Ina Jazic on Jeopardy Quiz TV show

Nenad,

Someone here at ASCAP noted a Jeopardy that was on a few weeks ago
and there was a young girl from Croatia who was a contestant on the show.
I have a video copy of the program, and Elinore below summed up the action.
Just something for your interest.

Trusting all is well, zdravo,

Michael

Mike,
The girl's name is Ina Jazic, born in Zagreb, Croatia,
she lives in what sounded like Molinbrook, Ill. Hubert Humphrey Middleschool
she got to 2nd place at $18400. The leader was at $20400.
Final question: Name one of two sate capitals ending in U.
She bet everything and lost. Third kid ended up with $1. from $9800.
The leader got it right (Juneau/ Honolulu was the other one)and he ended up
with $36800. That is what I had written down at home. Didn't get a chance to look up the
city and make sure that was write. Also, I don't think they mentioned how
old she was or what grade but I may have missed that.

Elinore Chechak

Op-ed
If anyone knows Ina Jazic, please let us know. 
best,
Nenad

Where is the KingTomislav's, the first monarch of Croatia,picture ?

No place like home
January 18 2003

Ethnic food, culture, countrymen ... you can find them all without leaving town, as Mark Dapin found when he went around the world in 18 clubs. 

Sydney plays host to a United Nations of ethnic clubs, representing countries as far apart as Vietnam and Portugal. Like the UN, they bicker and divide. Unlike the UN, they are united by a love of VB, which half the clubs serve in preference to any national brew.

Membership of registered clubs is open to anybody, regardless of race, religion or soccer affiliation. Visitors to ethnic clubs are always welcome and the clubs offer an authentic introduction to exotic foods, minority sports, rare beers, baffling politics and good old-fashioned weirdness.

The Nineveh Assyrian Club

The Assyrians have a social club, but they don't have a country.

"In the eyes of the world, we don't exist," says duty manager Sargon Raoul. "There's a lot of people who'll tell you we're extinct."

All Sydney's ethnic clubs try to recreate an imaginary homeland, but the Nineveh Assyrian Club makes the most spectacular effort. The building recalls a desert fortress, with clay brick crenulation over the main door, which is flanked by soaring palm trees and guarded by two gigantic winged man-bulls.

The Assyrians are the indigenous Christian people of modern-day Iraq. Their empire crumbled in 612BC and they have faced colonisation, persecution and attempted genocide ever since.

The bistro serves Assyrian specials on weekends. I try some meat and potatoes in spicy tomato sauce. It's OK, but I wouldn't go halfway around the world and 2600 years back in time for it.

Smithfield Road, Edensor Park, 9610 4655.

Croatian clubs

Jadran Hajduk is a soccer team from Split on the Dalmatian Coast and not, as I imagined, a Croatian national hero. The Jadran Hajduk Croatian Club is the smaller of two Croatian clubs in the same street. There seems to be a history of bad blood between them (and don't even mention the Croatian Club in Terrey Hills) but it's not the kind of thing a casual drinker can come to grips with. The Jadran Hajduk's most interesting feature is a bocce alley; it's least interesting is a bank of pokies.

130 Edensor Road, St Johns Park, 9610 1189.

The King Tomislav Croatian Club is home of the Sydney United soccer team. The huge clubhouse has a barn of a bar, with dozens of old men playing cards. (These card players appear to be a feature of every European club in NSW.) There are three large portraits in the room, none of which features King Tomislav, the first monarch of Croatia. The two Irecognize are the Queen of England and Franjo Tudjman, the controversial founder of modern Croatia.

I am peeking at a private function in the restaurant when the manager rumbles me as a spy and asks to see my identification. I am taken into the back room by a big man with a scar across his right eye and given a delicious plate of sausage, kebab, cabbage and chilli sauce. I am told about the planned renovations (they are going to knock through some of the walls, take down the gates, plant a hedge and put up some pictures of King Tomislav), and somebody manages to find a lithograph of a statue of King Tomislav in Zagreb.

223 Edensor Road, Edensor Park, 9610 6111.

Ukrainian Cultural and Social Club

This has to be the friendliest club in Sydney. As soon as I show the vaguest interest in Ukrainian culture (I ask whether it sells Ukrainian beer - no, but there is VB), I'm given a brief lecture on national drinking habits and bustled into an officially closed restaurant, told what to order and served a Ukrainian mixed plate for $6.50. The food - a meat-stuffed cabbage roll and a kind of deep-fried burger - is very tasty but, having already eaten at the Assyrian, Croatian and Serbian clubs tonight, I'm starting to feel the strain.

