Appeal

Dear supporters of the Mitrovica Rock School, Long-term CBM and MwB project the Mitrovica Rock School is  preparing for its biggest event to date: a Mega Summer School in Skopje for 76 young musicians from north and south Mitrovica, east and west Mostar (Bosnia-Herzegovina), both communities of Struga (Macedonia) and the Netherlands. The week and the closing concert on Saturday September 1 mark both the Mitrovica Rock School’s fifth anniversary and the launch of a new project, the Mostar Rock School.

While we are preparing for this event with much enthusiasm, the Mitrovica Rock School itself, which is the model for the project in Mostar and has activated youth and musicians throughout former Yugoslavia, is struggling to survive. It is only thanks to the generous support of the Swiss Cooperation Office, Luxembourg Caritas and the Luxembourg Representative Office in Kosovo that our students will have a school to return to at all.

The Mitrovica Rock School has been widely recognized as one of the most successful initiatives in the field of reconciliation in northern Kosovo, a region known for its intractable ethnic divide. Its content-based approach to reconciliation has attracted young people from all communities, hundreds of whom have befriended youth “on the other side” through our mixed summer schools, bands and training programs.

However, due to delays and changes in mandates at our previous supporters, we are now facing cutbacks immediately after the Summer School. In order to prevent an imminent downsizing of our activities, we are appealing to donor organizations and private supporters to support the school, so that we can keep serving our 100 students and the city as a whole the way we have done for the past five years. These youth deserve a chance at a normal life, which includes the right to play what they want with whom they want, in a normalized environment. This is exactly what the Rock School gives them.

Please feel free to contact us at one of the email addresses below for more information on the Mitrovica Rock School, or to discuss how you may help our students “keep on rockin’ in the free world.”

Aferdita Sylaj, Director CBM - aferdita.syla@cbmitrovica.org

Wendy Hassler-Forest, Rock School Program Manager MwB - w.hassler-forest@musicianswithoutborders.org