Susila Dharma Serbia is a recently formed organization. It has decided that, as its primary activity, it will adopt a school as part of the School without Violence Towards Safe and Enabling Environment for Children Program.

Members of the SD Serbia team meet at the school they support through the School Without Violence program of UNICEF 2008.

This is an integral part of the "School fit for Children" and is part of the programme of the activities the Ministry of Education and Sports planned in its 2005-2010 Strategy, Poverty Reduction Strategy, National Plan of Actions for Children. The program is implemented by UNICEF in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Sports, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Policy, Council for the Rights of the Child and the Institute for Improvement of Education and Upbringing.

SD Serbia is working in the Vojvodina Region is located in the northern part of Serbia and is ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse, with more than 26 ethnic groups and six official languages. This part of Serbia has the strategic importance of preserving the present multi-ethnic nature of the Vojvodina Region.

We elected the city of Zrenjanin and the school "1 October" to adopt. One of the reasons is that this school is for handicapped children, and another reason is that eight Subud members are located in this city and one of our members is a teacher in this school. Since the project of SCHOOLS WITHOUT VIOLENCE needs to have one monitor for the project, this member will be suitable to be the monitor and will be trained by UNICEF.

This Program will support schools and the local community in creating a network of collaborators for children protection and providing the working and living conditions that promote and encourage nonviolent behaviour, understanding, mutual respect and a healthy life-style.

The basic objective of the Program is prevention and reduction of violence against children and among children in the schools in Serbia. Specific goals are:

1. To increase the level of awareness/information of the problem in children, school staff, parents and the local community
2. To increase the level of knowledge of the ways and mechanisms of action at school
3. To encourage the motivation for action and changes in local (?) population:, children, parents and other members of society
4. To create a supportive and protective network for the children suffering from abuse and the children showing abusive behaviour
5. To involve children, their, parents, experts and the local community in the behaviour-changing process and in the creation of a different atmosphere at school and outside school.

Contact:
Mirjana/Josephine Bacikin, Chair

Email: sd-serbia@susiladharma.org