Making a Splash in the Community

Dozens of area youth use the Kursumlja swimming pool every day. Photo: Mercy Corps Serbia

It seems like most youth in Kursumlja plan to leave the municipality as soon as they can. Kursumlja is one of the most economically-depressed municipalities in Serbia and youth see no hope of finding their future here.

The birth rate in the municipality is extremely low and it is becoming evident that only those who have no choice remain.

For years, the only entertainment available to Kursumlja’s youth was to hang out in the two or three local cafes and to watch people pass by. Then Mercy Corps, through the USAID-funded Community Revitalization through Democratic Action (CRDA) program, suggested that the town think of ideas for solving the problems of migration and hopelessness in the area.

The Kursumlja Community Development Council and Municipality eagerly proposed the reconstruction of the town’s swimming pool.

“We had a swimming pool before anyone else did,” said one Krusumlja resident. ”It is too bad that nobody could pay for its maintenance. Now we really have nothing here.”

Because the cost of the swimming pool was too high for it to be considered a CRDA project, the Municipality offered to pay for the reconstruction of the swimming pool itself as long as CRDA could help with the reconstruction of the changing rooms and bathrooms in the swimming pool complex.

The project not only helped youth to have something to do for the summer, but it also helped the Municipality, community leaders and youth to learn to work together.

The swimming pool is now open four months a year and is the place in town to meet people. Maybe the social fabric created in this swimming pool will help youth to fight for the revitalization of their municipality.