By Irfan Durmic, YES 2015-2016, Bosnia and Herzegovina, hosted by World Link in Caseyville, IL

Hello dear reader of the official YES webpage! It’s me, Irfan Durmić, your lovable Bosnian alumnus who finished his program year in 2016. Today I’m going to tell you something about an amazing workshop I was recently part of.

The IDEAL workshop, held in Cetinje (Montenegro), truly was an ideal workshop. This was actually my first regional workshop and I absolutely loved it! I strongly believe that the future of this region lies in cooperation. For some reason, we in the Balkans tend to forget we lived in the same country for half a century. I think these workshops really have the power to show us just that; the fact is that we in the Balkans, especially in the former Yugoslavia, are facing the same problems and we perfectly understand each other. Working with YES and FLEX alumni together was something new for me and definitely something I would love to do again.

There were four groups at the workshop, all of which were very relevant. I was part of the Civil Society group mainly because I think that “civil society” is a phrase we hear often, but only few people actually grasp the concept. Also, people in the Balkans tend to have a problem with civil society mainly because, for some reason, they view NGOs in such a bad way and they don’t see a difference between civil society and NGOs.

The idea of getting us directly involved in the community during the workshop was really genius. My group visited a local NGO and we learned a lot from that visit. I absolutely loved mixing with the other groups at the workshop; I functioned as the “social media” follower for the Anti – Corruption group while they interviewed the people of Cetinje. Some of the answers were, on one hand, extremely funny, but on the other hand quite sad because they showed how uneducated people are. I also loved our intergroup sharing activity which gave us the chance to see what other groups did and how their work can help better our society.

Aside from being a great source of knowledge and inspiration, this workshop also gave me the chance to meet some absolutely amazing people. I definitely learned that all alumni coordinators have two things in common: a fantastic sense of humor and fantastic teaching skills. It was wonderful to get in touch with some of my friends from Macedonia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, and also meet some FLEX kids.

All in all, I feel very fortunate to have been part of this great experience. The workshop may have lasted only for 4 days, but the impact is quite greater. This experience has given me new energy, momentum and a wish to be even more active and make a great follow – up project.

Thanks a lot to FLEX and YES for giving us a chance to work together and to show again and again that all those stories of hatred in the Balkans are only in the heads of politicians. Slowly, but certainly, a new generation of sane and peaceful leaders is going to take over and show how much we can all accomplish by working together!

To conclude, we exchange students truly are a special breed and I feel fortunate to be part of this huge family.