From 24-31 July 2021, 70 youth and young adults from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia met in Medena near the town of Trogir on the Croatian Adriatic. The one-week programme was utmost diverse and intensive: the participants were enthusiastic about the wide range of political workshops. Particularly lively discussions arose after the workshop on „Hate speech on the internet“ and the lecture on the manipulation of people through images in the media and in advertising, which focused on the past wars and their reporting as well as present-day politics and advertising by companies. Of course, as every year, there was also the opportunity for participants to offer workshops themselves. The workshop of a Muslim participant on the topic of the headscarf was so popular that it was held twice.

And after more than a year of keeping distance and avoiding contacts, the time spent together with new friends was not to be neglected. Swimming in the sea, doing sports, spending evenings together on the beach or the excursion to Trogir left enough time to get to know each other and make friends.

After we were not sure for a long time due to the pandemic whether and under what conditions meetings in larger groups in former Yugoslavia could take place at all this year, we are all the more pleased that this meeting was so successful.  For the safety of participants and staff, we had worked out a hygiene concept together, which included PCR tests before arrival and departure, quick tests every 48 hours, separate meal times for the group, as well as masks, daily fever measurement and hand hygiene.