April 21-23 was Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) weekend, an annual, global celebration of youth engagement in community service.  In Southeast Europe, alumni celebrated GYSD with activities that highlighted the diverse range of forms community service can take, from raising awareness about environmental concerns, to promoting interfaith harmony.  Below are five examples:

Inspired by Earth Day on April 22, 13 YES alumni and volunteers took to the streets of Tirana, ALBANIA, on bikes to raise awareness about the pollution caused by motor vehicles.  While biking, they asked pedestrians to share their thoughts on the major causes of pollution in the city; most said cars.  The group then began riding up to cars stopped at traffic lights and talking to drivers about the benefits of cycling.  They also encouraged drivers to turn off their motors while stopped.

On April 22-23 in Jajce, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, Dunja Jezeraskic (YES ‘15) organized a workshop for YES alumni on the topic of interfaith harmony, with help from Ivana Vasilj (YES ‘15). Through this program, seven alumni learned the foundational skills needed for effective interfaith activism, and explored ideas for projects that could be implemented to increase interfaith interaction and understanding in their communities. During the last session of the workshop, alumni were joined by the president of the local Student Council, who shared his experiences organizing many successful youth initiatives, including leading youth from his city protesting the planned segregation of the city’s schools along religious and ethnic lines. Through marches and silent sit-ins, the students had made their wishes clear, and the planned law was not implemented.  “The conversation [alumni] had with this young man inspired a lot of YES alumni who are currently dealing with the same problems and are forced to attend schools divided on the basis of religion/ethnicity,” explained Alumni Coordinator Davor Tunjic (YES ‘13). “They were able to see how this process of integration worked first-hand for someone their own age, and what are the necessary steps to be taken.”

On April 22 in Ruse, BULGARIA, Shebnem Niazi (YES '14) hosted a screening of Bold Native, an independent feature film by American director Denis Henry Hennelly that explores animal exploitation from political, economic, and ethical perspectives. After watching the film, the audience of 22 community members, many of them university students, engaged in a discussion of animal rights, effective activism, and the negative environmental, health, and economic effects of human use of animals in modern society.  Shebnem was impressed with the impact of the event on participants, explaining: “Fiction provides a unique opportunity to bypass people’s defenses. Since we’re all culpable in animal exploitation, it can be hard for some people to open themselves to the message of animal rights. The movie presented important ideas and facts through fiction, which reached people’s hearts instead of their brains. They were open to learning more about the effects of eating meat. They asked hundreds of questions and some of them contacted me on Facebook days after the screening to ask for more information on making the transition to a plant-based diet.”

On April 23 in Prishtina, KOSOVO, a group of six YES alumni, led by Gentian Kuqica (YES '16), organized a Foodraising Concert in cooperation with the local Red Cross.  As Alumni Coordinator Rine Fetahu (YES ‘14) explains, the event was a “non-traditional fundraising concert, where instead of paying the ticket for the entrance, people donated food items for families in need.” The three-hour event took place at M Club, a partner of the local cultural center TERMOKISS, and featured a well-known local DJ.  More than 60 people attended, bringing with them enough food items to make packages for approximately six families in need.  Donations included 25 liters of cooking oil and 25-30 packs each of flour, rice, and pasta.

On April 8 in Kumanovo, MACEDONIA, Semra Amet (YES ’11) and Bojan Aleksovski (YES ’14) and YES Abroad students Arshia Badani, Jaleh Shambayati, Jeremy Slater, and Kyra Jasper led a program to introduce students who are part of the English Access Microscholarship Program at Pero Nakov High School to GYSD and the YES program.  After a presentation about GYSD and YES, 26 students and two teachers joined the alumni and YES Abroad students in cleaning up a park near the school.