Hena Trutovic is the daughter of our regional coordinator Alma Dzinic-Trutovic. She has been participating in the encounters ever since she was three years old. She was always enthusiastic about helping everywhere: delivering messages, getting things out of the materials room, cleaning up. Since the age of seven, we have introduced her to the group as an „assistant“, which she was very proud of. In 2019, she came to Split as a participant.

(Text: Hena Trutovic) I’m sitting by the lake in Tuzla and thinking about what to write. However, it doesn’t take me long to realize that one text is not enough to thank you for everything. The lake reminds me of the time by the sea. The impressions don’t seem to have calmed down yet. I look at the lake and I realize how much these twelve days at the sea have given me. Here I am and somehow whish I was surrounded again by all the wonderful people who have helped me to see how much we take our lives for granted, even though they are not.

You probably don’t know that I had the honor of growing up on this project. I remember watching all these teenagers as a child and how fascinating they were to me. I admired them because they attended the workshops, were allowed to stay longer at the beach and had so much fun. In a way, I’m still the small curious Hena, but this year I had a phenomenal opportunity to go to the Peace Camp in Split as a participant. Many things are different when you are grown up, but one thing has not changed: the teenagers still fascinate me. It was only this year that I realized how real and beautiful human relationships are. How quickly you can really learn to love someone and tell them: You are invited to come to me for a weekend visit. It’s amazing how only twelve days can bring people together. And only after they have all experienced this will they find out how lucky they are, and that no sea will be deeper or bigger than the friendship that we all built in this Peace Camp. I would therefore like to thank everyone who every year give 120 young people the opportunity to do something they will not forget anytime soon.

If someone asks me about this project, I will proudly tell them that I grew up in it. I have been looking for a reason to stay in this homeland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, for a long time in order to continue fighting for a better tomorrow. I think I finally found it. It has been with me all my life, but it was only this year that I really became aware of it.