ‘Handbook for Trainings in Nonviolent Conflict Transformation.

 

The first meeting of the trip was with Professor Mari Fitzduff in Derry/Londonderry, director of the Initiative on Conflict Resolution & Ethnicity (INCORE – www.incore.ulst.ac.uk ). Although Mrs Fitzduff has written a Handbook On Community Conflict Skills adjusted to the situation in Northern Ireland, the focus of her current work is not trainings themselves, but management of INCORE and international research work.

 

Second meeting was with Steve Williams – Responding to Conflict (RTC) / INCORE.

Steve Williams works as a part-time researcher for INCORE and is a member of the organising/training team of a 10-week international training course run by Responding to Conflict in Birmingham. Mr Williams presented areas of RTC work he is mainly involved in and was very interested to hear about CNA and our work in the Balkans.

 

Diana Francis

She is a trainer from England with very rich international training experience, who co-operates with various organisations including KURVE Wustrow, International Alert and Quaker Peace and Service. Diana Francis has been working on a ‘Resource Pack for Conflict Transformation  – International Alert, London’, which Nenad studied in the preparation phase for the Manual that CNA will publish. Mrs Francis gave important feedback for the Manual during a whole afternoon meeting in Bath.

 

 

Two-Part evaluation and Strategy Planning seminar

with Schueler Helfen Leben (SHL), February 2000

 

SHL requested the help of CNA to develop and implement a 2-weekend series of workshops, which would be a major segment of the self-evaluation that the present SHL team is implementing.  CNA was asked to help in the development and implementation of 2 weekend seminars in English language, and also to support the analysis of the information obtained and the documentation of this information.  The 2 weekends were an evaluation seminar and a strategy-planning seminar.  CNA has never worked along this theme before, and the request was accepted as a pilot/experimental piece of work on adapting our work methods to gathering information appropriate for an evaluation.

 

The workshops were developed by CNA in co-ordination with the defined information that SHL needed to gather from the seminar.  Present SHL staff have found themselves in the position where they did not have an intensive enough introduction to the work and the context of the work they are doing in BiH, and there is not enough documentation of previous SHL work for them to work on this formally.

 

 

Training: Basics in Nonviolent Conflict Transformation

Kiseljak, 25^th February – 6^th March 2000

 

Training Basics in Nonviolent Conflict Transformation was held from 25.2. – 6.3.2000, in Kiseljak. The training was organised and implemented by CNA Sarajevo.

 

The participants came from different towns of the countries/regions of former Yugoslavia:

BiH (including both entities): Banja Luka, Mostar, Busovaca, Sarajevo, and Zavidovici

Croatia: Zagreb, Vukovar

FRY (including Montenegro, Vojvodina and Serbia proper): Podgorica, Sombor, Indjija, Pancevo, Beograd, and Novi Pazar

Macedonia: Skopje, Ohrid

Seven women and eight men participated. The age was between 23 and 34 years, with an average age of 26.5.

 

Some of the organisations that participants are active in:

Bureau for Conscientious Objection, Children “Playshops“ – Busovaca (Djecije igraonice), Citizen’s Community for help to children and youth SRCEM, Centre for Information and Support to local NGOs, Centre for youth – Zavidovici, Movement for Peace – Pancevo, Ravangrad – Sombor, Urban-in, Association for democratic prosperity ZID, The First Children Embassy in the World MEDJASI, Centre for Peace Studies –- Zagreb, Project of Citizen Democratic Initiative.

Apart from activities in the organisations that participants came from, some of them are working as teachers or political activists.

 

CNA received approximately 60-70 applications for this training, and 20 participants were chosen. Unfortunately some of them cancelled one day before the training started, and one person cancelled on the very last day, before we left for Kiseljak. Two persons who cancelled were applicants from Kosovo who did not feel safe to travel because of the difficult situation in there.

 

This was the first time that CNA organised a training in the part of BiH where Croats are in majority, and it is also the first time that people from these areas applied for a training and participated in it. Also, for the first time we had participants from Sandzak (a part of Serbia and Montenegro where Bosniaks are in majority) and Vojvodina.

 

The training team consisted of three CNA team members and Dejan Videnovic who was a participant on the CNA Training for Trainers programme. This was a continuation of the CNA policy to support participants from the Training for Trainers programme and to give them a chance to gather more experience as members of a training team on longer trainings.

 

The training was financed by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, the German Advisory Office – GTZ, the Royal Norwegian Embassy, the Know How Fund and OSCE Civil Society Department.

 

Themes that we worked on:

–                getting to know each other

–                nonviolent communication

–                team work

–                decision making

–                understanding of conflict

–                perception

–                violence/nonviolence

–                differences

–                prejudice

–                gender

–                power

–                leadership

–                constructive dealing with conflict

–                identity

 

The training team’s impression was that the group was ready to deal with many questions and that it was motivated and interested.

 

During the workshop on the theme ‘understanding of conflict’ we worked on processes in conflict, how conflict appears, what we show in them and what we hide, how constructive conflict can be and why/how conflict may turn into violence. The simulation (role-play) of a conflict situation that was done raised strong emotions, as it happened to turn into a violent scene. It also happened that during the role play the door of the working room was broken, and that added some reality, with the director of the hotel who came in screaming that he was going to call the police (luckily, he cooled down and we could talk to him).  Everybody felt very bad and the atmosphere was hard and intense. But despite that everybody wanted to discuss the whole situation and to deal with it. It was a very hard experience for all of us, but as conflict can be very constructive and one can gain a lot from it – which is exactly what happened in this situation.  The following discussion was an analysis of the processes within the exercise, connecting them with the processes in real life, on a personal, but also a political level.

 

This mutual experience influenced forming the group and trust building, and due to that, the further work. Themes that the training team perceived as very hard for the group to deal with were national prejudices, national identity, gender and differences.

 

Some of the statements in the verbal evaluation of the training:

 

–          I learnt many things. Actually many of them I knew before, but I did not know how to use them, and I got that here.

–          I still need to train myself in my surroundings, and then I will say what I still miss.

–          The main thing is that some questions are now open for me, as I got so many different opinions I did not know.

–          I got many themes to think about. I did not get men’s view of the role of sexes in the society. I did not talk to people so open and simple like now for who knows how much time.

–          I gained a lot. I became aware of some of my behaviours, and became more sensitive for kinds of non-physical every-day violence. I did not get definitions, finished (closed) answers and some full stops, and I am glad because of that.

–          I want to thank training team and participants. I got something, but that is not for sure something that I expected. I jumped over 3 or four steps of my life in 10 days, and otherwise I would need much more time for that. Thank you once more..

–          In some moments I felt some of my weaknesses and disadvantages. For the first time I talked in front of 20 people who really listened to me.

–          The first 2-3 days only few people talked, but then we learnt to listen. I listened all 10 days, which is new experience for me. Some people gained a lot because they started to talk, and some gained because they became quieter.

 

Generally the training team is very satisfied with the training, with the group, with the work that was done and with the teamwork in the training team.

The team was also satisfied with the fact that most of the participants had very active discussions during informal time connected with the themes that we worked on, and with the political dimension that has been brought up in the workshops. Many participants expressed a need for organising this kind of training in their environment and organisations that they are active in.

 

Documentation of the training “MRDNI MALO!“ in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian language (83 pages) includes detailed information on workshops, minutes of discussions and evaluation. It is available on request directly from CNA.

