On 15 February 2019 City of Prijedor hosted the event: “Let’s get to know each other” with the aim to promote and enhance the status of national minorities, to strengthen institutional co-operation and to adhere to the needs of minorities in the area of tradition, culture, history and language.

Pupils from 12 elementary schools in Prijedor presented the history, tradition, culinary specialties of national minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina in a very creative way. They demonstrated their knowledge about these areas in a quiz as well.

"My friends and I are wearing Montenegrin traditional outfits. Montenegro has a population of 620.000. Montenegrins began settling in Bosnia and Herzegovina during Austro-Hungarian rule. Most of them live in Banja Luka, Mostar and Foča”, said Milica from Elementary school “Branko Ćopić”.

Marijana from Ljubija, emphasised she learned a lot about Polish culture and that she was not aware about the rich history of the Polish people. “There are a lot of similarities, at least when it comes to the language, but yet again so many differences that I utterly enjoyed while preparing for this competition. I believe I will transfer the gained knowledge to my peers” said Marijana.

Therefore, this event is rightly called “Let’s get to know each other” because pupils have learned about customs and tradition of national minorities.

This project is supported by the European Union and the Council of Europe with 10.000 euros with the City of Prijedor contributing with 1.000 Euro.

City of Prijedor partnered with local national minority associations (Association of Roma, Association of Ukrainians “Kozak” from Trnopolje, Association of Slovenians “Lipa” and Association of Czechs “Česka beseda”) as well as with te Alliance of national minorities of Republika Srpska, Ministry of education and culture of Republika Srpska and the Pedagogical institute of Republika Srpska.

“The aim of this activity is for our citizens to get to know the national minorities, not only the four ones living in our city but the other as well living in all of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, said Alenka Uduč, Chair of Association of Slovenians “Lipa”.

The manifestation was opened by the Deputy Mayor of Prijedor Aleksandar Miljuš who emphasised that this activity has been organised in Prijedor for the first time. He also added: “City of Prijedor has been nurturing good relations with the national minority associations for a number of years and these relations are improving on a daily basis. One important thing in all of this, it should be noted, is that the City of Prijedor is among the first ones, if not the first one, to introduce a budget line specifically for national minority associations”, said Mr Miljuš during the opening remarks.

This event is part of the project “Strengthening the protection of national minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, which comes under the Joint programme of the European Union and the Council of Europe “Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey”.