11 Church Street, Lidcombe, 9649 2285.

Russian Club

Although the Russian Club dates back to just after the Russian Revolution, the building seems a bit synthetic and new, somehow lacking in pedigree.

It is also strangely configured. The restaurant area is in a thoroughfare between the bar and the hall. I pass under a painting of warriors on the steppes and through an archway decorated with a Russian eagle, to reach a room lined with folk art depicting grinning Russian peasants in pre-revolutionary times. 

For $10, the club serves a four-course lunch including borsch, brown bread and dessert. My $12 beef stroganoff was served with Soviet-era courtesy, but was rich and creamy.

Like the Ukrainian Club, the Russian Club offers $5 boxes of takeaway food - and very cheap pierogi - and plays host to a chess team.

7 Albert Road, Strathfield, 9746 8364.

Hakoah Club

The Hakoah was founded as a soccer team by Hungarian-speaking Jewish migrants, but the club cut links with the footballers in 1987, for financial reasons.

"Soccer doesn't have such a great following," says secretary Angie Lipman, "and this was a little Jewish soccer club."

Some of the Hungarian founders still visit daily, to drink coffee and eat the sweetest-looking cakes this side of Melbourne's St Kilda Road, but many new members belong to recently arrived communities of South African, Russian and Israeli Jews.

There is a good gym upstairs, equipped with free weights, punching bags, a climbing wall, a swarm of spin cycles and a Bondi-specific machine called a swimming trainer.

The Hakoah must be the only licensed club in NSW not to serve draught VB. It is certainly the only one I found to serve matzo ball soup.

61-67 Hall Street, Bondi, 9365 9900.

Czechoslovak Sokol Gymnastics Association

This Czech-and-Slovakian club is in an old school gymnasium, where local kids practise gymnastics. The restaurant - open at weekends - is the viewing gallery for the gym.

There are only four dishes on the menu and the Bohemian roasted pork with sauerkraut has sold out. I try svickova, marinated beef in vegetable sauce, and it is gorgeous - easily the nicest meal I have had in any club. The meat is generously served and perfectly stewed and the strange gravy is thick, sweet and spicy. It comes with about 3000 kilojoules of dumplings.

About half the patrons are Czech or Slovak, and most are old. The waiter who brings my Czech Pilsner Urquell beer is 78. He tells this to another diner, who replies with pride: "I'm 79."

16 Grattan Crescent, Frenchs Forest, 9452 5617.

Austrian Club

In a satisfying accident of geographical fidelity, the Austrian Club in Frenchs Forest borders the Czech Club. Even better, there is a Dutch Club to the west (sadly closed for a long Christmas break) and a nearby Scandinavian House.

The Austrian Club is run by volunteers. There are no pokies here (or in Austria, for that matter). A large mural of the Tyrolean Alps dominates the wall overlooking the dance floor, but the imaginary-Austria effect is spoilt by a view of bushland and the Georges River.

The restaurant is another weekends-only affair. Schnitzel and pork knuckles are favourites. The beer, predictably, is great: try Schneider Weisse German wheat beer, or Austrian Gosser, available in dark or light.

About 8.30pm, Austrian folk musicians strike up a tune and the older couples waltz. It is oddly moving to watch them, dancing as if they were in another time, rather than another place.

20 Grattan Crescent, Frenchs Forest, 9452 3304.

Concordia German Club

One of the oldest clubs in NSW, the Concordia today is German practically in name only. Its sports teams have faded - only the old boys play soccer now - but the club has maintained a German choir and there is a German-style nine-pin skittle alley downstairs.

The Concordia draws customers from across Marrickville's ethnic mix, mostly to play the pokies, although the beer selection is excellent, with DAB on tap and Warsteiner, Gosser, Beck's and Hansa in bottles.

The Edelweiss Restaurant (speciality: pork knuckles) can be a lonely place on week nights.