 

 

 

3rd Quarter, March – May 2000

 

 

 

Abraham seminar, Sarajevo 21.03.2000

 

The association for peacebuilding work and interreligious dialog, Abraham from Sarajevo, has organized a seminar “Human rights especially with accent on the religious freedom of Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats in the regions where they represent an ethnic minority”. Three seminars have been held in a row in Livno, Doboj and Travnik, each of these towns having a different ethnical structure of population and the final seminar has been held in Sarajevo with a member of CNA in the role of a facilitator.

The seminars covered issues of: minorities, religious freedom, civil rights, joint projects of national and religious organizations and institutions. All these issues are very relevant and important in BiH in the current moment of postwar peace building.

The set up where each seminar has been held in a town where one of the three constitutional nations are majority has given a special quality to the work. It has also opened up an opportunity for further assessment of needs and insight in the situation of minorities in these respective areas.

Besides that, personal experiences related to the situation of minorities were expressed and the problems other citizens have with discriminating policies of local authorities towards minorities.

Finally, the closing seminar in Sarajevo has been used to formulate concrete suggestions about needed steps in order to improve the situation, based on information gathered about current state of affairs in the whole country.

Three eminent professors, experts in this field who held lectures in the course of the seminars have opened some important aspects concerning solutions  for these piled up problems.

Generally spoken, events like these certainly contribute to the development of civil society, through demystification and awareness raising of religion related problems within and outside religious institutions.

Detailed report from this programme can be obtained directly from Abraham (email:ibrahim@bih.net.ba).

 

»Human rights start with you«, workshop in Sarajevo 14.04.2000

 

A member of CNA team took part in one-day workshop on “Human rights start with you”. The conception of this workshop was one of a brief training for trainers. The workshop was organized by QPS – Sarajevo (Quaker Peace and Service) in cooperation with Amnesty International. Participants of this workshop were NGO activists from both entities of BiH. The workshop was conducted by a volunteer of Amnesty International from Sweden and a Secretary of Amnesty International from Great Britain.

 

 

Pilot Training-Seminar for Peace and Nonviolence

Banovici, 21^st April – 2^nd May 2000

 

The Balkan-wide Pilot Training-Seminar for Peace and Nonviolence organised by the Centre for Nonviolent Action – Sarajevo, was implemented between 21^st April – 2^nd May 2000, in Zlaca, near the town of Banovici in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 

Eighteen participants attended the training, consisting of eight women and ten men from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Croatia, (FYR) Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Greece. Unfortunately two participants, one from Kosovo and one from Montenegro, cancelled a few days before the beginning of the training. This regrettably left us with no participants from these regions, as it was not possible to find replacements so soon before the start. The age of the participant group ranged from 20 to 35 years.

 

The participants came from the following organisations:

°         Albanian Committee for Peace and Democracy, Tirana, Albania

°         Albanian Journalist Union (K.SH.B.G.), Tirana, Albania

°         Gender Task Force, Tirana, Albania

°         Youth Centre, Zavidovici, Bosnia-Herzegovina (Federation of BiH)

°         Forum of Women Gracanica, Bosnia-Herzegovina (Federation of BiH)

°         Association Bridge (Most), Visegrad, Bosnia-Herzegovina (Republika Srpska)

°         Union of Bulgarian Foundations and Associations, Sofia, Bulgaria

°         Anti War Campaign, freelance trainer, Trogir, Croatia

°         University of Macedonia, (student of economic and political science), Thessaloniki Greece

°         First Children’s Embassy in the World – Medjasi – Skopje, Macedonia (FYROM)

°         Balkan Peace Centre at the St, Cyril and Metodius University, Skopje, Macedonia (FYROM)

°         Hungarian Student Union of Cluj-Napola, Oradea, Romania

°         Youth organisation of Democratic Party, Oradea, Romania

°         Ankara War Resisters Association, Greenpeace, Ankara, Turkey

°         War Resisters Association, Izmir, Turkey

°         Autonomous Women’s Centre Against Sexual Violence, Belgrade, Yugoslavia

°         Humanitarian Centre for Integration and Toleration, Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Yugoslavia

°         Novi Sad – Humanitarian Centre, Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Yugoslavia

 

As this was a pilot project, many aspects of the seminar were new to CNA. The response of funders to the project was disappointing to say the least.  The fundraising started in October 1999, but that did not have any effect on the amount of support we eventually managed to secure. By April 2000 some funders still did not know how they are to spend their funding resources for the year 2000. We had almost reached the stage of cancelling the training when the Westminster Foundation for Democracy informed us that they will donate a substantial amount of the money needed. Schueler Helfen Leben (SHL) also made an appreciable donation, and between these 2 founders we were able to proceed. However we did not manage to gather much more than half of the funding needed to implement the seminar, and the gap this leaves in CNA’s finances may effect our work for the rest of 2000.

 

Organising the travel and visas for participants had various complications, but in the end we are happy to say that everybody who was expected, arrived safely in Sarajevo.

 

After working in former Yugoslavia since 1997 CNA has built-up links and insight into the work of various organisations throughout the region. When applications arrive for a training we have a picture, or do not have any difficulties in getting a picture, of the type of group that individuals who applied come from. However with the groups that participated in the Balkan-wide training that were from outside the countries of former Yugoslavia, we had very little idea of the type of group they were apart from the basic information given in the application. We see this as a potential first step towards building up the links with organisations that can give us the advantageous insight into the groups that apply.

Because of the different countries that were present the working language of the seminar was English. The level of language skills varied amongst the participants, which effected involvement in the sessions. For any further work in English language the training team has asked itself whether the workshops should be further adapted to suit a seminar being implemented in a second language, and also whether CNA should put more effort into ensuring the needed level of foreign language skill is present, before the training takes place.

 

The themes that the seminar worked on are:

 

l          Introduction

l          Nonviolent communication

l          Team work and decision making

l          Violence/Nonviolence

l          Perception

l          Understanding of conflict

l          Differences

l          Gender

l          Prejudice

l          Identity and national identity

l          Leadership

l          Creative conflict transformation

l          Power and action

l          Evaluation

 

 

The topic of gender was a cause of great discussion/debate in the plenary, in the working rules and in a number of other workshops. However, the actual gender workshop was one of the drier sessions that took place, some members of the training team feeling that it is the lightest, least confronting one they have ever seen.

 

The workshop on Identity, although one of the ‘softer’ workshops in the agenda, brought out one of the strongest reactions in the discussion, when personal and courageous statements were made, leading to emotional debate about national identity. (Because of their personal nature they are not documented)

 

Because of the pilot nature of the seminar the evaluation has been of specific importance. The evaluation was done on a workshop basis and in the form of a questionnaire. Some statements made during the workshop evaluation were:

 

• I got a lot of information about nonviolence, Balkans, my experience, got friends, got tolerance for other ideas. I found out who I am, got training skills and lots of jokes. I lost some of my prejudices.
• Now I have friends from the Balkan. Experience was very good and new knowledge… This training has opened my horizons.
• I gained a lot of work. I never could expect that this could be so tiring. I really met people that I would like to meet, but didn’t have a chance before.
• I lost the concept of my national pride. This is very important to me as a lawyer and as a person – by learning about other countries and cultures. I’ve learnt also that Greek people are good people.
• This work is compulsory for the Balkans.
• The Balkan is like a bomb (which can explode, and this can stop it!) we are waiting to explode. This kind of seminar is necessary to change mentality.
• This work can change everything, because it gives power to the people and they can change everything.
• Nothing is natural. If you want it, you can do it. But, I think it would be great to happen to Balkans, to have CNA everywhere.
• I have problems with the countries of former Yugoslavia. It helps me to be included. I need to learn more and more.
• I can see CNA as a part of a network on a Balkan level, worldwide network… It is good to continue.
• (I expect that) CNA can support other organisations that may be included in the network.
• CNA already started to work on a Balkan level; it is good to continue.
• I agree with any organisation doing it, not only CNA.

