ACTIVITIES of the Project:

PLACES, PEOPLE, ACTIVITIES

SOMBOR , a town of about 50.000 inhabitants in Vojvodina, in the Pannonian southern low plain. Placed near the Channel Dunav-Tisa, to the north west of Beograd from which is 167 kilometres far away. The bombardment of april 1999 destroyed the warehouses of Naftagas- Promet and Jugopetrol, damaged the railway junction, the river harbour and the communications with Novi Sad - Beograd. Nowadays there are not evident signs of the conflict and in the whole town there are massive works for its renewal which contributes in giving to Sombor the aspect of a mitteleuropean Town.

Dom “MIROSLAV ANTIC MIKA”: Orphanage. Till last year there were 80 children, boys and girls aged from 3 to 18 coming from the whole Serbia, orphans, left by their parents, sent from parents with economics difficulties, taken away from families with problems. At present it has been programmed to be restored and transformed into a protected house for the recovery of boys and girls in situation of social disease or who cannot take care of themselves. Orphanages, in Serbia, will gradually be closed and children will be put under the care of families. Scouts from AGESCI have been present at Mika Antic from 2002 and have been doing playing and recreational activities with children, boys and girls living in the institute, with an educational and pedagogical aim (education given through playing and informal exchange). They have been sharing with Serbian children everyday activities, from using the bathrooms to eating in the canteen. From 2006, experimentally, children not living in the orphanage were involved with the aim of integrating children from the orphanage with the ones living in the town. This was done in collaboration with the local administration. Considering the success of the experiment it will be continued in the future, and the experience will be enlarged and organized more closely with Sombor Municipality, the Province Social Services and also a local youth association.

ACTIVITIES 2008

a) As the previous years, activity at Mika Antić with the children - about fifty - who still live there. These activities are opened also to “external” children.

b) Backing activities and bustle at the training camp for guys with social problems, which will be organized by Mika Antić direction in Bački Monostor, place belonged to Sombor Municipality which is about 15km from the city.

c) Founding and activation of an Italian course and an IT one (Microsoft Office, Autocad and Internet) for older boys and girls living in the orphanage and in Sombor. Its aim is to give them vocational training. In collaboration with the local secondary school and with the patronage of Sombor Municipality and (we hope) of the Chamber of Commerce of Vicenza.

d) Meetings with the Leaders responsible of Serbian Scouts and with local scouts, through official channels of the AGESCI International sector

e) Activities of relationship and comparison with Youth Associations which act in Sombor. We will in case plan some activities together for summer 2008.

1°) Planning step: Planning phase started with the last December survey when there was a meeting with the Major and the Social alderman of Sombor, the Mika Antić Director and the President of Sombor High School. During this meeting, they were showed the general project in order to verify the concrete possibilities of realization. Agreements will be improved with a second detailed programme, which will be showed in May, containing the activities which will be realized during next summer camp. Program, educational aims and activities will be examined and agreed with the scout leaders who will attend the camp with theirs guys. This is a fundamental thing because each scout leader knows his guys and the way to involve them with suitable activities, both because directly involved in the project and in the planning, and because they should manage proficiently the summer camp. For each shift there will be an expert camp leader.

The role of Camp Leader is not restricted to coordination and organization of meetings with witnesses and with institutions but above all he is the person who:

- knows the project and its objectives;

- encourages guys, through their leaders, to achieve the goals;

- verifies with scout leaders how the experience is going on;

- intervenes with confidence when there are some problems without interfere with guys but having dialogues with the scout leaders;

- solves problems deciding promptly the right decision at the right moment;

- in everyone of the moments whose aim is guys growth, either activities or religious ceremonies, he is able to be a witness, participating in this way to a moment of comparison and dialogue with “the other one”.

2°) Training step: Granted that real training is living the experience at the summer camp, the training step will start with the adhesion at this camp till the day rovers will leave for Sombor. During this period the patrol responsible for this project will send them literature. A survey in Sombor is planned with scout leaders in order to visit the place and to make some contacts with people of Sombor. In May there is a training meeting when rovers are given all logistic information and information about the correct behaviour they must have during the experience. Rovers are asked to plan activities which should count a strict collaboration among all the participants in order to realize a unique main working line.

3°) Fase di intervento: At last it comes the moment to depart: the enthusiasm we had at the beginning now turns in concern; our doubts, until now just sleeping, now rise; the vision given by media about serbian people it’s shocking; we are going in unknown places ... Will it be dangerous? ... What will may happen? All this (we can grant) will vanish just few hours after our arrival there; experienced the local situation, gotten aware of the sufferance but nonetheless the reception and hospitality, this people offer a storm of emotions, feelings, incentives, ideas and questions that will invade our rovers, who, how we learned in precedent experiences, will be completely involved in actuating the project.

In questa fase quattro saranno gli strumenti utilizzati:

1) Meeting and comparing with single people and youth associations (scout and non-scout) living and operating in that area, with whom we are planning to organize activities for guys living in Sombor;

2) Playing: not just to play, but aimed to reach our final purpose;

3) Service: “pay attention to the other”; “to listen with 360° oriented antennas”; to share sufferance, int to promote expectations without creating false illusions, to reach and interiorize the sensitivity of sharing;

4) Meeting with significant witnesses: by listening testimonies compared with information from our media, we can get a point of view the most objective it is possible concerning facts. If possible to reach, by himself and without any conditioning, conclusion that no war may be justified when it is essentially synonym of death, sufferance, destruction and desolation ...

4°) Verification step: An experience like this must be verified and elaborated once rovers come back home, and possibly shared with their own local community and/or parish. It will be necessary to understand, also for the project continuance, how rovers have lived the experience and what they take-home: feelings, emotions, emerged sensitivities, sharing and future commitments; which kind of message rovers will witness to their community; how to engage against injustices… On this purpose a verification meeting is planned in the month of september/october for all the participants.