231 Stanmore Road, Stanmore, 9569 5911.

Portuguese Community Club

Surrounded by factories, encircled by a goods-train line and directly under the flightpath, the Portuguese Community Club suffers from a location-location-location problem. It is a bit shabby but atmospheric. The bar is a fair place to drink Portuguese beer and the Vasco da Gama restaurant is probably justified in its claim to being the best Portuguese restaurant in Sydney. It isn't particularly cheap, however. I ordered the grilled barramundi ($16.50). Super Bock and Sagres are the beers to buy.

Fraser Park, Marrickville, 9550 6344.

Alexander the Great Macedonian Hellenic Club

The large, cabaret-style restaurant is packed with Macedonian families wearing some of the most startling Friday-night fashions outside Skopje. A silver-haired gent in a white suit and red silk shirt stands out among stiff competition.

A band strikes up what I guess is Macedonian music, joined suddenly by a booming, disembodied female voice, then a torch singer wearing a skimpy, skin-tight red dress appears, belting out what may well be a much-loved Macedonian standard.

Meanwhile, the waitress serves an incredibly good-value plate of grilled meats and seafood ($25 for more than anybody could eat) washed down with Greek Mythos beer.

I leave when the male crooner starts kissing men in the audience, but this might well encourage other people to stay all night.

160-164 Livingstone Road, Marrickville, 9560 9766.

Hellenic Club

The oldest Greek club in NSW, the Hellenic Club includes an icon-and-souvenir shop, which is useful if you want to pretend you've been to Greece, or if you've returned from a Greek holiday and forgotten to buy a present for your niece.

There is a bar for old Greek men - mostly single guys without families, who spend a lot of their time in the club - and a good-value restaurant that is more popular with cops from the nearby police centre and lawyers from the adjacent courts than with the regular Greek clientele.

251 Elizabeth Street, city, 9264 5128.

International Nippon Anzac Club

The restaurant of the Nippon Anzac Club is decidedly more Nippon than Anzac, whereas the bar is pure digger. Most of the lunchtime diners are Asian, tucking into sushi and sashimi in a below-street-level dining room.

The salmon sashimi lunchbox is salmon sashimi with rice and salad, served on a rock. Not "the rock", as in ice, but "a rock", as in something that is igneous, metamorphic or sedimentary. More Eastern colour is supplied by a large Japanese light, a fish tank and a giant kanji banner over the sushi bar. Asahi Dry beer is available at the bar.

229 Macquarie Street, Sydney, 9232 2688.

Chinese Cultural Club

I am not ashamed to admit it (OK, I am) but I once stood on stage and sang Tie a Yellow Ribbon Around the Old Oak Tree at the karaoke bar of the Chinese Cultural Club. As if to expunge the memory of my shame, the club has since moved to another building.

Open seven days until 3am for the evil triumvirate of TAB, Keno and karaoke, the Chinese Cultural Club stands next to a pagoda-style shelter in the Haymarket heart of Sydney's imaginary China.

Specials listed in the restaurant include lobster, dim sim and, alarmingly, parrot - but this turns out to be a fish. The club serves a workmanlike, fairly cheap yum cha, including the usual pop-art desserts in fluoro colours that do not occur in nature, but there is better to be had outside in Chinatown.

Level 4, 25-29 Dixon Street, Sydney, 9211 1033.

Mekong Panthers

The Mekong used to have a restaurant, but it suffered the same problems as the Chinese Cultural Club: there are perhaps 60 good Vietnamese places within five minutes' walk.

The Mekong is as close as you can get to a casino without hiring croupiers. Among the forest of pokies sit three large Lightning Strike virtual roulette wheels and one five-players-against-the-house video-blackjack table.

Asian beers are sometimes served and at weekends Vietnamese ballroom dancing is popular.

117 John Street, Cabramatta, 9724 6688.

Rembrandt Dutch Club

The Rembrandt Dutch Club began as a snooker team, became a club, split into two clubs, then one club closed.

"And now," says Mia Joosten, "whoever is Dutch and wants to play billiards, they turn up here."

"Here" is closed when I call (the club is open only on Friday nights) but Joosten assures me she serves regional food on Dutch dinner nights: Dutch croquettes, Dutch sausages and Dutch chips ("It's not your yellow, soggy chips - they have to be crisp") washed down with Amsterdam beer and Grolsch. On an ordinary night, fresh bread, smoked herring and eel are available.

87 Dunheved Circuit, St Marys, 9623 2569.

Spanish Club

According to the 2001 census, there are only about 5000 Spanish-born people in NSW and they are widely dispersed, so it's strange there should be an imaginary Spain in Liverpool Street in the city. From the window of the Spanish Club bar, you can see a Spanish pub bistro, a tapas bar and a Spanish delicatessen.

