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Description of the project "Center"
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"EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO HAVE A ROOF ABOVE
HEAD" |
SHORT PRESENTATION OF PROJECT «CENTER» Due to the loss of pre-war youth spaces (culture centers) and the non-satisfactory position of youth and NGOs in society, there is a need to start the initiative for return of youth spaces in the area of City of Mostar. At the moment, a big number of NGOs and different projects are active in the fields of culture and civil society. What is common to all of them is the similar problems they encounter in their work and the incertain future. Also, we can say that the problems the youth are facing and the needs they have, are the same, regardless of the imposed national and any other differences. Citizen Association MIFOC (Mostar Intercultural Festival Organizing Committee), in the work of which 7 organizations and the big number of volunteers take part, in the past three years acts in the field of culture and civil society, in the aim of affirmation of young population and more active participation in social changes.Aware of the growing problem of lack of space for cultural and other events, as well as for the work of organizations and individuals, MIFOC starts and opens to all interested the initiative for opening the unique, independent and pluridisciplinary center : Omladinski Kulturni Centar "Kosta Abrasevic".
O.K.C "Kosta Abrasevic" as : a factor of development of civil society and cultural scene The center will gather different non-Government organizations, projects and individuals, of progressive ideas and approaches, that want to actively take part in social changes and the creation of cultural scene. The center will rest on principles of cooperation, solidarity, humanity and universal human values and will represent the environment in which the youth will be able to create, think and realize thier ideas and build positions and reactions on the important social issues. The process of getting the center represents the social engagament in which the young citizens of Mostar, together with NGOs, demand from the city government toget back the youth space, in accordance with one of 12 requests of youth of Bosnia Herzegovina to their local authorities. We suggest that the center is situated in the premises of «RKUD Abrasevic», which were used before the war in the cultural and educational purposes, and is located on the former front line. The location of Abrasevic represents for us the symbolic foundation of social and cultural reconstruction. By its philosophy and physical position the center will be the important factor of urban, cultural and social change. By its philosophy it will guranatee the independence in its work and be freed of political, national and other prejudice, and by its physical position in the central zone equally accessible to all. Center as the infrastrucutre for the work of persons, projects and organizations in Mostar and the region. One of the biggest lacks in the city is the open space for work and creation. Most of the spaces for cultural activities is not accessible for non-affirmed artists and is under control of one organization, often closed for innovation or providing for only one target group. Mostar has always had creative potentials that need to be motivated to develop, provide them the space and material for work as well as education in the field of their interest. The center has the intention to provide space to all those that want to use their potentials or propose a group and/or individual initiative in the domain of independent culture and the issues of civil society. The space would be available for work to organizations, informal groups and individuals that are ready to share their knowledge, abilities and available resources. The center would provide office, working, selling, clubbing and performing spaces, workshops, ateliers as well as other spaces and tools depending on the expressed needs. By its openess and various offer the center would be the factor of motivation of young people to creative and educational work, development of working habits, overcoming the passivity and discovering and development of affinities of young people. Center as the alternative to life in the street and widespread café bar culture Shortly, leading problems of young people in the region are: unemployment and lack of perspective, as a consequence of war destruction and slow process of reconstruction; mental and physical isolation, as a consequence of national differences and life in mono-ethnic communities; passivity, especially in civic initiatives, as a defense mechanism; lack of interaction with different people, ideas, cultures, primarily due to lack of space and facilities provided for this purpose; lack of support and understanding of local Government; inappropriate educational system, often politicized and lack of non-formal education; lack of infrastructure for the realization of projects and ideas of young people. Due to all these problems, bigger and bigger number of young people is leaving the country, developing the passivity as a defense mechanism, and due to the loss of working habit young people spend their time in cafe bars and in the street where they easily get in contact with drugs, violence and crime.
Center as the prevention of collapse of non-Government sector in the regionA great number of NGOs and non-formal groups attempts in their own way to act towards the progress on certain issues, but meet the difficulties which slow down and sometimes make impossible their work. The most frequent obstacles are high administrative costs, lack of financial means for implementation of the project, donor fatigue in Bosnia Herzegovina, increase of rivalry inside of the third sector, insufficient number of active volunteers, slowness of local authorities due to the enormous bureaucratic apparatus and many parallelisms, and the loss of public spaces for cultural and other events. There is a number of smaller spaces used by the organizations, but their maintenance in the end needs a lot of money. Due to limited spatial capacities, the organizations are compelled to reduce the field of activity and consequently a smaller number of users. Frequent changes in the third sector and non-existence of official statistics, caused the chaos in the information flow, where the organizations are insufficiently informed and miss the opportunity for cooperation and common reactions. Individual organizations do not have the strength to present their opinions in the society and be taken seriously, especially due to lack of interest of media and rare media exposure. More and more NGOs collapse or hardly survives due to the lack of financial means and stagnation of projects, as the project workers spend a lot of time in searching the funds at the expense of the development of projects. Center as the sustainable project and acter in social and cultural life of the cityThe co-existence of NGOs and projects under one roof would significantly decrease the administrative costs of organizations and increase the efficiency and financial possibilities to sustain the project activities. By joint work on the fields of interest, the rivalry between the organizations and projects would be reduced. By common management and processes of administration and decision making we will develop better relationship between the users and organizations and potentiate responsibility and notion of democracy. Again, each organization and project would keep their independence and freedom of work. By joint positions, claims, reactions and actions about social issues, this center would have a stronger impact in the society. With one voice it would be more efficient in relations with city authorities. By organizing exchanges and cultural events, where the public will have the opportunity to see and meet different cultures, we would work on raising the level of cultural awareness, interaction and tolerance. By helping provide self-employment opportunities to young people through the development of offer of their products and services on the market, we could develop the sustainability of the center and help boost the self-confidence to young population. What is hapenning at the moment? The Provisional Initiative Coordination Board (P.I.K.O) has been founded by the agreement on the ethical principles of common work and will work until the materialization of the center. It consists of representatives of non government organizations UG.MIFOC, Alternativni Institut, Mladi Most, Altruist, Forma F, Suncana strana,Teatar SIRA, and informal group, Skart+Art, MODJs syndicate, . Youth Roma Association (OROM) has joined the initiative since. In the scope of this initiative, the Privisional Initiative Coordination Board will organize the campaign consisting of media campaign and different support events in order to get the support of citizens and relevant local and European institutions and popularize the claims and ideas of youth. We invite the non-Government organizations, non-formal groups and individuals to join the initiative and take part with their work, ideas, suggestions and support.
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