Črnomelj

“My first contact with the project was when the Municipality of Črnomelj asked our institute to participate in the coordination and execution of the project activities. To be honest, I didn’t think much about the topic of the project before I got involved in the activities, but I’m glad it happened, because now I have a much broader understanding of migration and the challenges that local communities face,” responds Tomaž Čurk, who is head of education at the ZAVOD ZA IZOBRAŽEVANJE IN KULTURO (Institute for Education and Culture) in Črnomelj, Slovenia.

What does the Institute deal with? “Our work is divided into two parts: in the field of culture, we mainly work on promoting the creativity of young people in different artistic areas (film, music, arts, etc.), while in the field of education, we put a lot of effort into working with vulnerable groups (unemployed, the Roma, etc.),” Tomaž explains.

“I didn’t know what to expect from the project and its activities. Together with the Municipality of Črnomelj, we set ourselves the goal of being able to inform the community as much as possible about the contents of the project – says Tomaž – to enlighten people about the very complicated topic of migration. We had to be careful, because sometimes there were quite heated debates in our community about this topic, but I think we managed to present carefully and objectively the facts and to encourage debate in our town”.

“The highlight of the project was a recent field visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there, we visited the Ušivak temporary reception center, where families and unaccompanied minors are placed,” Tomaž says. “Seeing and getting to know some of the people in the center and hearing their stories was eye-opening. At the same time, it was great to see how much effort is being put into providing for these people by the different NGOs, the EU and the local government.”

What relationship does the area of Črnomelj have with themes such as memory and solidarity?

“Throughout history, our region has always shown solidarity with different groups of people who migrated to this area (the Uskoks, the Roma, citizens of the former Republic of Yugoslavia). These and other groups still coexist peacefully in the Bela Krajina region and nurture their culture and heritage,” Tomaž tells . “However, more recent migrations have forced us to face new and unknown challenges and this is one of the reasons why we joined the SnapShots project, to start networking with other regions with similar challenges and to start exchanging and implementing good practices from all over Europe.”

What balance sheet can you draw from the work done over the years with the project?

“I’d like to think that there has been progress and positive spin-offs, although it is difficult to quantify the effects of projects that aim to raise awareness,” Tomaž replies, “If anything, thanks to the project we have started to openly discuss this topic in our community and I like to believe that we have managed to convince many of how layered the situation is and that not everything is as black and white as some had previously believed.

In the future, partly because of the SnapShots experience,what aspects will you focus your work on? “The project had a variety of activities and there was never really a dull moment. Perhaps we would have liked more public outreach activities, but because of the pandemic that hit our project it is understandable that we had to adapt and reinvent some activities.”