Article about "Couch Surfing" in a local newspaper from Uzice

Around July 2010 I went to Uzice and I was hosted by a couch surfer, Vesna. An article was made about couch surfing and referd us (aslo in the picture):

http://www.4shared.com/photo/buXAIKTb/Vecernje_novosti_-_Couch_surfi.html

Bernadette Oliveira Martins - SVE em Vranje, Sérvia

This video was made by Angelo González, when he came to Vranje to spend one full month in order to shoot different things for future documentary movies.
This video is a short "interview" where I am presenting in a very general view, the city and some aspects of my life in Vranje in the period of my European Voluntary Service (EVS).
Don't make fun of me ;-)

(In PORTUGUESE language only, without subtitles)

Youth Parliament Resolution - "Empowering Vranje's city through culture"

The following 4 posts are the resolutions that the young participants from Vranje's Youth Parliament project, developed inside 4 different Committees with 4 different topics (read the post "summary of Vranje's Youth Parliament - under label "Projects") and adopted in the General Assembly by simple majority of votes.

Topic - "Empowering Vranje's city through culture"

The Youth Parliament in Vranje,

Ever since 1878 when the city of Vranje was liberated from the Turkish ruling, not much attention was paid to the development of the culture. Now, it’s time for something to be done in order to make a change.

Ÿ  Aware that the development of culture is not one of the main priorities of the local government(not being fully aware of the importance of culture, a very small amount of money is invested in this area and it’s not properly divided).

Ÿ  Observing that the majority of the citizens of Vranje does not recognize the great significance of the continuous cultural improvement.

Ÿ   Alarmed by the fact that he lack of cultural and artistic spaces in Vranje do not allow talented young people to express their imagination and creativity without any judgement.

Ÿ  Worried about the fact that cultural institutions, historical and archaeological sights have very small number of visitors due to a very bad advertisement. As a result of this situation they are not able to improve their offer.

Ÿ  Deeply regretting that the local media do not seem to give enough space to cultural events which take place in our town. Because of that people are not enough informed.

A. Expresses its hope to increase awareness towards the government about importance of culture at local and national level.

B. Calls for education of young people about local history and culture.

C. Encouraging young people to express themselves.

D. Draw attention to activate young people as volunteers in cultural events and organisations. Affirming culture with young people by organising « week of culture », an event where amateur artists can show their creativity.

E. Requests greater involvement of media in organising and promoting cultural events.

1. Strongly condemns further desecration of cultural heritage.

2. Encourages people to show their talent without fear of judgement.

3. Express it’s hope to find places which are available for organising cultural events.

4. Calls for a more active promotion of culture events in the local media.

5. Recommends to organise lectures on culture and history of Vranje in the local schools.

Youth Parliament Resolution - "Sexual Education and LGBT"

Topic - "Sexual education and LGBT"

The Youth Parliament in Vranje,

- after carefully considering the situation of sexual education in Serbia

- having regard to the current Serbian law on education

- having regard to the situation of the LGBT population

A. coming to the conclusion that the Serbian society and especially Vranje’s citizens have difficulty in expecting the fact that the LGBT community exists

B. observing that Serbian citizens are still not awake and are educated old-fashionably and that the citizens of Vranje do not presently want to coexist with the LGBT population

C. recognising that most of the homophobes are exactly resident gays and do not express their real opinion and situation because they feel endangered

D. underlining the fact that increasing sexual diseases is happening mostly because there is not enough education among young people

E. agreeing that adolescents behave irresponsibly towards sexual matters without thinking about the consequences

F. deeply concerned about the lack of information at home and at school about sexual education

G. believing that when a problem happens the young people are usually frightened of being rejected

H. worried about the fact that sex without protection of people being HIV positive can lead to infect innocent people and is worried to see that they often don’t care

I. alarmed by the fact that children prematurely consent to sexual intercourse

J. agreeing that the main aims as European Youth Representatives are to make LGBT a more accepted term in Vranje and in Serbia in general, and to inform young people about sexual education,

1. draws attention that Serbian youth should be informed that nowadays sex carries numerous diseases and that some of them are still incurable, such as AIDS

2. urges the Serbian government to introduce new and modern school programmes involving sexual education in order to raise alertness to the problems of abortion and sexually transmissible diseases among other problems

3. calls the Serbian government to add one hour class about sexual education in order to inform primary school children about sex and its possible negative side-effects

4. further recommends that these sexual education classes should include the LGBT issue

5. urges the Serbian government to bring laws that forbid any violent behaviour during meetings such as Gay Pride and which are made especially towards the LGBT population

6. requests from the local government of Vranje to support the organisation of lectures about the LGBT issue in a public building of the city, where people can come and learn more about the topic

