Slovenia Project - Winter 1995-1996

After the summer trip (June 1995) of MCAB to Velenje in north eastern Slovenia, two volunteers stayed on for over a month longer to teach English in the refugee centres. The second volunteer, Renu Kukanesen, left in September, promising to try and find a way of having the work continue. With this in mind, MCAB organized for two other volunteers (Timothy Wynne and Hermione Graham) to drive out at the beginning of November for a period of two months. They went prepared to teach English and German and to do music and drama with children. They were warmly invited by the psychologist in charge of psycho-social help for refugees in Velenje, Ms Alenka Cas, and their trip was approved by the local fled Cross and the Government Department for Immigration and Refugees in the capital, Ljubljana.

Velenje is the fifth largest town in Slovenia and has an official refugee population of about 1,000 though the reality is more complicated. Some refugee families live in normal housing in the town but there are also two refugee ‘camps’/ centres where 300-400 men, women and children live. This is where the volunteers concentrated their work.

Through Alenka Cas they were able to have the use of a classroom every evening in one of the centres for their work. From Nov 13th onwards they offered German on Monday evenings (which became English / activities), English on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and music and drama on Wednesdays and Fridays. The demand from the younger age-groups was so great that they began adding time two or three days a week for painting, plasticine moulding, card-making etc. A couple of sessions also involved creating a mural on one of the classroom walls.

The culmination of the work at the centre ‘Dom Učencev’ was the rehearsing and performance of a musical version of ‘Snow White’ for the New Year. The children chose the story and cast themselves, preparing their lines in Bosnian One of the volunteers composed nine songs with words in English to accompany the story, thus combining English teaching with music and drama. The performance took place in a canteen, watched by about a hundred refugees as well as a group of Italian volunteers who had come to distribute Christmas packets.

Formal lessons at the other main centre, Vegrad (Simona Blatnika 1), began about a week later when the volunteers were given permission to use the kindergarten to teach in, Each weekday evening they gave an hour of English to children aged between 8 and 12. The class size varied from ‘about 25 to 12 or 15 but it was possible to achieve a lot with this age-group .

Two volunteers from St Anne’s and Merton Colleges, Oxford came to Velenje to help prepare for the New Year Show and to teach and entertain the children. One volunteer independently taught French to a family about to emigrate to Quebec. The two longer-term volunteers helped to co-ordinate things and drove everyone back to Britain on January 9th 1996.

There are many openings in both Slovenia and Bosnia which suggest future possibilities for the work of MCAB.

Last updated: February 25th, 2008