In May 2019 scout trainers from Western Balkan region participated in five day training “Bridging communities in the Balkan Region through Peace dialogue and Diversity and Inclusion project management”, that provided them tools to develop D&I activities in their NSOs and local communities.

To share their knowledge and skills participants from each country had the opportunity to develop projects on a local level that would improve the position of marginalised groups and make thier NSOs more inclusive and diverse.

Across imaginary barriers was one of the projects that was realised in November 2019 by Scout Group “Mladen Stojanovic” from Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina.  

The aim of the project was to involve more children from rural areas and diverse backgrounds into the work of Scout Group “Mladen Stojanović” from Prijedor.  Seizing the opportunity of the traditional scout competition "Kozara 2019" that took place from 15 - 17.11.2019. and gathered more than 300 scouts from the region, the school competition was also organised for all elementary and middle schools in the area of the city of Prijedor. More than children participated in the school competition where they had the opportunity to enjoy scouting activities, learn about their peers from different areas of the city and join the scout movement. After the event, one scout troop counting 20 scouts was established in the rural area of the city.

Adnan:

Project that we did was very inspiring and important, because we don't always think about children from rural areas. Providing them the possibility to join scouting activities and be part of the scout movement is something that we are really proud of. At the beginning we didn't know how to engage more children from rural areas to come to explore the scouting activities but then we reached out to schools in the area with open call for a competition and the response was really good. We had children from more than 10 different schools participating in a school competition that was organised alongside scout traditional competition. This was very interesting because children from rural areas could meet with scouts from different cities and countries in the region and learn that the scout movement is open for everybody and that we are all diverse but again have one thing that connects us all and that is scouting.

Marina:

Young people from rural areas don't have as much as possibilities as youngsters from urban areas. That is something that we as a scout group should change and give the children in our area the same opportunity when it comes to participating in scouting activities and being part of the Scout Movement. I work as a teacher in rural area and I am also troop leader for children in rural area and I think that with this project we have managed to make a small but significant change in the lives of these children. They don't have many activities organised for them a part from school activities and now as scout members they have a chance to travel almost every month to scout activities, meet with their peers from the city and travel to different cities for scout competitions and activities.