Art connected; Vukovar-Ottersberg 26.07.-03.09.2004
Cooperation between Ottersberg and Vukovar is continuing.

And this summer group of students from Ottersberg's art school managed to collect funds to visit YPG " Danube " in Vukovar to realize art-workshops for kids.
During six weeks, students realized several art-workshops in house of YPD " Danube " and playgrounds in Vukovar.
And this time art-camp was real success. Children showed great interest so members of YPG " Danube " and students from Ottersberg hade a lot of work.
After this six weeks, in centre of town, was held a exhibition of children ' s and YPG" Danube " members paintings . During the exhibition, children have hade once more a chance to paint and have fun in center of town.
At the end everybody expressed a wish to continue cooperation. We hope to collect donations for visiting art school in Ottersberg in April 2005.
We would like to thank the School from Ottersberg for cooperation and Shanty, Katja and Lisa for great effort they put to realize this camp successfully.

Hope to see you in the future.

Workcamp - Renovation of the Youth House 01. - 15.06.2004

In this summer is organized workcamp in cooperation with VCZ. Volunteers from Balkan have been in YPG"Danube" for two weeks during vich they have been working on renovation of one part of the house.

Bisade working part, members of VCZ have organized few lectures for participants and members of YPG" Danube ", on topics such as, public presentation and tolerance.

CAMP EXPRESSION: 15. - 22.04.2003

This workshop involved 14 participants from 19 to 24 years old including 3 from Volunteer Centre-Zagreb, 3 creative youth from Novi Sad and 3 volunteers from YPGD.
The workshops took place in Adica Park, Vukovar, and the activities included:
- learning about art and culture.
- mutual education and learning.
- meeting members of different countries and learning about each other.
- preparing photo exhibitions to facilitate mutual understanding and reconciliation.

This day was organized to promote intercultural dialogue and volunteerism among the youth in Vukovar. The activities on the day included distributing brochures about SEEYN, YPGD and volunteerism and speaking to people in the town about volunteerism. In the evening bands from the Balkan region played to around 300 people at a concert in Vukovar.

The bands which played were Voodoo Cadillac (Brčko), The Knuckleheads (Vincovci), ALT-F4 (Vukovar), Dinar (Borovo Naselje), Nomadi (Osijek) and Bregma (Osijek)

This work camp involved 16 participants (8 from Niš and 8 from Vukovar) selected for their interest and experience in theatre, art, intercultural learning and improving partnership between our organizations. The age ranged from 18 to 25 years.

The workshops took place in the work-room of the PRONI-Institute. Through the theatre workshops the participants developed their knowledge and skills about alternative theatre, forum theatre and alternative expression (through art, painting, drawing, dancing and games)

In seven days of training the course provided education for members of Youth Peace Group Danube and The Association of youth UNO on topics including intercultural learning, non formal education, me as trainer, prejudices, team building, individual learning, borders, ethnic groups, NGO-s, local community, project proposals, management and budgeting.

ART CONNECTED
Ottersberg, Germany, 7th - 14th January 2004

In January eight members of YPGD together with five members of Volunteers centre Zagreb (VCZ) were invited to participate in a week long art and theatre workshop with students from Ottersberg School of Art. The workshop was organised by Srđan Novacović and Darko ? from YPGD and Jana ?, Nelly ? and Karen ? from Ottersberg (who had spent six weeks at YPGD the previous Summer to carry out some youth art workshops).

Two programmes were carried out; the first involved making masks and creating improvised mimes with them. The second involved creating sculptures from stone blocks. At the end of the week students and teachers from the art school were invited to view the art work, to watch our mask performances and to have a party for everyone to meet and have fun.

The week was a great success and at the end of the week it was decided that we would plan another similar workshop in Croatia this Summer, which would involve students from Ottersberg, members of YPGD and VCZ and children from Zagreb. Plans are also being made for two volunteers from Ottersberg to come to YPGD in the Summer and carry out more art workshops with local youth from Vukovar

ANTI WAR IN IRAQ MARCH: 15,02,2003

In collaboration with similar protests in Osijek and Vinkovci, members and friends of YPGD took to the streets of Vukovar with plackards and banners to show their support for the anti war movement.

KIDS UNITED IN VUKOVAR:
In co-operation with Vimio.

Through creative workshops coordinators from YPGD and Vimio taught local children (between the ages of 6 and 10 years) German English and basic computing.

OUTREACH

During the project we had five festivals:
- Summer Festival Outreach 1997, held in Branja and involving volunteers playing creative and musical games with local children
- The Days Of 1997, held in Vukovar from 27th September to 1st October 1997 involved lots of cultural, creative and educational activities with about 1000 participants from across the former Yugoslavia, including representatives of international organisation located in the UNTAES region. Within the festival we had the following activities: theatre, roll play, Funny Olympic Games, discussion about the influence of media on development of society and there was our representation of one movie.
- Autumn Festival 1997, held in Vukovar on 29-30th November 1997. During the festival we had different workshops, which were about autumn and nature, games that developed tolerance and co-operation and a roll play in which children participated.
- Winter Festival 1997, held in Vukovar on 27th Decem,ber 1997
- Spring Festival 1998, held in Vukovar on 5th may 1998. Within the festival we had different sport activities and creative activities for children and on the end Funny Olympic games. There were about 60 boys and girls participating.

This project consists of 4 festivals (phases) which will be held every three months.
First phase: "Outreach Winter Festival" consists of open theatre and role-play for young people.
Second phase: "Spring Flower festival" consists of the concert by three local bands, for young people.
Third phase: "Outreach Summer Festival" consists of different games such as Funny Olympic games for children.
Fourth phase: "Outreach Autumn Festival" consists of different games for children.

LOOK BACK, STEP FORWARD CONFERENCE:
Vukovar, 2nd-5th january 2003, Conference of former and present volunteers of the Youth Peace Group Danube from Croatia, Austria. Etc.

The aim of the conference was to re-create connections between former volunteers of YPGD to eventually form a support group of former volunteers in different countries which supports the work of YPGD. The conference also aimed to give motivation and support to the volunteers currently working in YPGD, develop ideas for further cooperation, activities, etc and deal creatively with personal experiences from peoples time at YPGD (through, photos, painting, videos, writing, etc).
The experiences shared at the conference are being collected into a video and book made by one of the past Austrian volunteers, Vincent.
Parts of the book can be viewed at: http://www.ypgd.org/book/

SUMMER EDUCATIONAL-WORKING CAMP 'VURBANICA':
20th June-3rd July 2003 involving 15 international volunteers.

This work camp focussed on the building of staklenik which will be used for children's education and fun in future. Work was organized by a professional building company and carried out by the volunteers who worked six hours per day, four days per week. At the same time part of the camp was dedicated to theater workshops, which promoted and improved interethnic and intercultural understanding between the young participants coming from different backgrounds.