 

We feel that the goals of awareness raising and building capacity for regional cooperation have been achieved to a great extent, and the evaluation questionnaires (Do you see potential cooperation with some of the participants? What kind of?) of participants clearly confirm this, e.g.

 

A major question for CNA as organisers and trainers was whether trainings in nonviolent conflict transformation are needed and useful on a Balkan wide level and whether a project of this type does respond to the needs of activists from the region. After evaluation all participants, and the team itself, share the opinion that the need exists, and it has been described by all as necessary that it should continue and widen.

 

If CNA is to strategically decide to expand our work beyond the countries/regions of former Yugoslavia, we need the necessary resources to pursue it, in order to produce a multiplication effect of the skills and awareness being developed. Training for Trainers for people from former Yugoslavia who participated in basic trainings in nonviolent conflict transformation represent a very important step in achieving the multiplication effect. Our previous experience confirms the appropriateness of this approach. We believe that Balkan wide work should be pursued in the same manner, also providing Training for Trainers after implementation of 3 Basic trainings such as this pilot project. We are keen to work further on a Balkan wide level, and intend to develop the links made with groups and individuals that participated in the seminar. In any future Balkan wide seminars we would intend to incorporate people from outside former Yugoslavia in the training team and organisational aspects of the event.

 

The seminar documentation, entitled ‘P(l)ink barbarianchickenfreak’ (120 pages), is published on our website nenasilje.org, in Adobe Acrobat format (pdf) , or contact CNA – Sarajevo. The documentation contains full training team evaluation of the seminar, participant evaluation and questionnaires, workshop instructions and participant responses (including quotes), details on the NGOs present at the seminar, and photographs from the event.

 

 

Training for Trainers III, Sarajevo 19-21.5.2000

 

The final part of the first Programme Training for Trainers which started in October 1998, has been held in Sarajevo at SHL House, 19-21st May 2000. Originally planned this training should have happened a year ago, in May 1999, but due to the war in Yugoslavia, the training had then been cancelled. The training was held with basically no funds, because Schüler Helfen Leben have generously given us free accommodation in their seminar house in Sarajevo. All trainers, including Otto and Ana Raffai who came from Zagreb got no honoraria for the work and the participants were able to cover their travel costs themselves. Six participants came to the training, although one of them unfortunately had to go back to Belgrade, because of family emergency situation. All of the people who came to the training have worked as trainers in the meantime and are currently engaged in training work in different organisations. Despite the fact that so few people were able to come to the training, all of the gathered have stated high satisfaction that the training/meeting has happened.

 

Two major points for the training were:

–          the evaluation of the whole programme, in relation to original expectation and experience gathered in the meantime

–          looking forward to possibilities of future cooperation and thinking of

personal future visions and desires.

 

The strongest impression shared from this meeting seemed to have been a feeling of connection and ability to rely on each other and count with support and cooperation in future.

 

Important information has been gathered in regard to the preparation of the upcoming next Training for Trainers and additional motivation has been harvested.

 

In informal time Otto and Ana Raffai have given valuable feedback to the draft version of the Manual for Trainings in Nonviolent Conflict Transformation, prepared by a member of CNA and on top of it all we snatched time to talk about our difficulties and exchange some recently learned methods.

 

 

 

4th Quarter, June – August 2000

 

 

Oneday workshops within CRS (Catholic Relief Service) programme of connecting families

 

At request by CRS Sarajevo CNA conducted several one-day workshops within the CRS programme “Connecting families”. The target group is made out of people interested to work with other people and to work on connecting families in their environment. The goal of the project is to connect families who are returning to their previous homes with those people who have stayed there and those who moved into the area during or after the war, for the sake of establishing communication and trust between them.

A member of CNA staff conducted workshops on themes “nonviolent communication” and “understanding of conflict” in small towns of Trnovo, Han Pijesak (Pjenovac), Sokolac and Praca all in Eastern Republika Srpska, an area where rather few refugees returned, so far. Participants at those workshops were of different ethnicity, profession and age. The size of the group was 8-12 people.

The purpose of the training was to give participants some skills and knowledge that they may be able to use in their work in the field, in towns and villages they came from.

The participants were very pleased with the active participation that has been offered to them and used by them. One participant’s statement from the workshop is: “I am satisfied with this day and the work on the theme “Understanding of conflict”, because we ourselves were the lecturers and I could learn a lot from others and contribute to it myself.

 

 

Seminar “Tolerance and minority rights” in Zavidovici  16.-17.06.2000

 

Two days seminar organised by a Youth club in Zavidovici contained a workshop about “Differences and Prejudice” conducted by a member of CNA and few lecturers, who gave input for the discussion to follow.

Representatives of NGOs and citizens from Zavidovici participated. Although invited unfortunately nobody came from neighbouring towns of Maglaj and Zepca in Central Bosnia. These three towns lay in the area where major fights were fought between three armies of Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, at different stages of war, all against all. The situation is still rather tense and there is very little communication in this area, which makes it a great pity that the seminar was not used for a gathering.

Unexpectedly, guests from Italy were also present at the seminar, so the workshop had to have translation that influenced the process heavily. Despite the fact that not all invited came, participants expressed satisfaction with the work they have done and opinions exchange that happened on the issues.

 

 

 

Abraham seminar

Relation between believers and people who think they are not

 

“Abraham”, an organization for interreligious dialogue from Sarajevo, organized a seminar in from 23.06. to 25.06.2000 in Jablanica (B&H), with the main subject: Relation between believers and ones who think they are not.

About thirty members of NGOs and religious communities have attended seminar from B&H. One member of CNA team has participated as facilitator.

Seminar has been organized as combination of interactive workshops and lectures.

Lectures has been performed by following lecturers:

Fra Ivo Markovic, catholic theologian

Nemanja Drazic orthodox theologian

Muhamed Porca, Islamic theologian

Christof Ziemer, theologian from Germany and Abraham’s Director

The subject was very interesting for the most of participants, because of its actuality in the context of current political situation and because of special individual interest of participants.

Lectures and discussions have treated, among other things, relation of holy books to this subject. That was very inspirative for group so, there were many questions for lecturers and also very interesting discussions.

The second part of seminar contained interactive workshops, so participants have analyzed the current state of those relations in B&H and have presented their own life experiences. Also, a list of suggestions was made, how to improve mentioned relations. Discussions have shown that treated subject could be very important, not only on this Balkan area, but also all over the world, and that seminars like this one should be organized more often. Dialogues and discussions like these contribute to resolution of taboos and demystification of both side prejudices.

There was suggestion for next seminar to engage lecturer with atheistic philosophy background.

For more information about this seminar, you can directly contact “Abraham” Organization, E-mail address: ibrahime@bih.net.ba.

 

 

 

Help and support to consciencous objectors and deserteurs from Yugoslavia

Meeting at Quaker Peace and Service, 14.7.2000 in Sarajevo

 

Several NGOs took the initiative and organized meeting in QPS office with subject: Help and support to conscience objectors and deserters from Yugoslavia.

In the beginning, some of participants expressed their own views of the current situation in Yugoslavia, which was estimated as unstable because of political atmosphere in Montenegro and elections that are going to happen in September. Lots of army and police in the streets, give impression of potential possibility of armed conflict.

