UNICEF and Belgrade Marathon for School without Violence

School without Violence: towards Safe and Enabling Environment is a comprehensive programme for pupils, teachers, parents and entire communities that UNICEF implements in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Sports, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Policy, Council for Children’s Rights and Institute for Advancement of Education.

UNICEF and its partners are announcing the beginning of a new national campaign for promoting the “School without Violence“programme and fundraising for additional funds. The implementation so far has shown that there is a need to intensify the programme and involve more schools.

The previous campaign introduced the programme to the general public and made its goals and its importance for the community visible, and the specific result was the application of 112 schools. So far the programme is being implemented in 54 primary schools in Serbia involving 29,000 pupils, and 5,900 teaching and non-teaching staff.

The preliminary results of the survey that was carried out in the pilot phase of the programme in four schools and involved 2, 273 respondents (1,984 pupils and 289 school staff) show that violence is widespread in schools. In the past three months, the highest number of pupils was exposed to some form of verbal or physical violence. At the same time, these same pupils admit that they themselves humiliated or physically attacked their peers. This clearly shows that there is no black-and-white division to the victims of violence and those who perpetrate violence, but a much more complicated chain of mutual violence in schools. The “School without Violence” programme can help find a way from the existing “culture of violent behaviour”. The goal of the new national campaign is to have an additional 50 schools included into the programme.

The fact that the “School without Violence” is financed solely through local resources - donations by citizens and the private sector - proves that the programme is fully recognised and accepted by the people of Serbia. The initial funds for the beginning of the programme implementation in four schools were collected last year at the farewell basketball game of Aleksandar Djordjevic, UNICEF National Ambassador for Serbia and Montenegro. The involvement of the additional 50 schools was made possible by the voluntary donations of citizens and private businesses in the amount of 17.3 million dinars.

The Belgrade Marathon has now joined in the partnership for the “School without Violence“. The slogan of this year’s marathon is “19th Belgrade Banca Intesa Marathon – for School without Violence“.

International sports legend Carl Lewis will also join the campaign. He will be a special guest and promoter at the fundraising cocktail party for the corporate sector that will be held on 20 April thanks to NIS Petrol Company.

Citizens and all those interested in the campaign can give their donation by sending an SMS to 1056 on all networks and by direct payments to the UNICEF bank account number 908-20501-70/50311-1945-8-00618.

Let’s run on the long track for the “School without Violence“

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For all additional information please contact Ms. Jadranka Milanovic,

UNICEF Communication Officer

Tel: 3602-100; e-mail:belgrade@unicef.org