A one-month campaign organized by the Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO) on fostering youth cooperation in the Western Balkan region concluded on May 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The campaign \u201cYOUth Inspired by peace\u201d which aimed at bringing together youth from the region to raise the awareness and increase peacebuilding and reconciliation efforts among youth was realized in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and with the support of the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (UNPBF)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur energy is boosted by these kinds of projects and it brings in new spirit in RYCO,\u201d RYCO Secretary general Albert Hani said during a two-day conference on youth cooperation in Western Balkans which was held this month in Tirana, Albania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The project saw six schools in ethnically-mixed cities across the region illuminated in blue as a symbol of bridging the existing differences among young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The campaign also provided promotion activities through interviews with teachers, students and youth involved in the project activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would love to continue cooperating with my peers in the future because I learned a lot about their culture and without prejudices,\u201d Izabela Lako, a student from Albania who participated in RYCO project activities, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe only can reach peace by looking back at our past and using all these things that happened in order not to do them again,\u201d Tereza Vujosevic, a youth from Montenegro said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeace is important so Western Balkans can reach that wanted prosperity that can only be done by the constant presence of the inter-cultural dialogue,\u201d Irena Strejki\u0107, a teacher at \u201cSEPUGS Vasil Antevski \u2013 Dren\u201d school in Skopje, North Macedonia, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since March 2020, RYCO and UN partners have also been engaged with 24 school teachers from the region and developed tools for strengthening intercultural dialogue in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere remain outstanding issues to do with peace building, reconciliation, the use of hate speech across the Western Balkans, that an organisation such is RYCO and the work that it does in projects such is this can address,\u201d the UN Resident Coordinator in Albania, Fiona McCluney told the audience in Tirana conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The campaign \u201cYOUth Inspired by Peace\u201d is undertaken in the framework of the joint UN-RYCO project \u201cSupporting the Western Balkan\u2019s Collective Leadership on Reconciliation\u201d funded by the UN Peacebuilding Fund. It is implemented by the Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO) and the three UN Agencies \u2013 UNDP, UNFPA, and UNICEF. The project aims to build capacities and momentum for RYCO, empower young people in having their voice in public decision-making that affects their lives, as well as strengthen them to be a factor in building and maintaining safe and peaceful environments for themselves and their communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n