At NGO Academy, we believe in the power of collaboration. That is why we aim to provide spaces for networking to our members whenever possible. When we heard about two of our member organisations, Kozlići and Zeleno Zlato, collaborating succesfully since 5 years after meeting at an NGO Academy workshop, we simply had to ask for their story. A big thanks to Vera & Martina for sharing how together, they brought culture to 200 kids in undeveloped areas of Croatia.
At first glance, the two Croatian organisations Kozlići and Zeleno Zlato do not have too much in common: they are active in different fields and in different parts of Croatia. Kozlići is a small organisation from Zagreb that creates interdisciplinary art programmes for kids and youngsters. Zeleno Zlato is based in Sisak-moslavina County and dedicated to promoting sustainable development by empowering vulnerable groups and developing a civil society via local communities.
2017, in Kozlići’s founding year, project manager Vera participated in one of NGO Academy’s Regional Programme workshops – and so did Martina from Zeleno Zlato. The two met and quickly realized that despite working in different fields of activity, they had similar interests and stayed in contact.
The two organisations collaborated in a series of cultural programmes for kids in central Croatia where art performance is less accessible than in the bigger cities. Thanks to the collaboration, almost 200 children from cities and villages such as Petrinja, Glina, Topusko, Hrvatska Kostajnica, and Sisak had an opportunity to participate in the programme. Martina, who also works as a headmaster at Banovina Heritage Interpretation Centre (ICBB), organized performances there, as well as in schools and kindergartens in the county. The cooperation was so fruitful that two organizations jointly produced and created original “kamishibai” folk tales from the region. The illustrator of these stories was the local artist Mima Juracak.
