In Mitrovica, where the division of the city is a big part of people’s lives, the topic of peace is often arduous.

The aim of the project that GAIA Kosovo implemented was to introduce the idea of peace among young people from both sides through workshops, one in the north side of the city and one in the south, followed by the screening of a short documentary about the topic of peace in both sides of the city.

The aim of these activities was to challenge the personal perception of the city’s inhabitants, its division and give them tools to deal with post-conflicts societies, as well as making them curious about meeting the youth from the other side of the bridge.

26 young participants coming from the municipalities of Mitrovica took part in the different events. It consisted of 2 main events:

• PEACE WORKSHOP: the SSD together with Nexhat Ismajli from the NGO Action for Non-violence and Peace (ANP), organized its first workshop on the thematic of understanding peace. During the day, participants shared their perceptions, discussed what peace meant to them, discussed the notion of peace, of conflict, and tried to find ways to resolve conflicts through activities, debates and role plays. They also had the chance to meet new people from their age interested in activism and civic engagement during breaks.

• SCREENING: the next day, the short documentary Mur/ Zid/ The Wall was screened at 7Arte, a local cultural organization. The event was open to everyone and around 20 people were gathered to watch this short movie about a divided school in Kosovo. Since not everyone agreed with the movie’s message, a constructive and interesting discussion took place between the participants who could all express their point of vue and react to each other’s comments.

Unfortunately, the workshop and the screening could not take place in the north of the city. The first one because of a lack of participants and the second because of the increasing number of Covid19 infections.