Participants have discussed how local and international NGOs in B&H can help to consciencous objectors and deserteurs from Yugoslavia. It was suggested to lobby organizations at regional level and to realize conditions for possible accommodation those people as well as logistic and other help in their political activism.

Also, it was suggested to contact groups and organizations from Yugoslavia, as soon as possible, to enable close cooperation during this period.

This meeting is important because it analyzed possibilities of help and support, to enable action on time, before possible violent conflict in Yugoslavia,

 

 

 

Programme Training for Trainers

in Nonviolent Conflict Transformation

 

The programme Training for Trainers in Nonviolent Conflict Transformation organised by CNA Sarajevo started in June 2000. It consists of five phases (for more information please see the previous CNA report March-May 2000), and until know three of them are done:

 

Phase I: 10 days training (Jablanica, BiH, 9-19.6.2000)

Phase II: Follow-up meetings (June-July 2000)

Phase III: 10 days training (Jahorina, BiH, 28.7-7.8.2000)

 

The training team consisted of three members of CNA team and Goran Bozicevic (Centre for Peace Studies, Zagreb, Croatia).

 

About participants

 

There were 15 participants, 9 women and 6 men, from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FR Yugoslavia and Macedonia. The age of the participant group ranged from 19 to 32 years.

 

It was plan to have 20 participants, but 2 participants from Kosovo cancelled they participation few days before the training because of difficulties in travelling, and one participant from Serbia who is activist in OTPOR! was unable to come because Serbian police forbade him to leave the town.

 

Participants are active in the following organisations:

 

Autonomous Women’s Centre Against Sexual Violence (Belgrade, Yugoslavia)

CARE International Project Welcome (Hrasnica, BiH)

Centre for Peace Studies (Zagreb, Croatia)

Centre for Development of Civil Society PROTECTA (Nis, Yugoslavia)

Centre for Development of Civil Awarness (Babusnica, Yugoslavia)

CINVOS (Gorazde, BiH)

Ecumenical Women Fund for Solidarity (Croatia)

Fade in (Zagreb, Croatia)

Initiative “M” (Mostar, BiH)

Movement for Peace (Pancevo, Yugoslavia)

OTPOR – a movement in Serbia

Proni (Vukovar, Croatia)

The First Children’s Embassy in the World “Medjasi” (Skopje and Ohrid, Macedonia)

Student Aliance (Nis, Yugoslavia)

Ravangrad (Sombor, Yugoslavia)

 

Apart from activities in the organisations that participants came from, some of them are working as teachers or political activists.

 

Previous experience with basic trainings in nonviolent conflict transformation was required for participation in this programme. Most of the participants were people who participated in CNA basic trainings (in Kiseljak 25.2-6.3.2000, and in Trebinje 19-29.11.2000).

 

 

Phase I: 10 days training (Jablanica, BiH, 9-19.6.2000)

 

The Training for Trainers programme started with 10-days training that was held in Jablanica, BiH, 9-19.6.2000.

 

The idea of this phase of the programme was to deepen some themes that participants have already worked on the basic trainings, but also to deal with some new themes. The main focus was nonviolence and conflict, and the following themes were worked on:

 

°   nonviolent communication

°   understanding of conflict

°   nonviolence

°   dealing with conflict

°   mediation

°   team work under stressful conditions

°   gender issues

°   responsibilities and roles of a trainer/group/individual

°   creative conflict transformation

 

The most impressive workshop was “Teamwork under stressful conditions” (as it was expressed in the evaluation of the training). This theme was worked out using the long role-play as a method. The role-play was in the middle of the training,, starting at 22h, and finishing the next day at 6 a.m. The group of participants was told that the role-play is about simulation of a journey in the foreign country for one day. They have the role of a group of trainers who have to research the possibilities of implementing and holding trainings in nonviolence in that country, and the training team plays the roles of the persons that they meet.

During this fictitious journey the group found themselves in the fictitious country Sandjak, with a list of contacts (needed telephone numbers of the organisations that showed interest in the trainings, important institutions, political parties, police…) that they got from their “coordinator”.

The journey started with the travel by “cab” to the “customs”. When they arrived to the customs, they were in a very stressed situation with customers and police who were harassing them in the form of investigating, sexist behaviour, discrimination based on nationality…

In the first few hours the group had lots of difficulties with the papers, stay registration, police controls, etc. After that they succeeded in arranging meetings with a few organisations that they wanted to meet. During these meetings they were confronted with various difficulties: explaining to uninformed people what nonviolence and nonviolent communication is, patriarchal behaviour, sexism, nationalism, chauvinism. The participants dealt with these difficulties more or less successful.

They also had a task to implement and hold an introductory workshop in nonviolence for interested guests, representatives of the local organisations, so they could present their way of work.

Additional stress were tiredness, and late hours.

 

The evaluation of the role-play was done the same day in the evening, after everybody had some rest. In the evaluation all of the participants expressed their satisfaction with the workshop and the things they gained from the difficulties they had and the way they dealt with them. Besides a lot of material for analysing teamwork and dealing with stress, this fruitful role-play influenced the relations in the group. People got to know each other better and became more transparent with each other after experiencing conflicts during the role play, so it had a strong bonding impact for further work on the training.

 

The training team during preparation of the training decided to leave two workshops “open”, unprepared, which would be used to deal with themes that the group would express need for. For example, workshop on gender issues was not originally planned to be done, but it came out of the participants’ needs.

 

After the workshop on Creative conflict transformation, participants expressed a wish to continue with the discussion after the dinner. It was decided to have “open evening” on the topic “gender issues”. This open evening lasted until late hours and the discussion was focused on nonviolence and different social values.

 

Uniqueness of this training was more critical attitude towards nonviolence and conflict transformation, also requestioning the role of trainings in a society. Lots of discussions during the training were connected with the trainer role and work on trainings. One of more interesting discussions was on the questions do we change people, is it our goal, do we have right to change people, etc.

 

Participants could take more responsibilities than usually on basic trainings. For example, they could take responsibility for minutes of a workshop that would be included in final documentation of the training, or they could join “open team”, which means that 2-3 participants could be involved in the training team evaluation of the working day which was happening every evening after the dinner.

 

During the training we really had bad luck with the weather, it was too hot, and really hard to work. But despite that, all the participants were present on all workshops with high motivation to work.

 

In this Phase participants had a possibility to form small groups, teams, of 2-3 people who would prepare and hold workshop on the next training (Phase III) on the theme of their interest.

Five teams of participants were formed. It was nice to realise that all the participants teams were ethnically mixed. But, there was only one gender mixed team, and four of the others were not. It was an issue, but left to deal with on the next gathering.

 

The last day of the training verbal evaluation was done. Also participants filled out evaluation questionnaires (available in the training documentation), and the training team had our own evaluation.

 

In the verbal evaluation it was concluded that most of the expectations of the training were fulfilled. Participants and the training team expressed general satisfaction with the training. Many participants said that they got a lot of empowerment for further work, also that they feel much closer to the idea of nonviolence and creative conflict transformation. Some of the participants had impressions that the group of participants was “too slow” and that it can offer much more than it did.

 

In the evaluation questionnaires, on the question: Do you see potential cooperation with some of the participants? What kind?, all of the participants wrote that they were very interested in cooperation with some or all other participants. Some already had idea of concrete cooperation in some projects that they are involved in. Some of them said that this group could offer to them a lot of experience, exchange of information, and empowerment to each other.

 

The training team evaluation covered five points: workshops and the concept of the training, the group, training team, difficulties in the work and learning points.

