Dear friend
At the turn of the year, we wanted to look back at 2024 and forward to what promises to be a busy, and poignant, year ahead for Beyond Srebrenica in 2025.
We hosted or took part in several events including a White Armband Commemoration in Aberdeen and a reception held at the Scottish Parliament to showcase our schools’ drama project, ‘Inseparable: Lessons from a Nation Divided’. We are grateful to Paul O’Kane, MSP for sponsoring the event, and to the parliamentarians, former delegates and supporters who attended. We extend out thanks also to members of the Bosnian Scots community who came along, and of course to Almasa Salihović from the Srebrenica Memorial Centre, based in Potočari, who spoke about her own experiences of surviving the genocide.
Earlier in the year we also hosted Srebrenica survivor, Nedžad Avdić, who spoke at the Beyond Borders festival at the Traquair estate.
Beyond vibrant social media activity, we have featured extensively in the media in 2024. Julie Adair (Chair) and Sabina (Vice Chair) appeared on separate Radio Scotland documentaries, David Hamilton (Treasurer) gave an interview to Bosnia’s main television newscaster, N1, about our work, and a number of newspaper articles were written by former delegates to Bosnia, including pieces in The Scottish Daily Mail and The Herald.
We ran three delegations to Bosnia in 2024. As ever, our delegates were prominent in Scot civil society and included MSPs, MPs, civil servants, journalists, creatives, third sector workers and educators.
Our play, Inseparable’, produced by Beyond Srebrenica in partnership with Collingwood Learning, completed its second tour visiting schools in the Central Belt, Perth, Tayside and the Northeast in September, visiting 23 schools and reaching 3,338 pupils in S4-6. Close to 4,500 students in Scotland have seen the play since it was launched. The response from pupils and teachers alike has validated our belief at the outset of the project that theatre-in-education would enable us to share the stories of Srebrenica and beyond with Scotland’s young people in an impactful way. We received this appreciative comment from a teacher:
“We really loved it! The power of the performances really engaged our pupils and leads really well into our look at hate speech and discrimination in PSHE over the coming weeks. The workshop was interactive and engaging, and feedback from the pupils has been very positive.”
In March 2024, the charity agreed at an Extraordinary General Meeting to seek OSCR approval to change its name and to amend the constitution. The change was unanimously agreed, and the new name, brand and constitution reflect our wish to broaden out the geographical scope of interest from Srebrenica to the whole of Bosnia. This better reflects the Scottish Bosnian Community who settled in Scotland. It has addressed some concerns that the charity does not fully recognise their plight whilst continuing to acknowledge and teach about the genocide in Srebrenica. The “Beyond Srebrenica” name also reflects our desire to use the lessons of Srebrenica to educate people today. The organisation retains its legal identity and registration.
Next year marks the 30th Anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica and the Board is planning a range of events to commemorate this, including an exciting new education strategy. More to follow about these activities early next year.
Finally, the Trustees gratefully acknowledge the continued funding from Scottish Government, to support the costs associated with memorial, education work and events. We are also indebted to the Gordon Cook Foundation in Aberdeenshire who have funded ‘Inseparable’ since its inception, and we look forward to working with them and all of our supporters throughout the year ahead.
Thank you for your continuing support. As a board of volunteers, we rely on you – our supporters – to help us to share the lessons of what happened in Bosnia, and to ensure that these lessons are passed on to future generations.
Wishing you a peaceful festive break when it comes.
Julie Adair
VIice Chair
