Balkan Kids Playground

With CBD’s assistance, a Boston-based Balkan community group is in the beginning stages of creating a unique and creative program for children ages three to ten from the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Called the Balkan Kids Playground, the program is meant to support positive and healthy development of social attitudes among children with a special focus on teaching tolerance, acceptance and collaboration.

While the Playground will initially be only for young children, the program will also engage parents through various cultural activities. The program will also involve Boston-based students through a mentoring program and students from former Yugoslav countries through summer/winter exchange programs. The Balkan Kids Playground is our major educational initiative in the U.S. and it is an important component for reconciliation overseas since the Balkan diasporas are, to some extent, responsible for fuelling the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

Balkan Kids’ Playground will offer children learning through age-appropriate play about our common languages and cultural backgrounds. Children will also have the opportunity to enjoy songs and games that their parents played in prewar Yugoslavia when nationality did not define all identity.  The Playground will welcome children of all backgrounds: Bosnian, Croatian, Jewish, Macedonian, Montenegrian, Roma (Gypsies), Serbian, Slovenian, etc., and very importantly, be inclusive of those who are of mixed heritage and cultures.