The training team found the concept of the training as rich and successful, except that the free day was lacking because of low energy and tiredness of the team and participants. Also more work on gender issues is seen as needed. The group of participants is experienced as strong with a lot of potential for further work and cooperation. CNA sees also a great potential in this group for future CNA volunteers.

 

Two main difficulties were really hot weather and big financial problems.  Few days before the training started we realised that we will not get the funds for the training that we expected. CNA decided to do the training anyway, and to use the last resources which were for core funding of the organisation, but also private money of CNA volunteers. We were aware that it could mean closing down the organisation very soon after the training, but we had a feeling that this programme is too important for us to cancel it.

After the training when we saw what a great job was done, and what a great group with a lot of potential is developed we were not sorry that we made that risk.

 

More information on this training you can find in the training documentation “Ko vam je sef?” which is in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian language. It consists of detailed descriptions and minutes of workshops, evaluation (verbal evaluation, evaluation of the training team and evaluation questionnaires), etc. You can get it from CNA on request.

 

 

Phase II: Follow-up meetings (June-July 2000)

 

The teams of participants formed on training in Jablanica chose themes that they will prepare workshop sessions for, and then conduct these sessions in the next training that will be held in July-August. They had follow-up meetings with two members of the training team with whom they prefer to work, in order to get feedback on the workshop they prepared, to get suggestions, advice and support.

 

There were 6 follow-up meetings, and they lasted from 1 to 4 days, depending on how long workshops were planned to last, how experienced participants were, etc. Five meetings were held in Sarajevo, as it was the easiest place to travel to (people from other countries of former Yugoslavia do not need visa for BiH), and one was held in Groznjan, Croatia.

 

The teams of participants chose the following themes to prepare workshop on:

 

°   Differences and trust building

°   Burn-out and dealing with stress

°   Dealing with fear

°   National identity

°   Violence against planet Earth – violence against oneself

°   Multiculturalism

°   Leadership

 

Most of the participants came to follow-up meeting with the ideas what they want to do, and how. These meetings were very fruitful and intense, focussing on actual workshop structuring, working on the questions like: why I want to work on this theme, what is the goal of the workshop, what are my main questions, how can I work on them, which exercises I want to include and why, how do they cover my main questions, etc.

 

The training team got the impression that all the participants were very motivated to work and also very creative in workshop structuring. After all of the meetings a short evaluations of them were done where all the participants expressed their satisfaction that those meetings were planned in the programme as they found them very needed and useful.

 

The costs of follow-up meetings were donated by Auswärtiges Amt.

 

 

Phase III: 10-days training (Jahorina, BiH, 28.7-7.8.2000)

 

The second 10-days training of the programme was held from 28.7-7.8.2000. in Jahorina, BiH.

 

In the first part of the training were workshops that the participants prepared and conducted. In the second part of the training were workshops conducted by the training team, on the following themes:

 

°       preparation of the workshop

°       trainer role

°       difficulties in the work

°       motivation

 

The participants workshops were very creatively prepared and implemented. For most of the participants it was the first time to experience the role of a trainer. While participants were conducting their workshops the other participants and two members of the training team participated in them.

Many of usual difficulties in the work appeared during their sessions (for example participants are quiet, very few people are talking, only men take the word, sessions turned to be much longer than it was planned, etc.). Participants were a bit unhappy with these difficulties, but, as they said, it was great that they experienced them in the very first workshop they were conducting in a safe space, so they can have a picture what they should take care about next time when there is a group that they do not know.

After their workshops participants had evaluation with the training team where all the difficulties were analysed and many suggestions for improvements were found.

 

Also, participant’s workshops were analysed in the second part of the training in the workshops on workshop preparation, trainer role and difficulties in the work.

 

Participants expressed special interest in the sessions where members of the training team were sharing their work experiences with them. They came with millions of questions and it was really hard to cover all the questions due to the limited time of the training. Even a few open evenings (night sessions) were organised for dealing with those questions. One open evening was on gender issues, as participants expressed interest to discuss them.

 

This was a very intensive training. The morning and afternoon workshops lasted four or four and a half hours each, and sometimes open evening lasted until people couldn’t stand to be awake anymore. But it didn’t happen that anyone was absent on some of the workshops.

 

Participants were very keen on using skills and knowledge that they gained or developed during this programme. In informal time groups of participants were discussing possibilities of joint activities, as they wanted to start something, to do something. But, we will see what will happen during the next two phases of the programme which are focused more on concrete actions and possible cooperation.

 

Few days before the training started the elections in Serbia were announced, and they were very often mentioned during the training. That day, 24^th September, when the elections are, seems to be the most important day for people who are coming from Serbia. During the workshop on motivation, when we were doing an exercise of our plans in next five years, one of the participants from Serbia had done two versions of plans – depending on what will happen on 24^th September.

We are using this opportunity to kindly ask you to keep your fingers crossed on that day and think about those people for who the results of the elections are the question of life in their own country.

 

The evaluation of the training was done on a workshop basis and in the form of a questionnaire. The participants put much effort into filling out the evaluation questionnaires, so the verbal evaluation that followed covered only two questions:

 

How do I see my work, work of the group and work of the training team?

What did I get through this training?

 

–          It suited me better to work on myself and to think than to speak a lot. I gained a lot from interaction in the group work. I was very happy with the possibility to talk to the training team outside the workshops, and with the evaluation of our workshop done with them…

–          I’m satisfied with my work, but I could give more. I experienced the group as dynamic.

–          We are stronger in our relations. The training team was very good with it’s flexibility and creating workshops in the middle of the workshops.

–          I’m satisfied with my work and the work of the group. I experienced more openness in the group, we were not anymore in gloves. I’m also very satisfied with the work of the training team.

–          My work… good enough to go further. I make more experiments in my workshop than I should. The second part of the training really suited me. The team was very flexible. They gave to the group to lead the process with our own themes.

–          I got many themes to think about these days. I think that all of us were very active.

–          The training passed very quickly. I was very relaxed. I’m glad that our workshop didn’t pass smoothly, because I gained a lot from it. I experienced the training team as very transparent and flexible.

–          I like the dynamic of the group which was changing all the time. I’m glad that initiative to work on some questions and issues was showed. Very important for me were inputs that the training team had, and the fact that they participated in the workshops.

–          I like better interaction that exists in the group. I am really very satisfied with the training. And I really like the level of enthusiasm I felt that exist between us. I experienced the team as ready to support us and share with us their experiences.

–          All this training is somehow very qualitative to me. I specially like that the team had more time to spend with us.

–          I got much more than I gave. I’m really glad that all of you work on yourselves and that you notice that I’m working on myself also. This group has a lot of potential and qualities.

–          I worked a lot on myself and I got many questions and answers.

–          I got a lot of ideas, attitudes, approaches and a lot of energy to keep on.

–          I got a lot of enthusiasm, energy and you.

–          I got a chance to create and conduct workshop in one, as I experienced it, very safe space.

–          Some people are criticising trainings and our work talking that we are making some unreal atmosphere. I was thinking about that, how real the things that happen on the trainings are, and for me they are very real. And than, who can tell me what’s reality for me, when I know it the best? We are empowering people giving them lots of energy to keep on working in their environments and we are giving them a space to share their experiences and get support. And people feel good about it. Why is it unreal if I feel good?

–          When I was a small boy my mother was very often going on a business trip. I was sad because of that so she was trying to put me into a good mood with a question what I want her to buy me and bring me. And than I was counting: a chocolate, a toy, a bike, … She would come back from the trip bringing me only a chocolate and than I was sad even more. Today, now, I feel like my mother came back and brought me everything I asked her.

