Read more about our activities this month:

Educational Programs and Visits

Throughout June, we welcomed educational groups and visitors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Serbia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Germany, the United States, Switzerland, Canada, and Czechia.

These visits continue to provide opportunities for dialogue about children’s experiences of war, memory, and the importance of preserving personal testimonies across generations and national borders.

Awards and International Recognition

In June, the War Childhood Museum received the regional “Jelena Šantić – Brave Steps Forward” Award for its “Furaj mir” (“Live Peace”) program. The award was presented at the Museum of the Nineties in Belgrade, Serbia, by the Jelena Šantić Foundation, which recognizes artistic and social initiatives that promote peace, tolerance, understanding, and solidarity. Presented every two years in memory of one of the region’s most prominent peace activists, the award represents an important recognition of the Museum’s long-term work empowering young people to build peace in their communities.

Conferences and International Events

From 4–6 June, members of the War Childhood Museum Ukraine team participated in the fourth annual symposium “The Most Documented War: Polyphony of Narratives,” which brought together documentation and archival initiatives from across Ukraine and beyond. Project Manager Renata Chechel and researchers Viktoriia Nesterenko, Oleksandra Domorosla, and Svitlana Telukha joined colleagues to exchange experiences, discuss new documentation projects, and strengthen international cooperation.

The Museum also presented We Grew Up in War at the POINT Conference, the region’s largest conference dedicated to political accountability, civil society, and new technologies. The presentation introduced conference participants to the game’s innovative approach to digital storytelling and its potential to foster empathy through interactive experiences. Take a look here. 

Our Director for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Amina Krvavac, participated in the European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) Conference and Awards Ceremony 2026 in Bilbao, Spain, in her role as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the European Museum Forum (EMF). The conference brought together museum professionals, nominee museums, former award recipients, and partners from across Europe to celebrate innovation, excellence, and the transformative role of museums in society. The War Childhood Museum is proud to be part of the EMYA community as the recipient of the 2018 European Museum of the Year Award.

Exhibitions and Youth-Led Initiatives

In June, the War Childhood Museum participated in the exhibition Interrupted Childhood at the library of Rondine Cittadella della Pace in Italy as part of YouTopic Fest 2026. Developed in collaboration with Rondine International Peace Lab, the exhibition brought together personal objects, testimonies, and stories from people who experienced war, alongside contributions from participants in Rondine’s international peace education programs. 

In June, we also featured Handle With Care, an international travelling exhibition developed as part of the Creative Europe-funded TexTALES project. The exhibition explores migration, identity, and belonging through fashion and personal stories and was shaped through a mentorship process facilitated by the War Childhood Museum.

Through the “Furaj mir” (“Live Peace”) program, young people continued to create community-based exhibitions exploring peace, identity, and belonging.

In Zenica, participants from Zenica and Foča opened the exhibition “Friendship Knows No Borders,” presenting the results of months of collaboration exploring what connects people despite distance, differences, and divisions.

In Sarajevo, young people from Sarajevo and East Sarajevo presented the exhibition “What If the Border Is Within You?”, examining how administrative divisions shape everyday life while highlighting the ways young people overcome them through cooperation and shared experiences.

The month concluded with the final gathering of the Furaj mir program in Konjic, where participants reunited to celebrate a year and a half of learning, research, travel, creative work, and friendships built across communities.

Public Engagement and Awareness

June also provided opportunities to connect the Museum’s collection with important international conversations.

To mark the first-ever United Nations Peacebuilding Week, we shared reflections from participants in PEACESTORY, a project supported by the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, highlighting how personal storytelling contributes to peacebuilding processes. You can take a look here and here. 

On World Refugee Day, we drew attention to children’s experiences of displacement by sharing a story from the Museum’s collection, reminding audiences that for millions of children around the world, leaving home is not a choice but a consequence of war and violence.

As the world followed the FIFA Club World Cup, we also shared a story from our collection exploring what football meant to one child before—and during—war, illustrating how everyday childhood passions persist even in times of conflict.

Media Mentions

The War Childhood Museum continued to receive attention in regional media throughout June. Below is a selection of coverage from the past month:

• War Childhood Museum Receives Regional Award for the “Furaj mir” Program (BOSNIAN)
• Handle With Care: International Travelling Exhibition on Migration, Identity, and Belonging (BOSNIAN)

Today, almost 90 years after the war began, these testimonies are becoming increasingly rare. Through interviews, research, exhibitions, and public programs, the Museum helps ensure that these stories remain part of public memory and contribute to broader conversations about children’s war experiences.

