The Manchester Peace Park is being built by Manchester Aid to Kosovo (MaK) and the community of Podujevë, Kosovo, with support from the Eden Project in Cornwall, England. MaK works in partnership with the Municipality of Podujevë.
Catalysts to this collaboration are the Bogujevci children, five cousins who were aged 5 to 13 years in 1999 when medically evacuated to Manchester by the British Army. The children are the sole survivors of a massacre on March 28th 1999 of women and children in Podujevë, Kosova, which took place the height of the Balkans ethnic cleansing campaign.
The cousins, Genc, Lirie, Jehona, Fatos and Saranda, received multiple gunshot injuries and lost 8 members of their family including their mothers, grandmother and siblings and their close friends, the Duriqi family. The Manchester Peace Park is being created at the request of the Bogujevci children in their home town, Podujevë, the site of the massacre. See short Channel M documentary film
The site is 9 hectares of field and woodland. Manchester Peace Park will be owned and managed by the Municipality of Podujevë in the long term. The summit above the site is one acre and has commanding views of the surrounding countryside including the Serb border. It has huge potential for development as a teaching resource. A successful creative summer school has been led MaK’s professional teachers and volunteers from both the UK and Kosova since 2005. Accidents involving UXO continue be experienced in Kosova, often affecting children. The Peace Park site has been assessed as safe by UNMAK.
The park has been designed by Jane Knight, Landscape Architect of the Eden Project, Cornwall. Eden has given MaK much valued inspiration and support since 2004. Jane works closely with MaK and the community of Podujeva. Her park design developed through a collaborative process that has involved workshops both at Eden and in Kosova. The process continues. The Peace Park is organic and will never be ‘completed’ and was dedicated (BBC News Report 28.3.2009)
“MaK have done amazing things to help this community and Eden has been only too pleased to help. This is a story of transformation and hope. The project has gone from strength to strength. It’s a huge human story of dedication to the place. The park is the focus of the renewal of the community. It is the best and most significant project I have ever been involved with.” Jane Knight (landscape architect, Eden Project)
We have also been supported by the Sue Hill, as Artistic Director of the Eden Project. Sue’s creativity and enthusiasm has uplifted and inspired artists in the Kosovar community leading to exciting collaborative projects.
“I recently travelled to Kosova to work on the Peace Park. It was at once the most harrowing and inspiring experience. Harrowing because we were working with people who had lost their entire families in the most brutal and inhumane circumstances. Inspiring because the young people we worked with were full of the future and its possibilities for growth, beauty, friendship, wonder, play… “ Sue Hill (sculptor, theatre maker, artistic director, Eden Project)
Jane Knight travelled to Kosovo to take delivery of the oaks, maples, ginkgos, hollies and several types of flowering trees.
With the help of a project team of 11 men from the Manchester area who all belong to the group 4 Mission and volunteer with MAK, Jane led the planting of a tranquil grove within the 22-acre open space.
Following a ten year consultation process with the community, the Manchester Peace Park now includes art and sculpture, elements of remembrance, a planted garden, children’s play areas, spaces for rest, reflection and story-telling, a central arena for meeting and performance, a trim trail and football area. A Wild Zone was created to encourage a new form of public space dedicated to creativity and play in nature see WildZone Kosovo Report . MaK wants to ensure that the Peace Park retains year-long interest and attracts a wide range of participants and users of all ages from all ethnic communities in an inclusive programme of events.
The site resources the large immediate community (130,000) but has the potential for far wider geographical reach. Two primary schools with no play facilities adjoin the site with 5,000 pupils on a 4 shift system.
Through the Manchester Peace Park, MaK is committed to community engagement, physical regeneration, developing arts and creative industries, and strengthening links to education
