Association for Development of Children and Youth – Open Club Nis traditionally marked 9^thMay, Europe Day. For this occasion Open Club organized panel discussion and forum theatre play performance “Like mama said” at the cinema “Kupina” and Open Club activist implemented “Origami Workshop” with children with disabilities from institution “Mara” and SOSO “14^thOctober”. All three activities are part of the project “Youth Network for Inclusive Society” aimed at creating of inclusive society that cannot be built without inclusive education, supported by the EU Delegation in Republic of Serbia, within EIDHR programme.

At the panel discussion “Together we make progress”, panelists were: project coordinator Darko Ignjatovic from the Open Club, Ljiljana Radovanovic – Tosic, psychologist and Elementary School “Desanka Maksimovic” director, Aleksandra Brzakovic from the Board for Education of the city of Nis and Tatjana Simic, parent. At the beginning of the panel discussion two activists of the Open Club presented the results of the survey of attitudes of children from 30 elementary schools in Serbia  towards inclusive education and the acceptance of children with disabilities, Roma children, children living in poverty and other vulnerable children. The survey was conducted at the beginning of the project and survey results revealed that among children there is a great distance towards their peers who are being educated on inclusive principles, which means that greater attention must be paid to the preventive action in schools in order to enable better acceptance of inclusive education principles.

After the panel discussion, forum theatre play “Like mama said” was performed by the activists of Open Club. Topic of the forum theatre play was family resistance towards inclusive education in school, where their daughter is spending time with a friend who has physical disability. Forum theatre play performance directly showed prejudices towards children from the vulnerable groups, which are often leading to discrimination of these children. Forum theater play performance can be found and viewed on the official YouTube channel of the Open Club.

Joint making of origami figures was mutual satisfaction for children from institution “Mara” and SOSO “14^th October” and for Open Club youth activists. Besides the Open Club programme implemented for the Europe Day, in Balkan street in Nis numerous CSOs and Associations presented their promotional materials which are promoting European values, including one of the most important value, building of an inclusive society.

At the official YouTube channel of the Open Club you can watch video collage – Balkan street of European values.

More informations abut the project “Youth Network for inclusive society” can be found on this link.