Collecting Stories Nearly 90 Years Ago

Working with witnesses to World War II is increasingly challenging, as the number of living witnesses dwindles each year. War Childhood Museum Ukraine currently has 59 stories related to World War II in its collection.

“We want to preserve the childhood experiences of people who survived World War II, because there are very few witnesses left. From our archive, we learned that even after more than 80 years, for many respondents this is still the first time they have spoken publicly about their childhood during the war,” says Svitlana Osipchuk, WCM Ukraine Program Director.

These interviews are not only a way to preserve individual memories, but also an opportunity to better understand how children experienced the war beyond the confines of military events and official narratives. “Oral testimonies allow us to communicate with people who never intended to document their memories, never kept diaries or wrote memoirs. While it is still possible to interview living witnesses, it is important to do so in a way that the picture we reconstruct through testimonies becomes more complete,” explains researcher Oleksandra Domorosla.

Between Memory and History

Working with these stories requires researchers to consider not only what happened, but also how people remember, interpret and give meaning to events many decades later.

“We collect oral testimonies not just to verify historical facts. We record them to understand how people themselves processed their experiences throughout their lives. When we tell our stories, we create a narrative that helps us understand what happened to us,” says Osipchuk.

These testimonies complement archival documents and official records, drawing attention to experiences that are often absent from institutional collections. They provide insights into everyday life during the war and illuminate aspects of childhood that have historically received little attention.

“Testimonies help researchers go beyond what can be found in archives and official records. They reveal everyday experiences, survival strategies, and aspects of childhood that have often been ignored or excluded from dominant narratives about the war,” says Domorosla.

Sharing stories with the public

Collecting stories is only one part of WCM Ukraine’s work. The team is also exploring ways to present these experiences through exhibitions, educational events, and public programs that make personal stories accessible to a wider audience.

“One of every museum’s functions is to provide a broader perspective on events and experiences. Exhibitions and public programs help to place individual stories in a broader historical context, while ensuring the visibility of children’s experiences,” says Osipchuk.

In 2025, the exhibition “War Childhood: Experiences of World War II” was held in Lviv, in which the Museum team demonstrated how personal testimonies and objects can help visitors get acquainted with the experiences of children who survived World War II. By bringing individual stories into public spaces, the Museum creates opportunities for dialogue between generations and encourages reflection on how war shapes childhood, both in the past and today.

“By telling stories about childhood during World War II, we not only acknowledge this experience, but also observe its long-term impact on our identity and memory. This evidence is valuable material for understanding both the past and the present,” adds Domorosla.

Testimonies from World War II occupy a special place in the War Childhood Museum Ukraine’s collection. While they document a conflict that ended almost 80 years ago, they also offer valuable perspectives on the long-term impact of war on children’s lives and on how society remembers and interprets a traumatic past.

“Wars end, but the experience of growing up during war stays with people for the rest of their lives,” says Domorosła. “The emotions described by witnesses of World War II often resonate with the experiences of children experiencing war today.”

As opportunities to communicate with witnesses become increasingly rare, the work of collecting, preserving, and developing these stories becomes essential. Through this work, the Museum helps to bring children’s experiences to light and use them as a source for understanding the present.

“The preservation of this historical perspective is extremely important. “Museums help society see itself through time, connecting past and present experiences, rather than allowing them to disappear from public memory,” emphasizes Osipchuk.

Around the Lamp

In the early mornings, they would gather together to embroider. The whole corner was bustling with young girls. Some embroidered pillowcases, some towels for themselves. They also used to spin. They would sit around the lamp and embroider.

The boys would come and stir up some mischief. They didn’t embroider; they would come from the hamlet to court the girls.

Many used to gather. I didn’t participate, I didn’t do embroidery. How old was I then? This was my older sister. 

Hanna, b. 1938 

Vaskivtsi, Chernihiv region

As coordinator of the Bosnia and Herzegovina part in a research cluster within the SCVN project, the War Childhood Museum facilitated the collaboration, moderating the conversations between Furmark and Salihović, a contributor to the Museum’s collection, while helping ensure that the survivor’s voice remained at the center of the creative process.

This article explores how that collaboration took shape, and what it meant for both the survivor who shared her story and the artist entrusted with bringing it to the page.

