Benefaction

XI SCHOOL OF FRIENDSHIP ORGANIZED BY “NAŠA SRBIJA” ON TARA MOUNTAIN
Based on identity
Serbian children came from eight countries in the region. They learned about Serbian history, culture, religion, ethics and customs via very interesting programs adjusted to their age. They socialized, played and practiced various sports. The presence of the children from besieged enclaves in the occupied southern province was the most significant

Second year in a row, boys and girls aged from 10 to 12 arrived at Tara Mountain from FYROM (Kućevište near Skopje, Stari Nagoričan and Kumanovo), Croatia (Bijelo Brdo and Vukovar), Montenegro (Andrijevica and Plužine), Hungary (Battonya and Budapest), Romania (Timisoar), Albania (Skadar), Slovenia (Ljubljana and Novo Mesto) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Drvar and Bosanski Grahov).
The event lasted from 10 to 25 July. “Naša Srbija” prepared specially designed programs, adjusted to their age, through which children were acquainted with concepts from Serbian tradition, religion, language, culture and customs in a manner comprehensible and interesting for them. The program is based on Serbian Code, an extraordinary book on elements of Serbian identity, published by “Naša Srbija” last year for that purpose. The authors of the book Serbian Code are Nenad Ilić, Anastasija – Vesna Ilić and Ivica Živković. For fifteen days, in interactive workshops, children have been learning about first Serbian state, initiations of Serbian literacy, folklore, old Serbian crafts, Serbian village, Patrons Saint days and Saints, monasteries, most significant historical persons and events, sights of modern Serbia and Serbian sports.
Program “Serbian Code” was initiated last year, at the tenth anniversary of the existence of “Naša Srbija”. The goal was to gather Serbian children form surrounding countries, and to enable them to learn together, to socialize and to play with peers from their motherland in workshops of educational and entertaining nature, to learn about national values and make friends of the same origin from the entire region. This also contributes to their maintaining general contact with their motherland.
– “Serbian Code” is a program by which “Naša Srbija” gives its contribution to the creation of a unique cultural and spiritual space of Serbian people from the region – says for National Review Mina Milićević, Director of “Naša Srbija”. – We are proud of it and of all our children from the region. This summer as well we have been sharing with them the best moments, remembering what we had in common and what we would always carry inside ourselves wherever we were - Serbian identity. Since its foundation, in its operations with children, “Naša Srbija” promotes the perseverance of true values, and especially national identity, language, religion, culture, customs and tradition. Simultaneously, it encourages children to love, respect and understand people of different nationalities and cultures.
Apart form educational workshops, during their stay on Tara Mountain, the attendees of the School of Friendship had the following creative workshops at their disposal: schools of ethnology, singing, painting, ecology, basketball, football, volleyball, tennis, as well as the school for scouts, which provided them with the possibility to get acquainted with the beauty of “Tara” National Park.

THREE ASPECTS OF PROGRAM

Being a psychosocial assistance program, the School of Friendship takes place every summer at “Beli bor” hotel of the Military Facility “Tara”, sponsored by “Banca Intesa”. Besides “Serbian Code”, this summer, the multiethnic seminar “Friendship Days” was a separate part of the program. Sponsored by the Government of AP Vojvodina, children from Serbia of the following nationalities participated: Hungarian, Romanian, Slovakian, Ruthenian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Bosnian and Serbian. The goal was the promotion of tolerance and multicultural values.
As a third part of the School of Friendship program, children beneficiaries of assistance programs of “Naša Srbija” and children from our enclaves in Kosovo and Metohija stayed on Tara Mountain. The stay was especially beneficial for them, because it was the only opportunity for them to reside in a normal friendly environment and to forget about daily worries, dangers and struggle for bare existence in the place they were born.
“Naša Srbija” organized the arrival of children from our south province in cooperation with its sister organization “Children’s Joy” from Gnjilane and its vice-president Zoran Maksimović, and the stay on Tara Mountain was sponsored by the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija. Children came from Kosovo-Pomoravlje district (municipalities Gnjilane, Novo Brdo, Kosovska Kamenica and Kosovska Vitina), from central Kosovo (municipalities Lipljan and Kosovo Polje), from Metohija (Istok and Orahovac). For the fist time, children from Srbica were the guests of the School of Friendship.
As always, prominent persons from public life who support operations of “Naša Srbija” socialized with the children, Tijana Tadić, the wife of Serbian President and Žarko Obradović, Minister of Education.

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Israel, a fellow country
Every year, School of Friendship has a fellow country, and it has been Israel this time. Owing to its Embassy in Belgrade, aided by companies form Israel that work in Serbia, Israel supported the realization of the program. In the School of Friendship, the Fellow Country Day was dedicated to Israel. The guests were: Boris Tadić, President of Serbia, Arthur Koll, Ambassador of Israel, Milorad Dodik, president of Republic of Srpska, Draginja Đurić, president of “Banca Intesa” Executive Board (general sponsor of the School of Friendship and “Naša Srbija” operations), Bishop of Lipljan Jovan, Milorad Pupovac, President of Serbian National Council, Desko Nikitović, Serbian Consul in Chicago, Srđan Milić, president of Montenegrin Socialist National Party, Srđan Đoković, father of the best tennis player in the world and many other friends of “Naša Srbija.”