Youth Parliament Resolution - "From Yugoslavia to the European Union"

Topic - From Yugoslavia to the EU

The Youth Parliament in Vranje,

- having regard to the Stabilization and Association Agreement signed between Serbia and the European Union,

- having regard to other treaties and documents signed between Serbia and the European Union,

A. fully believing that Serbian people are not informed very well about the European Union, and referring to the fact that Serbian people have a negative attitude about the European Union,

B. aware of the bad economic situation in Serbia, we are deeply disturbed with low life standard and unemployment in the country,

C. bearing in mind that corruption and organized crime is widely spread all over Serbia,

D. further noting that independence of Kosovo is one of the main problems of Serbia becoming a member of the European Union,

E. desiring help from the European Union in catching Ratko Mladic and better cooperation with the Hague and other European Union member states,

F. having considered that many young people are leaving Serbia due to the fact that conditions of living in Serbia are bad,

G. alarmed by environment pollution we are deeply concerned about Serbia’s environment in the near future,

1. urges the government of Serbia to work on education of people, to give them more information about the European Union, to promote positive things about the European Union, using television, newspapers, and other means,

2. requests from the European Union to invest more in Serbian economy, in tourist attractions and infrastructure,

3. calls for the government of Serbia and for the European Union to improve life standards to fight crime, to improve law in Serbia, and to make the law stricter,

4. encourages an open dialogue with Albanians about the issue of Kosovo, and calls the European Union to support that dialogue,

5. requests from the European Union to support Serbia to catch Ratko Mladic,

6. draws attention that Serbia needs more investment which will bring more jobs,

7. recommends the European Union to invest more in Serbian environment, especially in Vranje,

8. encourages the protomotion of Serbia in Europe, especially of Serbian culture,

9. further recommends to both local and central government to support people who want to open their own businesses. 

Youth Parliament Resolution - "Environment"

Topic - How to protect our environment?

“Earth is dearer than Gold”

The Youth Parliament in Vranje,

- deeply concerned that our planet is in big trouble, and fully aware that the most important problems are global warming, pollution, and the lack of resources,

-  conscious that air is damaged by cars and trucks fumes, and further noting that when fossil fuels, oil and gas are burned to provide the energy for lighting and cooking, they form polluting gases,

- believing that volcanic ashes, sand storms and evaporating substances are also air polluters,

- alarmed by water pollution, and noting with regret that the quantity of drinkable water is falling down day after day principally because of factories, oil spills and chemical waste,

- fully aware that fertile soil is mostly damaged by organic and phosphoric fertilizers, chemical waste from factories and sewing work,

- observing global warming, and keeping in mind that the temperature of Earth has been rising constantly since the middle of the 20^th Century, mostly as a result of various human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation,

- noting with deep concern the consequences of global warming such as the rise of sea level, the expansion of desert, and extreme weather events,

- further recalling that the human beings have fewer resources, and convinced that the resource depletion concerns farming, fishing and fossil fuels and are caused by manifold such as over-consumption and unnecessary use of resources, over-population, technological and industrial development, forestry, pollution and many others,

A. draws attention to the aims that the Youth Parliament wants to achieve,

B. deplores many life-threatening problems and insists on the fact that pollution affects over a billion people around the World,

C. raises the question: can the most vulnerable countries make a difference compared to wealthier countries which have sufficient mechanisms to fight against pollution?,

D. encourages people, and especially the young ones to get involved in educational programs and organizations about Environment,

E. further recommends them to raise funds and to promote the need to protect our environment,

F. calls for a broader sustainable solution or a goal that we should all try to achieve,

G. emphasises that the world’s rising energy needs involve a more frequent use of solar and wind power,

H. further invites to consider recycling as an environmentally beneficial way to reinforce and secure more investments, profits and new jobs,

I. urges people not to be self-absorbed and selfish and to be aware that the environmental problems are causing diseases, are killing other human beings and innocent animals that inhabit our lands,

J. affirms the need to promote awareness-raising activities, especially in school and faculties,

K. endorses people to start cherishing the precious scraps of Earth beneath beneath our own feet because it is something that is holy and unsurpassed,

1. invites the citizens, mostly the young generation, to write to the Government in order to provide financial means for improving education and public campaigns,

2. further recommends to save energy by

- printing both sides of paper,

- recycling,

- switching off household items when they are not in use,

- using of power-saving light-bulbs,

- developing alternative sources of energy such as wind, sun and water energies,

3. requests that stricter laws should be adopted, and further urges the community police and the judges to make them respected by more controls and punishments,

4. solemnly proposes the following solutions against pollution:

- using paper bags or re-using the plastic ones,

- using a bicycle or walking instead of driving a car for short trips whenever it is not possible to use public transportation,

- encouraging governments to control the number of trees that they cut down and supporting young people who are willing to plant trees.