All around the bar, people are speaking Spanish and drinking VB (although San Miguel is available). The restaurant upstairs can't match the local competition for quality or value, although it does host a flamenco dancer on Friday nights.

The Spanish Club is in a better position than most to move into the future. There has been a global explosion of Hispanic culture: J-Lo and Enrique Iglesias, tapas and the tango, samba and sangria. Management has plans to turn the Spanish Club into a trendy nightspot.

That's fine, of course. Just so long as they don't lose the lonely old blokes at the card tables - and the VB.

88 Liverpool Street, city, 9267 8440

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/17/1042520769147.html. 

Immediate Internship Opportunity in DC

Program: Europe and Eurasia

Classification: Fixed-Term (January-May 2003) 
Reports to: Program Officer 

DESCRIPTION: 

The International Foundation for Election Systems
(IFES) is seeking a full-time (30-40 hrs/ week) intern
to work o/a January 15, 2003 to May 31, 2003. The
candidate will provide research and administrative
support to the Central and Eastern European/Balkan
programs within the Europe and Eurasia division, and
will assist with program development in conjunction
with the needs of the project and the intern’s skills.

QUALIFIACTIONS: 

The incumbent should be motivated, well organized and
have the ability to perform multiple tasks
efficiently. Candidate should have strong research,
writing and editing skills. He/She should also have
interest in working for an organization which
specializes in supporting emerging and established
democracies around the world. Proficiency in Word for
Windows and Excel is required and candidate should
also have knowledge of the Balkan region. Regional
experience and language skills preferred. 

DUTIES: 

The specific duties of the Europe and Eurasia Intern
shall include: 

Research assistance for program team; 
Editing and compiling reports and proposals; 
Review of upcoming grants and projects; 
Daily research from academic journals, newspapers,
etc. regarding Balkans region; 
Attend and take notes at relevant briefings within the
Washington community; Drafting standard correspondence; 
Assisting with travel arrangements for consultants and IFES staff; 
Clerical assistance, such as filing or copying; 
Special projects and administrative duties as assigned. 

Candidates should send their cover letter and resume
to jobs@ifes.org  with "Intern-EE" in the subject line.
If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks,
Michelle

Michelle R. Bovich
Human Resources Associate
IFES
1101 15th St., NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202-828-8507
Fax: 202-452-0804
e-mail: mbovich@ifes.org 

Dive Franetovic at Carnegie

Croatian flutist - Hrvatska flautistica at Carnegie Hall's Weill Auditorium 

Croatians in the New York area should know that a very talented 
flutist has won Best Mozart Performance in the European IBLA Foundation 
competition. Dive Franetovic is from Dubrovnik, and will be playing in 
Carnegie Hall's Weill Auditorium, New York, Monday evening March 3, 2003 begining 
at 6:30 p.m. Balcony tickets are $50. Tickets on the ground floor are  $200.
The Carnegie Hall Box Office phone number is 212-247-7800. This is 
Dive's first trip to America and although the tickets are expensive (!), 
I hope that the Croatian community will come out in force because she 
will make you all very proud! People like Dive will show the world what 
bright, talented, and beautiful people come from Croatia. 

Suzanne Lord 
lordlord@siu.edu  

Op-ed
Since these prices are excessive, there must be a way to get a group rate.
If someone is interested to lead, I believe that people will join.

Best,
Nenad Bach

Robert Belinic

Croatian Guitarist: Robert Belinic
Kennedy Center, Washington DC 
Feb 2, 2003 at 2:00 PM
Terrace Theater 
Running Time: 2 hours
Tickets: $25.00 

Program:

JS BACH - Violin Sonata No. 1, BWV 1001
SOR - Introduction et Variations sur l'air "Marlborough s'en va-t-en guerre"
RODRIGO - Tres piezas espanolas
JOSE - Sonata 

ROBERT BELINIC, First Prize Winner of the 2002 Young Concert Artists 
International Auditions, is the first guitarist to join the roster of  YCA. 

Mr. Belinic was also awarded the Fergus New Artist Prize of YCA, The 
Princeton University Concerts Prize, and The Beracasa Foundation Prize 
for an appearance at the Montpellier Radio-France Festival. In 2001, 
Mr. Belinic was the sole winner of the Young Concert Artists European 
Auditions in Leipzig, Germany, hosted by the Hochschule für Musik und 
Theater  Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.  