Keeping the Story Authentic

For Almasa Salihović, taking part in the project meant accepting the emotional difficulty of revisiting the past in order to ensure that her experience would be preserved and understood.

“Returning to those memories is never simple. Every conversation means reliving moments that you spend a lifetime learning to carry. But I have always believed that it is more important to speak than to remain silent, because testimony has the power to preserve the truth.”

Rather than focusing solely on violence and loss, Salihović wanted the graphic novel to preserve the people, relationships, and everyday life that existed before the genocide.

“The most important thing to me was that the story remained authentic—that it spoke not only about my family’s tragedy and our loss, but also about my brother as I remember him, about our dignity as survivors, and about our strength to keep going despite everything. I wanted people, as they turned the pages of the graphic novel, to understand and imagine that behind every number is a person’s life; that behind every face is an individual, a family, and dreams that were never realized because they were cut short.”

For Salihović, the project also demonstrates the unique role art can play alongside historical documentation, helping readers connect with individual experiences on an emotional level.

“Historical facts are unquestionable and they are the foundation of our understanding of the past. But a graphic novel can help people feel the human dimension of those events. It allows us to empathize through shared moments.”

She believes this emotional connection is particularly important for younger generations, who may encounter the history of Srebrenica for the first time through formats such as graphic novels.

“I believe that younger generations, in particular, can more easily connect with the story through this format, ask questions, and develop empathy. If art can inspire someone to learn more about Srebrenica and understand why it is important to preserve the truth, then I will be even prouder to have been part of this project.”

Drawing Another Person’s Memory

For Anneli Furmark, illustrating As Long As We Are Together meant navigating the delicate balance between imagination and responsibility.

Translating lived experience into a visual narrative meant confronting the limits of personal experience. While Salihović’s testimony guided every page, Furmark also had to consider how an artist depicts emotions and situations she has never experienced firsthand.

“When you draw, you inevitably draw your own embodied memories of emotions like loss, fear, and exhaustion. My own experiences are present in the drawings too, while the experiences I haven’t had myself—extreme hunger, for example—I’ve had to imagine as best I could.”

She believes graphic novels possess a unique ability to communicate across both words and images.

“Graphic novels can reach you through more than one sense. I sometimes think of them as being like a song: the lyrics are one thing, the music another, but together they create something third. Something with a greater chance of breaking through your psychological defenses.”

That combination of text and image, she suggests, can create an emotional openness that allows readers to engage with difficult histories in ways that conventional formats sometimes cannot.

A Collaboration That Changes Everyone Involved

The creative process became an exchange that affected both collaborators. While Salihović entrusted Furmark with her memories, Furmark left the project with a different understanding of war and its lasting impact.

“Meeting Almasa and the other people I met in Bosnia has been very meaningful to me. I’ve come to know people with first-hand experience of war. My mother is one of them too, but the distance in time has made her story feel more abstract to me. Now it has become much more real.”

The collaboration demonstrates what survivor-centered storytelling can make possible when survivors remain active participants in how their own stories are told. Rather than treating testimony simply as source material, the creative process became an ongoing dialogue about memory, representation, and responsibility.

For the War Childhood Museum, this approach reflects a broader commitment to preserving childhood memories of war in ways that remain faithful to lived experience while making them accessible to new audiences. As the graphic novel reaches readers across different countries and languages, it carries with it not only one survivor’s memories, but also an invitation to reflect on the importance of remembrance, empathy, and the responsibility each generation bears in safeguarding human dignity.

As Salihović puts it, remembrance is never only about the past.

“Memory is never completely turned toward the past. It always contains lessons—and a glimpse of the future. Young people need to understand that they, too, have a responsibility to defend a future that is more just, more peaceful, and more humane.”

This question lies at the heart of Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives (SCVN), an international research and artistic collaboration that documents the experiences of survivors of genocide and mass atrocities through graphic novels and other visual forms of storytelling. Bringing together survivors, researchers, artists and cultural institutions from different parts of the world, the project explores how art can help preserve testimony while placing survivors’ voices, agency and wellbeing at the center of the creative process.

As part of the project, the War Childhood Museum coordinated the part about Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Yugoslav Wars research cluster, centered on the story of Almasa Salihović—a survivor of the Srebrenica genocide, contributor to the Museum’s collection, and spokesperson for the Srebrenica Memorial Center.

