A two-day work meeting “Accreditation of the Y program – Youth – Innovative Approaches to Preventing Gender-based Violence and Promoting Healthy Lifestyles for Young Men and Girls – Next Steps” was organized by CARE International Balkan together with partner organizations Youth Power from Mostar, Association XY from Sarajevo and the Institute for Youth and Community Development “Perpetuum Mobile” Banja Luka, which took place in Sarajevo from October 17 to October 18, 2019.
This work meeting was organized with representatives of Ministries of Education and youth work, Pedagogical Institutes, Secondary Schools, partner NGOs and governmental organizations. This meeting was part of the YMI – Young Men Initiative project: “Promoting Healthier Lifestyle among Young People in Bosnia and Herzegovina by challenging gender stereotypes II “, and another project” Men and Boys as Partners in Promoting Gender Equality and Prevention of Extremism and Violence among Young People in the Balkans “supported by the Governments of Switzerland, the OAK Foundation, the Austrian Development Agency and CARE International Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Barbara Dätwyler Scheuer, Director of Cooperation at the Swiss Embassy in BiH, who donated € 1.3 million to these initiatives, addressed the attendees with a strong message: “
“I am strongly convinced that society can only prosper if women and men, boys and girls are treated equally and with mutual respect. The participants in the Y program have not only changed their perceptions, they have become open and positive members of society, ”said Dätwyler Scheuer.
Assistant of Minister for Secondary Education and Adult Education at the Sarajevo Canton Ministry of Education, Science and Youth Lamija Husić said they were attending this work meeting to discuss the positive aspects and difficulties of implementing Program Y, which has recently been accredited in Sarajevo Canton and is currently is implemented in two schools.
Participants discussed about the needs and opportunities, as well as the obstacles, when they talk about making Program Y as a compulsory part of the high school curriculum as part of the classroom community lessons, focusing primarily on the examples and experiences of those who were among the first to accredit the high school program, and these are representatives of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton and the Bosnia-Podrinje Canton.
“The interest of educational institutions for Program Y is really pleasing to us, but more importantly, young people also share the view that education about healthy lifestyles and life skills should be part of the educational process,” said Sumka Bučan, CARE director.
The aim of the two-day work meeting was to exchange best practice examples of how our Program Y was introduced as a compulsory part of the curriculum as part of a community class lesson, becoming an integral part of the curriculum for high schools in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton and Bosnia -Podrinje Canton in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This work meeting or forum gave us the opportunity to explore together a number of options on how this valuable example can be applied in other parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.