During the 2002-2003 season, the Young Concert Artists Series will 
present Mr. Belinic s New York recital debut at the 92nd Street Y, 
sponsored by the Claire Tow Debut Prize; his Washington, DC debut at the 
Kennedy Center, sponsored by the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Prize; and his 
Boston debut at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. He also performs 
in the U.S. at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, VA, for the Jewish 
Community Alliance in Jacksonville, FL, and at the Honest Brook Music 
Festival in New York. 

Mr. Belinic has performed as soloist with the Zagreb Philharmonic and 
with the Zagreb Soloists, and has given recitals in Croatia, Slovenia, 
Hungary,Poland, Italy, Germany and The Czech Republic. 
Born in 1981 in Zagreb, Croatia, Robert Belinic grew up in the nearby 
town of Popova. He played the drums beginning at the age of three. 
When he was eight years old, he starred in  Tale from Croatia, the 
first film released in newly-independent Croatia. Robert Belinic began 
to study classical guitar at the age of eleven at the music school in 
Kutina with Zvonko Susnjar, and continued his studies with Ante Cagalj 
in Zagreb. Every year since 1995, he has participated in the 
 International Summer School for Guitar on the Croatian island of Hvar. 
He currently studies at the Music Conservatory in Augsburg,Germany, with 
Franz Halasz. 

Natasha Dukan

The Croatian House, The Croatian Embassy and the AMAC-North 
Capitol are pleased to present: 

NATASHA DUKAN, Croatian pianist
"Dukan played with refined touch, reveling in Scriabin's exotic sonority 
and disquieting harmonic trickery" R. Broun, Washington Post, 2001

With a special guest

Ante Jelincic, clarinet (young talent from the Music Academy of Split, Croatia).

When: FEBRUARY 21, 2003 at 7:30 PM
Where: Austrian Embassy Concert Hall

More detailed information about the concert in my next announcement.

Srdacno,
Danica Ramljak 

A Pianist 

In pianist Natasha Dukan we see a rare combination of passion, intimacy, sensuality, refinement, a powerful differentiated sound and brilliant technique. Her career roots lie in the last turbulent years of the former Yugoslavia, and her Slavic temperament and fire are always in evidence in her performances. She has the rare capacity to play with utter abandon yet maintain absolute control over the myriad complex elements of pianistic craft which lie behind a truly mature technique. Critics have praised her from Moscow to Maryland and audiences are unanimous in their warm appreciation of her gifts. 

Critical Response 

Ronald Broun, critic for the Washington Post, claimed "Dukan played with [a] refined touch, reveling in Scriabin's exotic sonority and disquieting harmonic trickery...her rhythmic pulse was pleasurably elastic, and she threaded limpid legato lines through densely scored commotions." (Washington Post, 2001). Critics in Croatia have said that " In Scriabin her music making reached those interpretive heights where pianistic demands are realized with such ease, assurance, affability and affect that in the end it gives the impression of utmost simplicity" (T. Alajbeg, Dalmatian Free Press, 1999). At the Warsaw competition in 1995 A. Sulek wrote "One of the most distinctive and unusual pianists to appear at the competition ... strong emotions, exquisite pianissimos, towering crescendos..." On a more personal note, Philip Schnering of Broadmead Community Concert Series writes, "Broadmead residents are still talking about your concert. Your performance was exotic and masterful. We were charmed with your youth and spirit, not only with your mastery of your art. With all its excellence, it seemed as if you were having fun. We can't begin to thank you enough." 

Background 

Born in Split on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, Natasha Dukan won many National competitions before entering the Art Academy of Novi Sad, former Yugoslavia's premier music school. She studied with Jokuthon Kadirova-Mihailovich (an Uzbeki from Tashkent who had studied at Moscow Conservatory in its heyday when Heinrich Neuhaus roamed the halls), and later with virtuoso Kemal Gekich. During her university years she had numerous appearances with national orchestras and in recitals. After appearing at the Tchaikowsky Competition in Moscow 1986 she went on to win first prize in Stresa, Italy, and her appearance at the 1995 Chopin Competition in Warsaw led to numerous subsequent concert engagements throughout Poland. Her festival appearances include the Split, