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"If we are not going to deal with children's education now, all these brand new houses will be demolished by these very same children in twenty years," Nadzida Sljivo, the primary school teacher and the director of the NGO "Be my friend" based in Sarajevo, comments upon the sad fact that all the money goes to rebuilding houses, and it always runs short for the education of children. NGOs have never managed to get finances for activities such as warning children against landmines or helping the mine victims among children. Their program "Help children to survive the peace" suffered a similar fate. Now she instructs the children in the class to stand clear of dangerous explosive devices, but there is less than one class hour dedicated to this program, and the schools don't even have enough educative picture-books to distribute them among pupils. "It is true that the International Red Cross made a good TV spot about this, but many refugees don't even know where they are going to spend the night, let alone watch TV," says Sljivo. She adds that it is the returning refugees who are in greatest danger: they have no experience with the war and not a slightest idea what landmines look like. Another problem is of methodological nature: how to present the landmines to the children not using too technological approach that could be quite dangerous in some sense? "Even if you tell children that mines are dangerous and lethal devices, sometimes curiosity gain the upper hand. The child wants to see where the fuse we were talking about is. The best way is to say: don't you ever touch that thing!" |
