It is difficult to achieve a secure and prosperous future with the legacy of an unresolved conflict that keeps generating hatred, fear and uncertainty, still making us out to be each other’s enemies.

For ourselves, because we don’t want to live in a society of discrimination, violence and fear. Sometimes, we are disparagingly called idealists. We take it as a compliment. We believe in what we are doing and we believe in the people of this region, that they can do better and that they deserve better. In this, we believe we are working for the people living in the former Yugoslavia, including our children and their brighter future.

When we come up with what we want to do, we look for donors to support our activities. In the past few years, we’ve received the most support through cooperation projects with our sister organisation KURVE Wustrow, through the programme Civil Peace Service, of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). From 1997 to date, we have received support from a large number of donors in Western Europe and we have worked with numerous organisations from the region and beyond. There are also donors and governments whose donations we would never accept. At the same time, we are sorry that none of the governments from our region support us.

For peace building projects in the area of the former Yugoslavia. The UN has a target for the richest countries in the world to allocate 0.7% of their Gross National Income to international development. All EU Member States are mandated to provide for international assistance/development in their budgets. A more equally developed world will benefit everyone because it has been found to prevent crises that impact both poor and rich countries.

We do not accept anyone’s dictate, whoever they may be. There were attempts to get us to do things a certain way, but we decided not to establish cooperation in such cases.

We work according to our own programme, our own conscience and our own system of values.

When we design an activity we want to do, we look for those willing to support us. At the same time, we are open to criticism and suggestions about how to improve our work. We are open to feedback and we invite all those working with us to tell us what they think. We conduct periodic external evaluations of our work.

We are not a hierarchical organisation, so we don’t have “managers” or “bosses”. Members of the CNA team reach decisions by consensus. Of course, both of our offices meet the legal requirement of having an official representative.

Yes. It’s free. If you want to use our materials for your work, please cite us as the source and include a direct link to the content you are using.

You can and you should. Please follow the guidance included in the handbooks. We hope that you will use the methods in line with the principle of nonviolence. We would also appreciate you dropping us a line about how you used our handbooks and when, how you came to learn about them, any errors you noticed and any ideas you might have about further development.

We are not trying to build a formal membership. We cooperate with hundreds of people across the region, many of whom say they are our members, that we are part of the same community, but you don’t need a membership card for that. There are a number of ways that you can join our activities, and one is to participate in the peace education trainings we organise.

Write a story and click HERE

Think about why you want to and explain it in detail in your motivation letter when you see a call for applications for a training. If you want to be notified about calls for applications, please join our mailing list by clicking HERE

In principle, yes, but we are a small organisation and have limited capacities. We’ve had a lot of people intern with us for professional development or practical experience, but mostly by participating in one of our programmes.

We attend commemorations for all victims from the past war/s, we are not selective and do not give priority to some over others. We attend commemorations only when we are invited and supported by local associations of veterans, families of victims, representatives of local or regional authorities or other organisers of the commemorative events. It is not our aim to attract attention by creating a scandal or conflict. Our aim is to show solidarity and send a message of peace.

We mark all sites of wartime suffering that have been reliably identified as such. We do not select based on ethnicity and we are not trying to be “balanced”. For us, all victims are equally important.