The project is born from the experiences and from the relationships created during the conflict that has involved former Yugoslavia in the years '90, and during the postwar period.

In the tragic period of the war AGESCI was engaged in the humanitarian help through the Project “Blue Gull” and in the service in the refugees camps in Slovenia and Croazia.

During one of the trips, in 1999, in the city of Sombor some scouts found the orphanage Miroslav Antic Mika. Following to this meeting they had the idea to propose to the clans a strong experience using the orphanage as a place in which doing the activities of animation.

The Project Sombor - Serbia was officially born in 2001; it involved immediately a large number of clans, and it organized its presence in the orphanage in four shifts, each of them lasting a week, in the period among the end of July and the end of August. In the first five years of life the Project didn’t undergo substantial changes of management and organization, because the efforts of the referents were tensed to give to it a stable order, to create links with the territory and with local institutions. In 2006, during the four turns, begins the attempt to involve children that don't live in the orphanage. In the afternoon the activity of the clans moves to the public gardens, with the purpose to let children of the orphanage and external children meet each other. The attempt therefore is to encourage meeting and to knock down commonplaces towards the guests. Activity is publicized on the radio and with an article in the daily paper of Sombor. In 2007, besides the normal activity with the guests, two summer formation courses start: they are promoted by AGESCI and financed by the Municipality of Dueville (VICENZA): one course is about computer science and one about English. The purpose is to widen the activity of AGESCI to an ampler perspective, for a long time, by giving some competences to the young people of Sombor (above all from 18 years old, however in working age) who are usually excluded by the formative and working circuits, in sight of a future industrialization of the area, which in part has already begun.

For 2008 it is scheduled a course of Italian; this idea comes up from the verification that some commercial and institutional links between Italy and Serbia already exist. In particular there are some contacts between Sombor and the Chamber of Commerce of Vicenza.

What has changed...

Since when the project has started its activity, we have seen many changes on different sides, and we believe that, at least in part, they are due to the assiduous presence of the AGESCI. As regards the structure the improvements are meaningful: the carpet of the rooms and the corridors has been removed, to leave place to a more hygienic parquet, some boilers for the heating of water have been bought and installed, the fixtures in the rooms of the guests have been changed. As regards the guests, the changes are more difficult to be seen, for different reasons: many of them change in a few time, and only few of them remain for years in the structure; furthermore our presence in Sombor is limited to no more than four weeks every year, and our observation must always be placed in a particular situation, the one of the game. Considering these limits, we can say that in some of the guests we have noticed more attention for the cleaning and in the aspects that concern the behaviour with others. The fact is that our presence cannot bring any absolute and stable change.