LUGGAGE FOR THE FUTURE

Luggage for the future: mine, yours, ours

This project, Luggage for the future: mine, yours, ours – promotion of interethnicity and interculturalism as the richness of Serbia, was focused on mobilising local communities, especially the youth and representatives of cultural and educational institutions from both multiethnic and monoethnic communities in Serbia to learn about and respect the richness of interethnicity and interculturalism, promoting them as a valuable resource for development of society.

The project was realised in Subotica, Bela Crkva, Dimitrovgrad, Kragujevac, Vranje and Belgrade, through the following activities:

- Forming the teams in 5 towns in Serbia, each one consisting of 15 high school students and 5 adults working in cultural and educational institutions, for the promotion of interculturalism and interethnicity as the richness of Serbia;

- Organising 3 meetings and 5 instructive seminars for 5 teams for planning the campaign for the promotion of interculturalism and interethnicity;

- Organising the campaign Luggage for the future: mine, yours, ours for the promotion of interculturalism and interethnicity in 5 towns in Serbia through the following processes:

- Gathering and creating promo material based on local values and with the support of citizens and famous person through the method of researching the everyday life history. The teams asked their co-citizens to bring the "material" from their families and neighbours to the cultural institutions, the material showing that other ethnic communities have brought something beautiful, new and useful to the community. The symbol of this campaign was a suitcase, as something in which a person carries precious and necessary things, bringing the "spirit of his/her culture" to a new community. The co-citizens were asked to fill two suitcases: one with the things that are typical for their town and culture - "what are my specific cultural features"- and the other with the things others have brought and enriched the life of the community ("how others have enriched me").

- Realising the campaign in 5 towns through the Intercultural Caravan, a symbol of Balkan migrations and a constant intermingling of cultures. Each 5 teams will present their campaigns and their two suitcases in other towns of the project and will host team representatives from other 4 towns, which will also bring their two suitcases.

- Organising a joint exhibition and press conference in Belgrade, where the methods and results of the campaign were presented to the representatives of national authorities and institutions, as well as international and local nongovernmental organisations.

The developed method for the promotion of interculturalism and interethnicity will multiply in other geographic regions as well.