I met the first days of November in the heart of the Balkans. Still warm during the day and inviting for an afternoon cappuccino in the sunny side of the street, Belgrade offered its visitors a vibrant cityscape as only a kind housekeeper would give some comfort to his guests.

The originators of this journey appeared to be good friends from Balkans let’s get up! 

Each year the program, organised by Theodor-Heuss-Kolleg fosters young people from all over the Balkan countries to translate a creative idea into a real project and turn themselves into local change makers. The memories of my participation, back in 2010 bring only warm feelings of inspiration, friendship and motivation.

This autumn Belgrade became a venue for an evaluation seminar for the latest generation change makers and an alumni meeting. Moreover it gave me the chance to meet my sister who along with her team mate Sofia, presented a project on building friendship and trust between youngsters from an orphanage and an elementary school in a tiny town in Bulgaria.

Among my personal favourites came up to be the project of Tereza and Dimitar from Russe, Bulgaria.

These two talented young people and their organisation tried to up bring responsibility in their fellow-citizens by inviting them to adopt benches, alleys, threes along the river bank of the Danube and to take care of them.

The journey, the happiness of seeing old friends and discovering new great people definitely extended the warmth of the ottobrata Romana for one last time this fall, before coming back home in rainy Milano.