mirno more peace fleet
The peace fleet mirno more is the non-profit Austrian association "mirno more - Association for socio-educational peace projects" since 1994 every year always takes place in the third week of September organized rally of sailing ships . The seat of the association is in Kritzendorf . The Croatian name mirno more is the greeting and congratulations of the seafarers in Dalmatia and translated means something like peaceful sea and the mirno more peace fleet has stood for tolerance, integration and peaceful coexistence since 1994 and is the largest sailing project for socially disadvantaged children and young people.
history
The association and its partner organizations organize an annual sailing week in the field of youth and social work with the title Friedensflotte mirno more, in order to give children and young people from difficult social backgrounds a positive impetus in their development through the project week. With the first implementation of the Peace Fleet in 1994, the aim was to counter the acts of war in the former Yugoslavia with a concrete peace initiative. Under the motto "Throw all prejudices overboard and live together on one ship", the project has developed in recent years from 17 to 1000 children and young people who participate in the fleet every year, or from 3 to more than 100 ships, who with their crew - consisting of children - make up the fleet. In 2008 the fleet already consisted of 102 ships with 950 participants from 18 nations, and in September 2010 this largest sailing project for socially disadvantaged children received the highest international honor possible, as part of an official personal reception by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon . The mirno more peace fleet takes place in the Croatian Adriatic and due to the growing number of ships, the peace fleet has been carried out as a rally since 2006. On the one hand, this should provide time for the educational work within the crews and, on the other hand, enough time for the exchange within the entire fleet.
Since 2003 there have been partner associations in Austria (Friedensflotte mirno more Salzburg ), Germany (Friedensflotte mirno more Bayern , Friedensflotte mirno more Nürnberg ), Slovenia (Mirno morje Slovenija), Croatia (Mirno more Čakovec, Mirno more Varaždin, Mirno more Kaštela etc.), Bosnia (Mirno more BiH) and Serbia (Flora mira mirno more Srbija). In 2010 there were around 100 ships participating in the project. At the Tulln boat fair in 2011, Winkler presented an expansion of the project, which provides for the establishment of subsidiary projects as a social franchise network .
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"100 ships under the peace flag - on board our children and our hope for a peaceful future."
“The Peace Fleet stands for a constant initiative to build an overarching European society. This year, with Croatia's accession to the EU, an important step and a milestone was achieved in accordance with the ideal of the peace fleet. "
“I am very impressed by the amount of voluntary, highly professional work that has gone into this project. I wish everyone involved, especially the numerous children and young people and their supervisors, good luck and many wonderful shared experiences this week. "
“To see how the children and young people come together, how they make friends and spend time together, how they play and dance, ... no matter what they do, there is always a smile on their faces. And that's so nice! I am happy to be part of this project and the team. "
Attendees
The participants in the Peace Fleet include socially disadvantaged children and young people from different backgrounds, but above all from children's homes, SOS Children's Villages , supervised and supervised social housing communities and youth welfare services. One third of the participants are of foreign origin, with numerous refugees, war orphans and displaced persons from the Balkans among them. In addition, since 2000, participants with multiple mental and physical disabilities have also taken part.
The Peace Fleet offers a wide range of learning opportunities for socially disadvantaged children and young people. Making a contribution to the crew while sailing, experiencing strengths and weaknesses, encounters with other, international crews with a foreign language, including people with disabilities, are often completely new experiences and challenges that have to be mastered. Plan the course together on the nautical map, set sails together, head towards an unknown island and experience the sunrise together in a lonely bay - these are experiences that make children and young people a team and shape them positively.
Web links
- Official website
- Comment from the Austrian daily newspaper Kurier ( Memento from October 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive )