The voices of those who could benefit Bosnia and Herzegovina’s peacebuilding and transitional justice processes the most are not being heard. Existing approaches to media reform in the region have largely focused on changing the production of news, rather than looking to diversify the producers themselves. Through its Srđan Aleksić Youth Competition, PCRC aims to catalyze a new participatory form of media to transform the way in which positive stories of interethnic cooperation and reconciliation are reported on in BiH—through the voices of BiH’s youth. By utilizing our unique online media platform Balkan Diskurs as well as our expertise in journalism, digital activism and social media, we are able to not only give a voice to the youth who participate in the competition, but also to the ordinary heroes who inspired the program.

Since 2014, each year, PCRC runs a nation-wide competition that challenges Bosnian youth, ages 16 – 30, to uncover stories from their communities that relate to moral courage, rescuer behavior and interethnic cooperation.

The Srđan Aleksić Youth Competition is a component of PCRC’s award-winning Ordinary Heroes Peacebuilding Program.

All stories produced within the competition can be found here.