Within the project “Another Way Exists – AWE,” supported by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia, an exhibition was organized in Belgrade on April 17 to mark thirty years of existence and work of the Jesuit Refugee Service Southeast Europe.
The exhibition was organized in collaboration with our beneficiaries, students from the Faculty of Applied Arts originally from Afghanistan, who exhibited their paintings featuring portraits of children who have survived the experience of war, full of emotions. The second part of the exhibition consisted of photographs showing our employees directly working with unaccompanied refugee children, captured in some of the key moments for the beneficiaries, such as summer trips, birthday celebrations, religious holidays, the knowledge that they will finally reunite with their parents, and similar events.
The National Director of JRS Serbia, Miodrag Živković, welcomed the attendees and briefed them on the current projects of the Integration Program of JRS Serbia. Meanwhile, the Regional Director, Stanko Perica, SJ, introduced the attendees in the history of JRS in Southeast Europe and the selfless work of the founder of JRS Southeast Europe, Father Stjepan Kušan, SJ, who helped refugees throughout the region both during and after the war.
The exhibition program further included the screening of a long-awaited documentary movie, made in collaboration with one of our former beneficiaries, depicting his journey from Syria to Serbia. The boy recorded video clips with his mobile phone at various locations, in almost all countries he stayed in during his journey, including some of the bad experiences he encountered along the way. The materials, along with direct interviews with the beneficiary, resulted in a short but very emotional documentary film, which our guests had the opportunity to watch during the exhibition program and which will be available to the public later on.
The program was enriched by our special guests, singer Lyana from Ukraine, whose emotional interpretation of several Ukrainian songs moved all present, and it concluded with a performance by the “Music of Hope” choir, made up of students from the “Branko Pesic” school, led by a teacher who led them by playing the guitar while they sang.
In addition to our beneficiaries, the event was attended by teams of our colleagues from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Kosovo, as well as many of our colleagues from organizations we collaborate with, members of the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans’ Affairs, and Social Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, school professors, and many others.
Organizing such events, where we had the opportunity to view moving images of children who themselves have seen devastating images of war, helps us by working with them, nurturing their talents, and providing them with the opportunity to have a place where they can freely, to a slightly wider audience, express their pain through their creative work. It also gives us, as professional workers, the opportunity to grow, to be encouraged, and motivated to do our job better.
