Reconciliation is a very important factor in bringing peace into a society that has experienced conflict. Reconciliation shouldn’t be enforced by external forces, but efforts at reconciliation need to be made voluntarily by people and the society where the conflict was experienced. By creating opportunities that enable different ethnic groups to communicate with each other, JCCP has helped to start a chain reaction that will trigger reconciliation through sustainable systems.
In 2009, JCCP started a project in the Balkan region, with a goal of reconciliation and coexistence between different ethnic groups. Since January 2011, three years after this project was started, JCCP operated and cooperated closely with a tree-planting and cleaning reconciliation project involving seven local schools in Petrovac County. In total, 2731 people, including local students, parents and school staff joined this project, which resulted in about 8,390 young trees being planted in a four hectare area of Petrovac.
 
In May 2012, after the project finished, JCCP staff from the head office in Tokyo visited Mr. Gaultier, a head county officer of Petrovac County. Mr Gaultier said, “This project was carried out by different ethnic groups jointly, and it helped to improve communication between different ethnic groups. This is something that people couldn’t have imagined before the project happened. Students will have summer holiday soon, but we are going to look after the trees regularly, which were planted nearby schools. We will continue this project on our own to create more opportunities for our children to communicate with other ethnic groups, and I will do my best to make sure the project continues, so please leave it to me.” He continued, “When I visited Cerklje, a sister city of Petrovac County, with 50 children from different ethnic groups in Petrovac County, I introduced our joint project. Elementary school students and teachers from Cerklje were very interested in it. We are proud of the results of the project and we are thankful for this big present from JCCP. We really appreciate it.“

 
As a result of this joint project, garbage was reduced, cleaning projects in towns became more active, and children water young trees that they planted. Through this project, local children’s awareness of environmental issues has also been raised. Throughout the regions where JCCP operated projects in Serbia and Macedonia over the last three years, the cities and elementary schools have created a budget to continue these activities. Additionally they pass these activities on to other elementary schools in other regions. Teachers, mayors and officers who have been involved in these joint projects introduce voluntary exchange activities to other regions that still have ethnic issues.
We are really proud of local elementary school students and local people who have supported this project even better than we expected in the beginning and we truly appreciate JCCP members, JCCP supporters and support groups who supported our activities from Japan.

(Note: This project was supported by donations from JCCP members, JCCP supporters, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan NGO grant assistance, and MS&AD Unison Smile Club)