EUFOR supports Kids Festival 2012

Written by Maj Hermann Steinkogler

COS EUFOR in the information tent

The annual Sarajevo Kids’ Festival is the largest independent youth event in South East Europe. Over 40,000 children from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have attended the annual event since 2004. The Festival contains a range of entertainment and educational activities including workshops, booths, quizzes, games, movies, performances, clowns and much more. Altogether these activities have provided the young people of BiH with an unforgettable experience.

EUFOR has made an important and valuable contribution to this year’s Festival.  Its Mine Information Coordination Cell (MICC), together with soldiers from Turkey and the Armed Forces of BiH (AFBiH), raised awareness of the mine situation in BiH. After a talk by AFBiH, the children had the chance to see how mine searching works in practice. Turkish soldiers demonstrated how long it takes and the care needed when using the metal detector “Vallon VMM-3” to search for mines.

Hungarian, Turkish and Austrian soldiers from the Multinational Battalion ran a very popular and enjoyable basketball stand. By scoring three times in succession the children had the chance to win a “EUFOR – basketball”. This was definitely a Hot Spot at this year’s Kids’ Festival!

The Kids’ Festival and the “EUFOR School Competition”, held earlier this year, are part EUFOR’s youth strategy which aims to create reconciliation and confidence building amongst BiH’s younger generation.