Aida Salkić Haughton has joined people from across the city who are working with Remembering Srebrenica and YMCA North Staffs to organise Stoke-on-Trent’s second event marking Srebrenica Memorial Day.
And she is also working with volunteers across the West Midlands region – joining the organisation’s regional board – as they plan a series of memorial events from Stoke-on-Trent down to Birmingham.
This year’s event in Stoke-on-Trent will take place on 10 Jul 2015 at the YMCA Sky Room venue in the city and local volunteers are currently working up a full programme.
Aida, aged 41, is originally from Cazin, in Bosnia-Herzegovina. She has been living in Stoke-on-Trent for over four years and works at the city’s YMCA. She said:
“After attending Srebrenica Memorial Day organized by Stoke-on-Trent City Council last year, I have decided to get more involved with the organization itself and help raise awareness of the terrible atrocities that took place in Srebrenica in July 1995.
I believe that victims of Srebrenica must not be forgotten and each one of us must do whatever in our power to help survivors as well as to educate young generations so that such genocide would never happen again.”
Remembering Srebrenica raises awareness of the genocide in the UK. It works with people across the country to help strengthen British society by learning the lessons of history. It organises UK memorial events.
It aims to organise 100 events throughout the UK to mark Srebrenica Memorial Day. Most of these will take place in Srebrenica Memorial Week (5-12 July 2015). The national ceremony will take place on 6th July at Westminster Abbey, London, when over 2,000 guests are expected.
“I mentioned to my boss at the YMCA North Staffs, CEO Danny Flynn, that I had been offered a seat on Remembering Srebrenica’s regional board charity and we were looking for a free-of-charge venue, he instantly offered us the YMCA Sky Room,” said Aida.
“The only pre-condition was that I cook a Bosnian meal as a part of the YMCA’s Community Meal Project one week before, which I gladly accepted. ‘Let us all be Bosnians for a day!’ said Danny as he was booking both events in his calendar.”
The YMCA was founded in 1897 and is the biggest Christian youth movement in the world. It provides services to young people locally, with no matter what race, religion and culture they belong to.
“More than 1,500 people use the YMCA’s services and resources in Stoke-on-Trent every month,” said Aida. “The YMCA wishes to include as many of our young people as possible to teach them about the events and consequences of a war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.”