Almasa Salihović and Anneli Furmark in conversation

Memories of Srebrenica

Over a series of conversations held throughout 2023 and 2024, Almasa shared memories of her childhood in the village of Skejići, her family’s flight to Srebrenica in 1993, life inside the besieged enclave, and the events surrounding the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995. Rather than serving as a conventional interview, these conversations formed the foundation of a collaborative creative process rooted in trust, careful listening and respect for lived experience.

The conversations were held between Almasa and Swedish graphic novelist Anneli Furmark, moderated by WCM’s Ajnura Akbaš. Drawing on these testimonies, Furmark created the graphic novel As Long As We Are Together, transforming Almasa’s memories into a visual narrative while remaining faithful to her voice and experiences.

Beyond the Graphic Novel

Their collaboration was also featured in the SCVN documentary short film “Almasa’s Story”, directed by filmmaker Bojan Hadžiabdić. The film follows Almasa as she revisits the physical and emotional geography of her past: the fields and hillsides of Skejići, the escape routes families took, and the places where survivors gather each year to commemorate the genocide. The film traces Almasa and Anneli’s conversations, revealing how Anneli approached transforming Almasa’s memories into visual form. The trailer is available to watch on SCVN’s YouTube.

The Yugoslav Wars research cluster is one of five research clusters working with survivors, including the Holocaust, Rwanda, Iraq/Syria, and Turtle Island, where the SCVN project explores survivor-centred, trauma-informed approaches to visual storytelling. Rather than illustrating historical events alone, the project seeks to document individual memories with care, recognizing survivors as active collaborators in the creation of their own narratives.

A panel from the graphic book

Visual Storytelling

Graphic novels have increasingly become an important medium for engaging readers with complex historical subjects. Combining testimony, illustration and sequential storytelling, they offer a way of approaching difficult histories that is both emotionally resonant and accessible, particularly for younger audiences encountering these events for the first time.

For the War Childhood Museum, participation in the project reflects our ongoing commitment to preserving childhood memories of war through diverse forms of storytelling and making those stories accessible across generations and cultures. The graphic novel “As Long As We Are Together” will be released in German by Avant Verlag in October and in English by University of Toronto Press in early 2027.

Developed in collaboration with Rondine International Peace Lab, the exhibition brought together personal objects, testimonies, and stories from people who experienced war, creating a space for reflection on childhood, memory, resilience, and peacebuilding.

Alongside objects from the Museum’s collection, the exhibition featured stories and personal items from participants of Rondine’s international peace education programs, highlighting experiences from different countries and contexts.

Breaking the Chain of Hatred

Reflecting on the significance of the collaboration, Franco Vaccari, Founder and President of Rondine Cittadella della Pace, said:

“This is an experience that breaks the chain of hatred.”

At the exhibition opening, Amina Šurković, Archive Coordinator at the War Childhood Museum, emphasized the central role of personal testimonies:

“The true focus of this exhibition is the stories: stories told from different perspectives and originating from different parts of the world, helping us understand how war affects people’s lives and, above all, the lives of children.”

Through objects, stories, video testimonies, and multimedia content, Interrupted Childhood invited visitors to reflect on the protection of children affected by conflict and the importance of building peace through understanding and dialogue.

The grant is awarded by Unity, whose technology powers some of the world’s most popular video games and interactive experiences. We Grew Up in War is also being developed using the Unity engine.

The game was chosen from more than 515 applications submitted from around the world, making it one of only ten projects to receive funding this year. Through the Unity Charitable Fund, a total of $600,000 USD was awarded to projects addressing major global challenges aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Based on Personal Stories

Based on real stories collected by the War Childhood Museum, We Grew Up in War explores the experiences of children who lived through war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine. The game focuses on how children navigate conflict through imagination, resilience, and hope. It is currently in development and is expected to be released in 2027.

Explaining why the project was selected, Unity highlighted its unique perspective: “This game takes the perspective of children, and takes a different focus – one of resistance and resilience and hope.”

Potential to Foster Empathy

Lukáš Kolek, CEO of Charles Games, described the award as an important recognition of the project and its mission.

“The idea behind the Unity for Humanity Grant is to support projects that do some good in the world and are, ideally, evidence-based. Our game We Grew Up in War is exactly that. It is grounded in real stories and historical research, and a study of an early prototype found it measurably improved players’ attitudes toward those affected by war.”