Summary of Vranje's Youth Parliament - 18, 19, 20 November 2010

Reception at Gimnasia school, speech and division of the participants into their respective committees

During the General Assembly

Presenting the resolution on Sexual Education and LGBT population (GA)

The participants of the LGBT committee and me

Group picture (not all the participants are here)

Aleksandar and me

Defending the resolution and answering questions

Listening proposals and ideas

Presenting the resolution of the committee about Culture in Vranje

Ivica Mihajlovic, President of the General Assembly, and me

Debating and defending resolutions

General Assembly over, resolutions adopted: singing Bob Marley's song "get up, stand up"

Guillaume Macquaire with the participants of his committee about Culture in Vranje

Veronika Steklacova (chairing committee about Serbia and EU and some participants of the Youth Parliament

From left to right: Barbara Le Guennec (chairing the committee about environment), Ivica Mihajlovic (President), me and Guillaume Macquaire (chairing the committee about Vranje and culture)

One resolution

Presenting the resolution about environement

Defending ideas

The idea of implementing a Youth Parliament in Vranje was born in June 2010 when Barbara (EVS volunteer in Generator as well) and I discussed about the need of organising a project in the field of active and democratic participation in Vranje's community for young people.

The organisation of the project took a lot of energy and time, for several reasons: first the amount of young people we wanted to reach, meaning that our aim was to involve all high schools of Vranje and not only the 3 or 4 biggest ones. Second, the fact that reaching the schools' directors was not always very easy, mainly because of their busy schedules. Third, the moment when we started somehow to promote the idea was in the beginning of summer time, which is equal to vaccation so it was more difficult to contact the students representatives of the schools, the directors, teachers and even Generator's staff in some cases.

Finally, even if our initial idea was to create a Vranje's Youth Parliament independent from the European Youth Parliament we were conscious that we needed some support from people who are already used to organise similar activities. For this reason and for information purposes only, we contacted the European Youth Parliament representation in Serbia. After talking to them and presenting our project's ideas, they welcomed very openly our initiative and decided to support us in the implementation of the activities. In this respect the representative with whom we were in contact promissed to send the Committees chairs, one per committee, meaning 7 in total. Unfortunatly, at the very last moment the European Youth Parliament was obliged to remove their support because of an internal misunderstasnding inside the organisation and because of paralel activities which were their foremost priorities.

Without entering in too many details, my EVS colleagues and I had to readapt the configuration of the committees and to get ready to chair by ourselves the 4 remaining committees:

1- Environement

2- Sexual Education and LGBT

3- Empowering Vranje through culture

4- Serbia and its future integration in the EU

Briefly, Vranje's Youth Parliament was organised in the following way:

First day: Team Building activities


According to their degree of interest expressed in their applications, the participants were spread into their respective committees. Inside their committee, the responsible Chair organised team building activities in order to make the participants know and trust each other. At the end of these activities, mainly composed of games which were taken from the EYP, the particpants started to think individually about the subject of the committee, and to present their ideas to their colleagues.

Second day: Work in Committees


The second day was exclusively dedicated to drafting the resolutions. The participants had to agree about what was important for them about the thematic of their committees and to write down the final resolution to be presented during the General Assembly. The Chairs took the responsibilty to write by computer the final resolutions.

Third and last day: General Assembly


The objective of the General Assembly was to adopt the resolutions. Each committee had to present their resolution in front of the GA. A time for defending, and a time for debate and questions was organised before the voting process. The General Assembly was presided by Ivica Mihajlovic and assisted by the 3 Chairs which didn't belong to the committee presenting the resolution.

All the resolutions were adopted by simple majority, the one about LGBT having caused the most dynamic debate.
During the GA, one local journalist was present and made a quick interview to Barbara and me.

Follow-up f the Youth Parliament - Ideas 


The idea of the Youth Parliament was to provide young people of Vranje the opportunity to express themselves about topics of their interest and to make their voices heard at local level.
Our objective is to enable young people to meeting their local government representatives in a round table, where one or two representatives of each committee will defend and explain the importance of the resolutions they adopted.

This kind of round-table is extremely important because it allows the establishement of direct contact between an important part of the citizens - the young people - and their local government, and it proves the interest of the local government representatives towards the voice of young future or actual electors, fostering in this way participative democracy.

For more information about this project and the results, don't hesitate in asking your questions in the space given to comments.
You can also find the resolution folowing the link http://www.generator.org.rs/vest.php?crypt=XFYPA1ZTHwtWUl8EBFQMFlcGCVYSFw0JVFAGWDo3MzcwZGJhZQ%3D%3D