 

Documentation of the training (in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian) offers detailed information on contents of the workshops, minutes of discussions and evaluations. This documentation is available on request.

 

In the evaluation of the training team potential and motivation of the participants were highlighted again. CNA already invited two participants to be CNA volunteers and we are expecting answer.

 

At the minute we are looking forward the following phases of the programme.

 

 

 

Farewell letter of Jasmin Redzepovic

 

I had spent three years as soldier of Bosnian Army during the war. Right after the war in 1996-97 I had a chance to meet people that wanted to work on meeting “those on the other side”, which was quite an endeavour at that time. That is the way I got to know CNA, as an organisation that had a vision, concrete plans and an approach to work that I liked. After attending a first CNA Training in January 1998 I got a wish to work for CNA. During 1998 I was included in CNA trainings in various roles (as co-trainer, trainer and organiser). It was a valuable experience that I needed when I started a full-time work in CNA in November 1998.

Ever since, the CNA team grew to five people and in cooperation with many other people did many things on trust building among people from the area of former Yugoslavia. That way has been very exhausting and demanding, but worth all the effort and invested energy, and it will probably remain like that in the future. I am glad to have shared all that with people from CNA and those we worked with in the past few years.

At the beginning of July I was asked to work for International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, from August 2000 onwards. This offer took me by surprise at the moment I felt unable to meet a decision. Considering a fact that I was offered more security and much better wages, which me and my wife with our newborn child, badly need, I accepted the offer.

I wish to stress that the reason of my departure from CNA is of financial nature. I also wish to stress the value and the need for work of both CNA and ICFTU.

 

In one hand I am leaving with sorrow, because I will not be able to remain active in CNA in the coming time and on the other hand I am glad to have had the chance to work on something very valuable, and to do that with people that mean a lot to me. I will further remain in contact with CNA and with KURVE Wustrow as our umbrella office and support them as much I can.

I wish to end this letter with great Thanks for all I got and for all I was able to give.

 

 

 

 

Evaluation of CNA

 

 

CNA is pursuing a complex evaluation of our three years of work that contains few parts.

1. External evaluation of CNA work by Dr. Martina Fischer of Berghof Centre for Creative Conflict Management, based on interviews with participants of CNA trainings and with CNA staff. One seria of interviews have been done in August, further interviews will follow during Mrs Fischer’s visit to Bosnia in September this year.

2. Self-evaluation by CNA based on evaluation questionnaires to former participants of our basic trainings and Training for Trainers, in particular focussing on issues of multiplication and networking.

3. Self evaluation by CNA team, based on internal estimate of achieved selfsustainability of CNA, achieved multiplication and networking effects.

 

 

This report contains only the self-evaluation by CNA team, based on internal estimate of achieved results and the level of selfsustainability.

Special document containing all elements of pursued evaluation will be published by the end of the year. We hope to gain valuable insight, that may improve our work further.

 

 

Evaluation of results and achieved level of selfsustainability

 

During the past three years we have been adapting our strategy and work plans to the perceived needs and our capacities, in accord with our major goals.

 

 

Embedded in the general context of acting in the post war society with a goal of developing alternatives to violence which exists in various forms and supporting the development of civil society and culture of tolerance and dialogue, CNA followed the goals of: empowering individuals and groups, multiplying skills and developing awareness/sensibility for violence and injustice, opening up prospective for action against violence and injustice and networking groups and individuals who share similar values.

Our aims were described in 1997 in the following manner:

The aim is to enable people to use the skills learned at the training at their work in NGOs and their everyday environment and enable them to perceive the conflict situations differently. The idea is that taking responsibility for themselves and granting importance and power to themselves will lead to projection of the same to the groups they work with and the society they live in.

 

Based on evaluations of single training events and programmes, just as regular contact with many of our former and present participants of trainings we believe that  we empowered people through awareness raising and skills development. Thirty people have gone through our programme Training for Trainers, out of which almost all are very active in their environment. Most of them claimed to have gained through training new skills and motivation and to have gone through a personal requisitioning and changing of their standpoints and behavior.  These people have carried their new insight and skills into their organisations and living environment and are applying them.

 

Training opportunities described in 1997 report were:

Opportunities of the trainings are to:

improve understanding of democratic rules

raise capacities of participants for better understanding of political processes and the definition of their own space to act within it

empower individuals to step out in protection of their own and the rights of their fellow citizens

produce multiplying affect

initiate small scale reconciliation process/inter ethnic dialogue

initiate concrete cooperation across the border lines

 

 

CNA believes to have achieved and/or made possible all of the above mentioned.

 

 

 

Single steps of our way towards our goals were following:

 

multiplication

Enabling local people to work independently and share this knowledge in their organisation and the NGO sector is the envisioned goal.

 

Achieved multiplication will be assessed in the evaluation including interviews and questionnaires to participants. Within CNA staff we can claim that we have multiplied our skills. Our impression is also that the Programme Training for Training in particular was an appropriate way to reach this goal.

 

selection of trainers and their education

Identifying capable locals willing to receive further education as trainers in nonviolent conflict transformation and including them in the training team. Supporting their independent work through advice and empowerment.

 

Programme Training for Trainers was developed to respond to this goal. Furthermore, inclusion of participants of the Programme into the team at Basic Trainings was additional step in the education. Advisory and keeping in contact with former participants was a further measure suiting the needs, but CNA had also, due to our prioritising,  partly neglected regular follow-up and kept in touch with only limited number of individuals and groups. This should be improved in future.

 

cooperation with qualified local trainers

Including qualified local trainers in the training team and/or recommending them elsewhere. Exchanging opinions and experiences on concepts. Identifying their needs in further education and eventually inviting them through KURVE to such seminars outside the country. Offering them a chance of gathering international experience and contacts (within our possibilities), through invitations to trainings outside the country as participants and/or trainers.

 

At both Programmes Training for Trainers we have had trainers from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia. This has proved to be of great use in terms of experience exchange and networking, beyond the limits of CNA. Besides that, at several occassions CNA has been able to recommend our Trainers from the Training for Trainer network, to other organisations that were requesting cooperation from CNA.

We have hardly been able to provide assistance to locals who wished to receive additional education outside the region, so that is one point we would need to pay more attention to in future.

 

organisational support and advice

Exploring possibilities of individual support and advice, as a long term commitment, on various issues

 

Organisational support and advice was primarily focussed on our participants of the Training for Trainer Programme, thus covering important need for effective organisational work. Beyond officially planned follow-up meetings for new trainers, CNA has at request given our support also to some of our partnering organisations and received support from some of our partnering organisations. We are satisfied with the scope of work done in this area, although larger capacities would allow us even more intense support and advice work. Current prioritisation of trainings which make up the main activity everything else revolves around, leaves us with little capacity to focus more intensely onto advisory work. Financial aspect plays a role here as well, as we need money that we gain through trainings for office survival, whereby advisory activities are harder to fundraise for, in particular if they are unpredictable and not strictly structured as it usually is.

 

selfsustainability

and gradual transfer of CNA work onto local staff

Identifying capable locals who wish to join the CNA team, with long term commitment and prospective

 

Three CNA staff that were active in CNA over the past two year, have been recruited after participating at CNA training. Non-hierarchical structure of CNA suggested joint responsibility for the work in all of it’s aspects. CNA is considered a local organisation in the region of ex-Yu as it acts independently and staffs people from former Yugoslavia (an exception to this was a volunteer from Northern Ireland who worked with us over a period of 18 months). This is for us a clear indicator that, in accord with our self-understanding, CNA is a local organisation, although not a national one.