The grant was awarded in recognition of the game’s potential to help people better understand how children experience armed conflict, foster empathy, and raise awareness about the lasting impact of war on childhood.

A teaser for We Grew Up in War is available here. More information about the game will be announced as development progresses toward its planned 2027 release.

The exhibition was conceived and curated through a mentorship process led by the War Childhood Museum in collaboration with three organizations dedicated to social inclusion and fashion — Dress Again (Italy), ESPERO Atelier (France), and ANKAA Project (Greece). The starting point of this process was a workshop held in Sarajevo in September 2025, during which the partners jointly developed the exhibition concept and storytelling approach, reflecting on how each city could host the traveling collection with its own identity — while maintaining the same goal: fostering empathy, understanding, and new perspectives on migration.

Personal Stories from Around the World

Handle With Care — a traveling exhibition — presents 30 garments and 18 personal stories, accompanied by sketches, drawings, and creative documentation produced throughout the process. “Through this exhibition, we wanted to show that every piece of clothing can carry experience, memory, and a story about the search for belonging. Each fashion creation follows the search for a place that could be called home,” said Adna Muslija, project mentor.

The personal stories and testimonies of project participants from Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, Ukraine, Syria, and other countries also served as the narrative and conceptual foundation of the presented fashion collection, developed through a collaborative creative process that combined professional tailoring skills, ethical storytelling, and the use of recycled and previously used materials.

Paris, Athens, and Faenza

The traveling exhibition Handle With Care was first presented in Paris in March this year at the Maison des Réfugiés. The opening also featured a fashion show formally presenting the collection. The exhibition was later opened in Athens in April, as well as in Faenza at the Galleria Comunale d’Arte, where the exhibition was accompanied by a theatrical performance inspired by the collection and exhibition itself.

The mentorship process developed and implemented by the War Childhood Museum throughout the project draws on the institution’s long-standing experience working with personal testimonies, trauma, and memory. The methodology built through working with stories of those whose childhoods were shaped by war was transferred into the context of migration and social inclusion — affirming that fashion, like personal objects, can carry memory, identity, and dignity.

TexTALES is co-funded by the European Union through the Creative Europe programme. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Read more about our activities this month:

Educational Programs and Visits

Throughout May, we welcomed educational groups and visitors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, the United States, Turkey, Italy, and Slovakia. 

As part of the global “Prove It Matters” campaign launched by the Office of the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, the WCM welcomed students from Hasan Kikić Elementary School in Sarajevo for a workshop focused on peace, children’s rights, and the importance of ensuring that children’s voices are heard. The campaign calls on world leaders to reaffirm their commitment to protecting children and upholding the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also encouraging children around the world to share their own messages of peace.

In May, we also welcomed a delegation of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sweden during their visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The twelve-member delegation was received by the Museum’s Director for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Amina Krvavac. Discussions focused on the Museum’s mission, the importance of preserving and sharing children’s wartime experiences, and the role of memory work in building more peaceful societies.

Conferences

On 7–8 May, Jasminko Halilović, Founder and Director-General of the War Childhood Museum, participated in the second annual Ukraine Cultural Security Forum in Warsaw, Poland.

As part of the panel discussion “Fake Past, Stolen Future? Disinformation, Weaponized Culture and the Fight for Truth,” Halilović joined representatives of leading museums and cultural institutions, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, and the Ambassador of France to Poland. The discussion explored the role of cultural institutions in confronting disinformation, protecting historical truth, and safeguarding cultural heritage during times of conflict. 

Exhibitions and Youth-Led Initiatives

As part of the “Furaj mir” (“Live Peace”) program, youth teams from across Bosnia and Herzegovina continued to explore peace, identity, memory, and belonging through community-based exhibitions.

On 9 May, the exhibition “Perspektiva” opened at the Cultural Center in Srebrenica. Through art and documentary materials, the exhibition presents stories and perspectives gathered by young people from Bratunac and Srebrenica, creating space for dialogue, encounter, and reflection on a shared future.

On 11 May, the exhibition “Pod istim mirom” (“Under the Same Peace”) opened in the Milanović House Atelier in Banja Luka. Through photography, video, and personal testimonies, the exhibition explores different experiences of community, peace, and everyday life within a shared society.

