Ulcinj, 2 – 9 October 2026
The idea that originated at last year’s Training of Trainers, to organise a training specifically for students from the region in BCSM, has been implemented and completed at the start of October this year.
The organising of the training ran into some difficulties due to general elections being held in BiH during the training period and the parliamentary elections being announced in Serbia, which meant that the time of the training overlapped with the election campaign in which many students were taking part and which in Serbia entails uncertainty and the constant threat of violence from servants of the regime.
Our aim was to create space for encounters and exchanges between students from Serbia, BiH, Croatia, Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro. Ultimately, no applications were received from Kosovo, which is unsurprising given the language barrier, and participants from Montenegro unfortunately ended up cancelling.
In the past two years, the student protests and their transformation into a political movement have inspired activists around the world, and have especially won sympathies and solidarity in the region, the likes of which have not been seen for a long time. Without looking at everything through rose-tinted glasses, some actions by parts of the student movement with nationalist overtones have certainly lost them sympathies among their neighbours. The student movement runs through masses of people with different political leanings united around a struggle for democracy, freedom and justice.
We wanted to regionally expand the peacebuilding potential we recognised in the student movement by connecting interested students and offering them an opportunity to engage in dialogue about matters they do not agree on. Today or tomorrow, each in their own way, they will be taking part in the life of society, and the experience they bring from this training could constitute a turning point, because the potential of the training is precisely to get people to re-examine themselves, the societies they live in and the path they have chosen. Tomorrow, they will be the dam against those trying to manipulate with fear and sow animosity among peoples and countries, and a bridge for those who want to build peace.
The training included a dialogue workshop with three veterans whose testimonies were received very emotionally by the participants who had many questions for the veterans.
Without false humility, the statements of the participants confirm that the aim was achieved. They speak not only about their motivation to remain connected, but also to channel the awakened energy and agency into concrete actions that build peace, that ridicule violent narratives, that get people to re-examine their views and create space for dialogue with those who hold different opinions.
The training team was made up of four people from Croatia, North Macedonia and Serbia, one of whom is still a student and the remaining three were quite a bit older, generationally closer to the parents of the students, with their own memories of the time before the wars of the nineties: Dimitrije Glukčević, Iva Baraba, Luan Imeri and Nenad Vukosavljević.
The photo gallery can be viewed HERE