How to Make 40 Thousand Children Happy for a Week?

In June of 2007, the third Kids Festival, sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), took place in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovena (BIH), attracting some 40,000 children from all parts of the country to Skenderija, a sports and youth centre. It included children with special needs from the Pazaric Institute.


During the first week of school vacations, children from more than 30 cities and towns were bussed by UNICEF to participate in this week-long educational and cultural workshop series, which included cinema, music, day trips to Sarajevo, a police day, in which policemen discuss topics ranging from drug abuse to traffic safety, and a video from the human trafficking awareness campaign.


UNICEF BIH distributed leaflets with information on avian influenza and it’s prevention, written in child-friendly language and in rhymes. For parents that came to accompany children, UNICEF distributed an illustrated brochure called “[Millennium Development Goals] MDGs are About Children”.