On 20 May, young people from Modriča and Gradačac opened the exhibition “Sve(mir) među nama” (“Peace Among Us”) at the Serbian Cultural Center in Modriča. Drawing on conversations with residents from both communities, the exhibition transforms personal stories, reflections, and experiences into photographs and messages about peace, closeness, and mutual understanding.

On 22 May, the exhibition “Krivaja grad(i) mir” (“Krivaja Builds Peace”) opened at the Cultural and Sports Center in Zavidovići. Through photographs, interviews, and a central installation made from wood, young participants explored how the Krivaja industrial complex shaped the city’s history, memories, and sense of community, while reflecting on the connections between economic wellbeing, belonging, and peace.

In Ukraine, the War Childhood Museum Ukraine concluded the exhibition “Books That Walk With You Through War”in Chernivtsi with a public reading of the book With Love, Dad (З любовʼю — тато). The event featured a conversation with the author and serviceman Valeriy Puzik, moderated by Svitlana Osipchuk, Program Director of the War Childhood Museum Ukraine. The exhibition was developed with the support of the ProPeace Programme Office in Ukraine in cooperation with the Ivan Mykolaichuk Cultural and Art Center.

Awards and Special Projects

In May, the War Childhood Museum’s video game “We Grew Up in War” was selected as one of ten recipients of the 2026 Unity for Humanity Grant. The game was developed through collaboration with partners from the Czech Republic, studio Charles Games. 

Chosen from more than 500 applications worldwide, the project received funding and technical support through Unity’s flagship social impact program, which supports creators using real-time 3D technology to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The recognition will support the continued development of the game and expand its ability to engage audiences with stories of childhood affected by war through innovative digital storytelling.

Media Mentions

The War Childhood Museum continued to receive attention in both Bosnian and international media throughout May. Below is a selection of coverage from the past month:

• From Kyiv to the Balkans: How a Museum Opened My Eyes to Shared Wartime Childhoods
• Decoder Replay: The children of war
• War Childhood Museum as a Guardian of Memory and a Voice for Children Affected by War | Preporod.info (BOSNIAN) 

Explaining the jury’s decision, Filip Ejdus, Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade and a member of the jury, emphasized that the War Childhood Museum has achieved something few institutions manage to do: through the testimonies of people who experienced war as children, it humanized tragedy.

Innovative Approach to Peacebuilding

“Through a participatory approach, this museum has enabled thousands of people to recognize one another beyond dominant ethno-national narratives, while creating a valuable space for the development of an inclusive, civic, and transnational ethos in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Ejdus.

He also highlighted the “Furaj mir” program, which the jury recognized as an innovative approach to working with young people and building peace.

“‘Furaj mir’ has shown that transitional justice does not have to be a dry and abstract concept, but rather an experience that is lived, documented, and shared,” Ejdus said.

Young People as Agents of Change

Irina Ljubić, Executive Director of the Jelena Šantić Foundation, emphasized that the particular value of “Furaj mir” lies in the fact that it does not assign young people the role of observers, but of active agents of change.

“Through research, exhibitions, public events, and collaborative work, participants have demonstrated that confronting the past can serve as a foundation for a more responsible, open, and peaceful society. This reflects the very values that the Jelena Šantić Award seeks to recognize and support,” said Ljubić.

The award was accepted on behalf of the War Childhood Museum by Communications Manager Maida Salkanović, who noted that the young people involved in the program, through the topics they chose to explore, demonstrated that justice, truth, empathy, and equal opportunities are essential for building a strong and stable society — what we call positive peace.

“Young people need hope. They need to see that effort, dedication, and engagement are recognized and promoted as values. At a time when that is not always the case, I believe this program has shown that these values can help young people stand out and become role models for others,” said Salkanović.

Building Peace Through Research, Art, and Dialogue

Over the past two years, the “Furaj mir” program has brought together more than 120 young people from different parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through research, interviews, artistic processes, and exhibitions, participants explored and presented topics important for peacebuilding and strengthening social cohesion.

The program is implemented as part of the “PEACESTORY” project with the support of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund. Project partners include the Mozaik Foundation, the Step by Step Center for Educational Initiatives, and the Association of the High School Students in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In addition to the War Childhood Museum, which received the award in the civil society organization category, the individual award was presented to Dragan Popović for his book Losing Humanity – Srebrenica as a Historical Fact, while special contribution awards were presented to the Balkan Talks initiative from Niš, Karton Revolucija from Tuzla, and the Student Plenum in Blockade of the State University of Novi Pazar.