Each week the community in Stoke come together for a free community meal at the YMCA which anyone in can join to share food and meet others in their area. This year, to mark the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, Aida – pictured above – wanted to host the community meal with all of the food being based on recipes from her home country of Bosnia.
She prepared a whole range of delicious Bosnian food and felt it went some way to explain to people in the UK some more about her country and for people to realise it was not only a place of war but also a beautiful and diverse region. Sitting down over a meal gave people a strong way to build relations and learn more about each other and create understanding and dialogue.
After attending a Srebrenica Memorial Day organized by Stoke-on-Trent City Council in 2014, Aida decided to become more involved with Remembering Srebrenica and help raise awareness of the terrible atrocities that took place in Srebrenica in July 1995.
She believes that victims of Srebrenica must not be forgotten and everyone must do whatever they can to help survivors as well as to educate young generations. It is only by constantly remembering and holding community action and raising awareness that we can hope to learn the lessons from history. By doing this, we ensure that those who were murdered and those who lost their loved ones in the genocide are not forgotten.
All of Aida’s traditional Bosnian recipes can be found here for you to try yourself and bring a little bit of Bosnian culture to the UK.
If making a pledge like this interests you, please contact our team at info@srebrenica.org.uk for advice and ideas.