Internal training was focussed onto sharing and developing skills that some of the staff have. This included training work itself, but also fundraising, bookkeeping and other issues related to work.  Currently all three members of staff are capable of pursuing all activities of CNA, whereby only the language skills make up a greater difference. Envisioned enlargement of team for further 2-4 people which will take place in the coming 6 months, will include people with training and NGO experience (former training participants).

CNA activities are being funded through private donations and through a dozen of funders and other friendly organisations. So far we have managed to keep ourselves independent and to resist the temptation of relying upon only one or two single sponsors. This was a difficult task concerning the amount of work that needed to be put into fundraising, but the one we are proud of. The largest funder of CNA currently covers one third of total annual project costs.

We consider established trustful cooperations, not only in financial sense, as one of the important pillars of CNA selfsustainability.

Gathered experience and results of our work so far make up good fundaments upon which CNA can grow and develop in the future.

 

 

 

Long term strategy changes

 

In 1997, with the careful self-understanding as international organisation, although staffed with a single Yugoslav national, the long term strategy was described in the following way.

Long term strategy

CNA aims no permanent presence/existence in BiH

CNA will keep it‘s international character through enlargement of team, with qualified and experienced international volunteer

CNA will assess needs, conditions and terms on which the transfer of responsibilities to local staff could be implemented

CNA will analyse own resources and needs in other peace work sectors then trainings

 

Three years later, CNA has on it’s way to the localisation completely lost it’s identity as an international organisation, having now more of a regional (Balkan) character. That is the reason why CNA as the project office of KURVE Wustrow ill not have permanent presence in BiH, but an independent CNA organisation run by locals will continue the work.

International volunteers (outside of countries of former Yugoslavia) are further welcome, should they bring in the skills that are needed for work of a local CNA.

 

 

Current objectives for long term strategy are:

Continuation of current training programmes in nonviolent conflict transformation.

Keeping a regional character of the organisation and including staff from BiH and neighbouring countries.

Expansion of work with additional office and improved coverage of the work in the triangle Macedonia-Kosovo-Serbia.

Continuation of cooperation with current and new partnering organisations.

Researching and developing new training and networking programmes on the regional level.

Should the capacities allow, expanding our work onto the whole Balkan region, with programmes serving the needs of groups and individuals beyond former Yugoslavia.

 

 

 

 

Main strengths and weaknesses of CNA (in CNA view)

 

Strengths:

Gathered and developed training and organisational experience.

Strong organisational identity (common values, goals, commitment, team work, solidarity, flexibility, etc).

Cooperations and contacts in the region of former Yugoslavia and wider.

Motivated staff.

Independence towards single donors or organisations.

Regional character of the organisation and activities (Non-national and non-international).

Credit of achievements up to date.

 

 

Weaknesses:

An outreach limited only to a specific group.

Limited capacities to respond to all requests we would like to.

Regional character of the organisation and activities, which limits more focussed activities in BiH itself.

Uncertain financial base.

Lack of public presence, due to our character as a single organisation and not as a movement.

 

 

 

Localisation

 

 

Envisioned goal of CNA was to get localised by September 2000, either through transfer of work onto another local organisation or through establishment of CNA as a local organisation. The process of localisation should have been closed with official registration as a local organisation. Necessary preconditions for this to happen were/are to have qualified staff who are able and willing to carry on the work of CNA and who identify with the values that CNA had and developed throughout it’s 3 years of work. We are convinced that we have a solid base for localisation in terms of human resources and capacities, although we suffered a hitback, losing one member of staff recently, who took on another job, beacuse of financial advantages. Besides human resources, CNA has well established cooperations and relative certainty of future support by various organisations and institutions.

Final step of registering as a local organisation has been postponed, because current legal terms for work of NGOs in BiH are extremely restrictive and complex, demanding huge amount of additional finances and administration that CNA can not and does not want to enter at this stage. CNA researched conditions of work for local organisations and based on this made a decision to postpone the registration (special report on conditions of work for local organisations will follow in the next trhree month report).

Our current legal status as the project office of KURVE Wustrow will remain until the end of the year and in the meantime we are looking for more durable solutions for the next future, including potential registration as the project office of another foreign organisation.

 

Close cooperation with KURVE Wustrow comes to an end this year, herewith we lose our support in Germany in the form of coordinator, support-group and Main office itself. The main office of KURVE Wustrow in 2000 goes through a difficult process of restructuring and consolidaring. It’s ability to continue serving as a formal partners to efforts of civilian based qualified peace work in region of crisis will depend very much on ist success with securing additional funding as well as individual donations. Though a consolidation of this area of work as of now seems probable, CNA’s future legal status has to be determined.

 

Support group and the coordinator have played an important role in the past years giving feedback, doing work for us in Germany and offering invaluable moral support at different stages of our development. We are deeply thankful to the people in the Support group and to many of those people who have over a period of 3 years donated symbolic amounts of money, followed our work and kept on staying with us. At hard times, like last year during the war in Yugoslavia/Kosovo this support was sincerely of great meaning. We wish to remain in contact with our friends in Germany, in and around KURVE Wustrow and feel convinced that CNA’s reregistration means no end to the cooperation between us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Political and social context that CNA works in

 

CNA’ s mission was and still is to support establishment and development of local training structures that would work in the field of nonviolent conflict transformation and pursue this work on a regional level of countries of former Yugoslavia.

Although seated in Bosnia-Herzegovina and thus being in contact with many BiH groups and individuals, CNA has had a difficulty in identifying many groups and individuals in BiH, who would share our values of nonviolence, solidarity and regional approach. The NGO scene in BiH developed abruptly after the war end as many international NGOs streamed into the country and bags of money were brought in to support reconstruction work, humanitarian aid and the development of civil society. Work in international and national NGOs meant an opportunity to secure means for living, that many well educated people used preferring international NGOs where salaries were much higher, but the responsibilities within organisational hierarchies also lower. This unnatural development of NGO scene in BiH that had no background of activism, stands partly in contrast to the development in Croatia and Serbia where many groups organised and worked on voluntary basis with minimal budgets and eventually some of those transformed into strongly structured organisations.

Within BiH, mentioned development of NGOs scene which at one stage represented the major economic branch, has had a consequence of special perception among so to say “ordinary people”. At our latest training in BiH, in Jahorina, a participant of our training spoke to a waiter, who was convinced that participants were getting paid (!?) to attend the training “because the internationals now want to build some new Yugoslavia, so they pay for such seminars, bringing you all together…”.

A result of all this is that very few local NGOs have a backup of their local communities or even some support and understanding for their work. CNA is no exception to this, our regional approach has also limited our ability to focus on local community(ies) in Sarajevo and BiH. Most people connect NGOs with internationals, money, humanitarian aid and reconstruction. Opinion polls among youth in BiH, indicate that vast majority of youth see no future in this country and plan to leave the country and live somewhere else. Resignation and lack of motivation are wide spread among those that should represent the future of this society. Most of the people still feel as victims of the war and post war time, blame the others for that and expect help because they feel to deserve it.

Refugee return in BiH is still a huge problem, full five years after the end of war.

