Kids from the former Yugoslavia gathered for a muti-ethnic camp designed to help minority groups overcome their sense of isolation.

Participating in informal activities intended to foster reconcilation and tolerance of other ethnic groups.

Rebuilding Social Bonds
Healing Hearts, Kosovo (former Yugoslavia area)

Healing Hearts Kosovo promotes reconciliation between different ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia, helping minority groups to overcome their sense of isolation. Their program focuses on projects for children and young people that are designed to involve them in their communities and rebuild social bonds destroyed through years of war and ethnic violence.

Healing Hearts Kosovo reports: "We participated in the annual UN-sponsored multi-ethnic camp that is held at a ski resort high in the mountains that border Kosovo and Macedonia. The young people attending, who ranged from 12 to 17 years of age, engaged in sports and other activities that were intended to foster reconciliation and tolerance of the other ethnic groups.

"During the last week of the camp, a group of VIPs from the UN, OSCE, and KFOR came to visit the project. They entered the activity room in the midst of our multi-ethnic group singing "The Prayer of St. Francis" which invokes us to become instruments of God's peace. It was a touching moment, the rendition delivered so wholeheartedly, that these high-ranking officials decided to stay longer and watch our 'Change the World' drama. This is a skit centering on changing the world, one person at a time.

"When the speeches were made later that day, one official mentioned repeatedly that their desire was for all the young people to 'go change the world' when the camp finished."

For more on this project click Healing Hearts.