UN volunteers and elementary school students from Zemun painted a mural on the school wall

Belgrade, October 1, 2021 - A group of United Nations (UN) volunteers, consisting of young people from the Roma population and the population of refugees and asylum seekers, together with students from the Elementary School "Branko Pesic" in Zemun, painted a mural today, calling for a clean environment. in Serbia. The mural was created by combining different elements from individual works that the students of the school had previously painted.

Painting a mural on the wall of the "Branko Pesic" school fence is just one of the activities designed by young UN volunteers to animate students through games, sports activities and music and encourage them to think about the importance of preserving the environment. Throughout the school day, elementary school students of different ages and UN volunteers participated in outdoor workshops in which they competed in a general knowledge quiz, played football, sang karaoke and practiced dance choreographies.

The goal of these activities was to make the environment in which the children attend classes more beautiful, to make the school day more fun, but also to better connect the population to which the UN volunteers belong with the local community, through these activities.

Workshops "Together without borders in arts, sports and games" were organized within the project "Local initiatives for better inclusion of young people from vulnerable groups", which are jointly implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Thanks to this initiative, since 2018, 65 young Roma men and women have worked as UN volunteers in local institutions and non-governmental organizations in Serbia, where they gained new knowledge and experience, and 26 of them found jobs after completing volunteering. As of this year, young refugees are also included in the project.