 

In Serbia, the political and social context bears some similarities to the situation in BiH, but there are also some crucial differences. The isolation that Yugoslavia has been put into throughout the past eight years, left people without false expectations that someone else is going to help them. Every four years a new young generation of mainly students initiated large protest against the regime, it happened in 1992-93, 1996-97 and now there is another huge movement that mobilised thousands of young people in nonviolent actions and campaigns against the regime, most of them gathered about the movement OTPOR (Resistance). The experience of bombing from 1999, by the NATO alliance, left them without an idealistic picture of Western democracy and civil society. In all the misery and terror those people grew up and live in, there is a healthy side to the story, that they had to learn to rely on their own strength. The danger of demotivation though, which happened after relative failures of movements in 92-93 and 96-97, remains permanent even now.

 

Despite CNA’s focus on all countries of former Yugoslavia, except Slovenia, most of our participants came from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia, which is the reason why these two countries are highlighted. The development of ties with groups in Croatia, Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro has been more concrete only in the past year and a half.

 

The profile of people who attended our trainings, generally speaking, somewhat reflected the general mood in the countries they came from.

 

At the end of our last training, as we asked people to think about their vision for the coming five years, some people from Serbia almost broke out in tears, as they feel their future depends on the elections to be held on 24^th September 2000. Should Milosevic’s regime win the elections again, most people feel not to have the power to continue on the struggle for another four years.

 

Our role as an organisation that aims to support establishment of training structures in the region, in order to enhance development of civil society and building of true and durable peace, reflects in support to individuals and groups who are to be the pillars of this process. Awareness raising on issues of violence and injustice in the society and development of special skills like nonviolent communication and team work, goes along the way of empowering people for action and change. Opening up of perspectives for social and political action, pursued in a strategic manner is one of the goals of our work.

 

 

 

 

Future plans

 

 

Training for trainers

The Programme Training for Trainers II, will be finished by the end of October this year, fifteen new trainers will conclude the programme, with perspective of future cooperation in CNA related programmes and those arranged among themselves.

Another seria of follow-up meetings will be held throughout September and October and the last phase of the programme will be a training of at least 3 and at most 6 days  depending on additional funding. Funding of the CNA programme pursued in cooperation with Berghof Research Centre for Creative Conflict Management, is largely covered by German Ministry of Foreign Affairs,  with additional support by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

 

Basic Training

We will try to secure funds in order to implement another Basic Training in November-December this year.

 

Networking meeting

Networking meeting for trainers in nonviolent conflict transformation is planned for February next year, but we do not have secured funds for this at this stage. The meeting should be held in Sarajevo and last for 5 days, with an aim of experience exchange, networking and research of possibilities of future cooperation.

 

Exploratory trip in Macedonia

CNA is planning to do an exploratory trip in Macedonia, to gather more information on groups active there, their type of work, to pursue needs assessment, and explore  possibilities and criteria for opening an office similar to CNA Sarajevo in Macedonia.

 

Why Macedonia? We see the need for more concentrated work on the conflicts in Macedonia-Kosovo-Serbia-Montenegro. We experienced a great interest in our work from the groups that we already know in these regions, and that interest is raising. Unfortunately, due to the logistical difficulties, working from Sarajevo limits possibilities for widening contacts and including more people from Kosovo and Macedonia. Working from and in Macedonia would give us more possibilities for widening contacts, for including more people from these regions (for example it’s much easier for people from Kosovo to travel to Macedonia, than to BiH), but also to directly experience the situation there, which would give us a clearer picture of important issues that should be worked on.

 

Exploratory mission to Macedonia is a part of the CNA project in cooperation with Berghof, funded by German Foreign Ministry.

 

 

Introducing new volunteers

CNA is still looking for new volunteers. We are looking for one or two volunteers from the countries of former Yugoslavia and one volunteer from elsewhere.

We see the Training for Trainers programme as a possibility to find future volunteers from the countries of former Yugoslavia. Two people have already been approached about this and their respond is awaited.

 

 

Publishing the Training Manual

The Training Manual in Nonviolent Conflict Transformation in Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian language will be printed in September 2000. Currently it is being lectored and print preparation needs to be done after that. This Manual is the product of work over a period of almost two years and has been supported by the Berghof Stiftung from Berlin.

 

 

Personal words

by Nenad Vukosavljevic

I came to Sarajevo three years ago, supported by friends from Germany, in and around KURVE Wustrow, with an idea to try to do something to improve networking and possible development of trainings structures in Bosnia-Herzegovina and former Yugoslavia. After seven years of life in Germany I was happy to be in the country where my language is spoken, although sad that so many terrible things happened since I was here last.

I assumed that within at most three years I would go away from Bosnia, years that are already behind me. I feel to have done here together with my colleagues, more than I could have even dreamt of. I learned a lot, gained a lot and lost some of the thoughts and fears I came here with.

I thought often in the past year, that the time will come in September 2000 that I will have to sit and write my farewell letter, to whomever may care and for myself. It was not easy to think of leaving CNA and Sarajevo, it has been my whole life in the past years, a baby that grew faster and stronger than I expected. It is a good idea to go from the Sarajevo office, although this will not truly happen until sometimes next year. Although it feels strange, it is so good to know that this organisation remains in such good hands. I will probably go to Macedonia next year with Ivana, my friend and colleague that I lived and worked here in Sarajevo with and we will remain very close to the office and people who will work here in Sarajevo.

When I was greeting my colleagues last year who went to do a ten day training, for the first time a CNA training without me, I felt a bit anxious and strange, but somehow also very glad. That is the similar feeling that overwhelms me when I think of leaving Sarajevo. To be honest, there is also much of a feeling of pride to have built this, together with others.

I decided in the meantime not to go back to Germany to live there and although I miss many of my good friends there, this decision feels right to me. I still can not go back home to Belgrade, but another challenge is awaiting me in Macedonia. I expected lots of hostility against me as I came here to Sarajevo, being of Serbian origin, but it came much less than I thought. I expect hostility from Macedonian Albanians, but my experience with Albanians so far has been a nice one, although often a challenging one. The time will tell.

My greatest hopes are that 24^th September (elections in Yugoslavia) will initiate the greatest party in the Balkans and that I will be able to go home, see my friends and my town.

Cross your fingers for us.

 

 

 

Many thanks to all of those who are supporting the project of KURVE Wustrow – Centar za nenasilnu akciju, financially or through their engagement that made this project possible and helped to secure its implementation and all of those who are with us in their thoughts.

 

Special thanks to:

Heike Hammer

Franziska Guenther

Martina Fischer

Aktionsgemeinschaft Dienst für den Frieden – AGDF

Agency for Personal Service Overseas – APSO – Ireland

Auswärtiges Amt – German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Berghof Stiftung & Berghof Research Institute for Creative Conflict Management

CNA Support group Hamburg

Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft Vereinigte Kriegsgegner – DFG VK Bielefeld

Friedrich Ebert Stiftung

Internationale Ärzte zur Verhütung des Atomkrieges – IPPNW Deutschland

Know How Fund

Menschenrechtsreferat des Diakonischen Werkes

OSCE Democratisation office, Sarajevo

Quaker Peace and Service

Royal Norwegian Embassy – Sarajevo

Schueler Helfen Leben

Towae Stiftung

Westminster Fund for Democracy

 

********************************************************************************

CNA will very much welcome feedback, suggestions, questions and

criticism concerning this report and our general work.

Your thinking along helps us!

Thank you.

********************************************************************************

 

Adnan Hasanbegovic

Ivana Franovic

Nenad Vukosavljevic

For Centar za nenasilnu akciju

The Project office of KURVE Wustrow, Germany

 

in Sarajevo, 31st August, 2000

 

 

This report may be distributed freely with the acknowledgement of the source.

© CNA