This year FairPlay. Different Colours. One Game at VIDC and the Balkan Alpe Adria Project (BAAP) acted as the regional coordinators for the FARE network. BAAP and FairPlay-VIDC pro-actively supported and allocated grants for the activities taking place in the Western Balkan region including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia and Albania.
In total 27 organisations and sports clubs from the region applied for a small grant. Nine organisations from the FYR of Macedonia put in an application, five came from Bosnia and Herzegovina, one from Albania, one from Kosovo, three from Montenegro and eight from Serbia. Each of the 27 applicants received financial support and implemented various activities during the FARE Action Weeks, ranging from organising multi-ethnic football tournaments, stadium actions during league match days to anti-racism education in schools.
Bosnia and Herzegovina showed racism and nationalism the RED CARD
In Bosnia and Herzegovina some well-directed activities were implemented to fight racism and take a stand against nationalism in the Western Balkans. These targeted different sectors of the society such as fan groups and children from different ethnic communities.
The NGO BAAP - Bosnia and Herzegovina has been participating in the FARE Action Weeks for many years. This year again the organisation in cooperation with local football clubs and the Football Association Bosnia and Herzegovina planned and realised several activities during three Premier League matches in Bosnia and Herzegovina taking place in Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mostar and Trebinje On Saturday, October 19, FK Velez played against NK Vitez in Mostar whereas Leotar Trebinje and FK Slavija met to play against each other in Trebinje. During both matches BAAP implemented stadium actions to raise awareness against racism and nationalism in football. The players entered the field carrying a FARE banner saying „No to discrimination, Yes to equality“ and wearing t-shirts with the logos of BAAP, FARE and their club. Right before the game kick off the players showed Red Cards saying „NO“ to racism and nationalism. A similar stadium action was also realised during the Premier League match FK Zeljeznicar vs. FK Velez Mostar which was played in Sarajevo in the Zeljo-stadium on Saturday, 26 October. Additionally, the activity in Sarajevo was followed by the local media and broadcasted on national TV.
Besides BAAP – Bosnia and Herzegovina, the NGO “Association Orchid Stolac”, the football school “No Limit” from Stolac, the organisation “Zajedno - Youth Initiative for Human Rights” and the “Informal Youth Group” from Zenica became active during the FARE Action Weeks.
Also Serbian, Montenegrin, Albanian and FYR of Macedonian NGOs and football clubs implemented stadium actions during the FARE Action Weeks.
Newcomer Kosovo
For the first time the Kosovar NGO “Gender Equality Movement” from Pristina participated in the campaign and performed fan choreographies during several football matches.
“In the beginning it was very difficult to organise activities dealing with sexual equality and homosexuality as these topics are still a big taboo in Kosovo but I think that at the end we did quite a good job” sais Ismail Cakolli from the Kosovar NGO “Gender Equality Movement” that participated in the FARE Action Weeks for the first time.
The NGO started their activities by promoting the idea of the FARE Action Weeks inviting particularly homosexual women to participate in workshops on gender issues and football tournaments. “Gender Equality Movement” organised activities in three Kosovar cities aiming to bring together people who are marginalised and discriminated due to their sexual orientation through sportive events.
“In one of the trainings I stressed how important it is for the community to gather together and play football as sport can bring together people and make their problems appear smaller. I went to three cities in Kosovo and met so many lesbians who all live a double life. Their parents want to marry them off which they can hardly refuse as to the strong traditional and partriarchal system that is still omnipresent in Kosovo” explains Mr. Cakolli.
The rather desperate situation of transsexual people became very clear during one meeting with transsexual Roma people living isolated in a house 15 minutes away from the capital Pristina. Gender Equality Movement provided them with sanitary products and some food and will focus their future work on the social inclusion of the Roma community.
Here is the link to the list of all activities during the FARE Action Weeks: 
www.farenet.org
Read more about the activities in the Western Balkans
Also follow our facebook site on our Balkanprojects: https://www.facebook.com/Balkanprojects
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