Croatia
Focus: International Community Rebuilding
Location: Vukovar and Zagreb
Languages: English and multiple Balkan languages
Housing: Shared residences
Costs & Credits:
Check our application section for details.
What does it take to rebuild in today's Croatia? A candidate for admission to the European Union and a worldclass tourist destination boasting the spectacular Dalmatian coast, Croatia also confronts serious social issues such as persistent economic hardship outside of tourist areas. Global PACT Croatia brings you an insiders' perspective of the country.
Our location is Vukovar, a city ravaged by a long siege during the Balkan wars of the 1990's, which led to the breakup of Yugoslavia. It is here that we will engage issues as overwhelming as the continuing rebuilding sixteen years after the conflict, ethnic cleansing and its aftermath, poverty, crime, unemployment, clean water, racism, and environmental degradation, to name just a few. Which tough choices do you make when investing for the future? Highways or houses? Stadiums or sanitation? Grandchildren or grandmothers?
Global business people, Croatian ministries, the staff of nongovernmental organizations, diplomats, aid officials, and employees of international organizations deal with these issues on a daily basis. These are also the very real situations that confront Croatians every day, including Croatians your age. But where will you get the knowledge, skills and attitudes to take on these issues?
How can you join with Croatians your own age to participate in the process of social change and bring your ideas and skills to the table? By joining Global PACT, you'll discover the fundamentals of social-change start-up and management by beginning a new project in Croatia through a unique partnership with Global PACT and Push LAB, a Croatian NGO.
A Typical Day
During a typical day, you will receive six hours of Global PACT classroom instruction -- three in the morning and three in the afternoon. You will listen to lectures, interact with instructors as a class, and work one-to-one with a small, multi-national group and Global PACT trainers. You and your team members will make frequent class presentations to the large group.
On some days you will travel around the city conducting research for your project, and on the final day your group will conduct a live press conference to introduce your project to the media. After class, you will be free to hang out with your classmates, although some project work will require you to work with your team after classroom hours are over.
