The elementary school "Radoje Domanovic" from Vranje is well-known for the way it marks its School Day  - with unique cultural and artistic content, turning it into a city-wide celebration.  The school is also known for the fact that it has been attended by migrant and refugee children since the beginning of the increased influx of migrants nearly a decade ago. 

This year, the school was awarded a small grant within the EU SUPPORT TO MIGRATION MANAGEMENT IN SERBIA – IMPROVING RECEPTION CAPACITY, PROTECTION SERVICES AND ACCESS TO EDUCATION III, contributing to staging the inclusive play.

A powerful message of inclusion transcending national and cultural differences was sent from one of the oldest theaters in Serbia through a play with a symbolic name “This is the Country for Us”, that Serbia is indeed a country for all of us, whether we are from Vranje, Belgrade, Ukraine or Burundi.

For the author of the play, teacher Ani Mikic, this is the fourth play in the past two years that she staged including pupils from Ukraine. The teacher proudly points out that the first two Ukrainian students who came to Vranje were admitted to her class, embraced wholeheartedly by their local peers. 

The goal of the play is to reduce stereotypes about migrants and refugees, encourage socialization and promote intercultural exchange and tolerance, as a model of peer behavior. At the same time, to sensitize the local community about the challenges that the school’s teaching and management staff face, which is most often the lack of resources and the inability to respond to the complex demands of donors, ministries, and various other actors involved in education. 

The central theme is the unity of all these actors emersed in the educational process and how only through their joint contribution all children can aspire toward equal access to education under equal conditions, regardless of differences.

Through signing, dancing and the witty sketches performed by 120 students of "Radoje Domanovic" elementary school and their peers from Ukraine, their parents, and teachers, a typical school day with all its challenges and the bright moments was revealed in a unique creative spectacle. 

Events of this kind are not only a rewarding artistic experience but transmit important messages of migration that all children should have equal access to education regardless of the differences, that we learn from each other, grow together and contribute to the community we are a part of, richer for new experiences and approaches to education.