prijava
SARAJEVO, June 25 (FENA) - The VII Academy in Sarajevo, during 2020/21, focused on working with the upcoming generation of civic leaders, supporting them on their path to community change.
Thirty young writers, artists and activists participated in the BOLD project with the Youth Leadership Program, created and supported by the US Embassy in BiH and implemented by the VII Academy in Sarajevo to encourage change, social dialogue and new thinking across the country.
BOLD (BiH Youth Leaders) is a project to encourage the development of leaders for young people throughout BiH who want to make a difference in the areas of civic engagement and economic development.
The projects of BOLD participants that were presented online, in print editions in the form of street art, were also shown through five short films presented at the closing ceremony yesterday in the presence of US Ambassador to BiH Eric Nelson and US Embassy Cultural Attaché Holly Zardus.
Founder of the VII Academy Gary Knight told FENA that "the people who run the Academy have a long history of cooperation with Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, so they were absolutely certain they wanted to establish their presence to work in the Balkans, located in Sarajevo, in order to contribute to the people as much as they could with their experience in the last 30 years”.
"One of our goals is to support young people in BiH. As it is known, BiH has quite a large diaspora, what we are trying to do is for young people to stay, get educated through the VII Academy, because we think that in that way we can keep people to stay in BiH. There is a lot of potential here in the Balkans, as we can see by simply looking at young people, who are highly educated, motivated, have the desire and will to progress. They need some kind of incentive to stay here and do some work in their communities, in Bosnia, in the region. We think it’s really great potential. We want to contribute to the development of young people through our education," said Knight.
BOLD participants from all over BiH attended training in narrative and documentary practice and civic activism by the VII Academy and American academics from Harvard and Northeastern University.
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