On the last day of September, the Viennese Albert Hall hosted a ceremony on the occasion of SECS Prosvjeta’s jubilee – 10 years of supplementary Serbian schools in Austria, which was attended by a large number of guests and state dignitaries. The ceremony was also attended by the Head of the Representative Office of the Republic of Srpska in Austria, Mladen Filipović, who said that the Representation had been cooperating with Prosvjeta for many years and supporting the Society’s work.

‘Prosvjeta as an institution is not only important for our people in Serbia, the Republic of Srpska and the diaspora, as proved by tonight’s celebration of this anniversary in Vienna, but it shows that through work, endeavour, in difficult and in good conditions, our people can succeed. For the institutions of Serbia and the Republic of Srpska, especially for the parallel relations that we have and nurture, and the Representation which supports the activities of our diaspora at all times, in particular those of Prosvjeta, this is proof that our children can learn the language, learn the alphabet, preserve their traditions and culture and cherish everything that is ours, Serbian, and this can be done even outside the borders of our countries.

Austria is significant because it has a large number of our people, there are already fourth and fifth generations living and working here. In Austria, they say that Serbs are well integrated, in general the peoples from the Balkans are also considered well integrated.

This indicates that in the future, Serbian schools will have an official place in the curriculum of Austrian schools, especially in primary schools, where a large number of our children are growing up and learning their first letters and words, so that, in addition to Prosvjeta, our Serbian Orthodox Church also contributes to people gathering, not forgetting where we are from, and also contributing to the development of culture in Austria, and I am glad that we can mark such an important date with many dignitaries from the Government of the Republic of Srpska and Serbia present tonight’, says Mladen Filipović, head of the Republic of Srpska Representation in Vienna.