We came to Kru\u0161evo for peacebuilding. We spent a restless ten days there. We didn\u2019t stop even during the breaks. Nights of craziness, days filled with talking, the time in between was a purgatory of thoughts. Thoughts of life, so full of savagery and violence, sorrow and pain. How hard it is to change the communities we come from. All of our broken Balkans. It was such a contrast to the place where we were staying. Kru\u0161evo was truly a small oasis of peace. Life there had gotten suspended in past times, more modest and humane. The times we all pine for in this modern age of war when instead of flowers we get nationalism infused graffiti sprouting everywhere, a punch in the face, poverty, words too obscene to mention, nepotism and corruption. The war didn\u2019t stop some 30 years ago, it just changed shape. Still, we live in more peaceful times. Shells no longer raining over the heads of people in the Balkans. That is now happening to my friend in Gaza. It\u2019s hard to be grateful for peace as long as we\u2019re just lucky to be alive. I have no illusions, this is not life. You can always go somewhere else. \u201cIf you don\u2019t like it, you can leave the country.\u201d Yes, it\u2019s hard to change the communities we come from… but it can and must be done. It\u2019s not a choice. Why do I have to leave my home, my friends and family, exchange the country I know for some foreign land if I want a well-paid job? If I want to be able to start a family one day? Buy a house? Even an apartment? Why would someone laugh in my face to hear that quite ordinary aim of mine? If all of that is unattainable, I\u2019ll remain a dreamer. An idealist. They tell me, \u2018You\u2019re crazy\u2019. I\u2019ll be crazy. Crazy to believe it could be better. Not settling for being a passive pawn of politicians getting rich off the silence of citizens, crazy for refusing to tolerate what I don\u2019t like, for refusing what everyone thinks I should bear, for not running away and not leaving the country, its young people and children to continue declining under the pressures of greedy men in power. I want a Croatia without fear. A Croatia of culture, honesty and opportunity. A country that is not slowly dying of disease, old age, graft and the passivity of disillusioned masses left out to dry by authorities that only deign to show their faces on television. I don\u2019t want to run to Germany, or Austria, or America, as lovely as they are, because when everyone who can use their head runs away, nothing will be left. And we can\u2019t run forever. I refuse to wait! If it\u2019s not perfect anywhere, then I\u2019d rather turn and face life where I am, fix what I can, help where I can. The training strengthened me, and the people with me. Now I\u2019m strong. Now I know how.<\/p>\n
Kind regards from all of us,<\/p>\n
Generation Change<\/p>\n
The experience includes excellent professional leadership, diverse and good company, and a host of valuable skills for working with people and on your personal development. This training set high expectations \u2013 and exceeded all of them. I can honestly say that it has made me a better and more professional person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Now I\u2019m strong. Now I know how.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":240954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2678],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-experiences-of-cna-trainees"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241640"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241677,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241640\/revisions\/241677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}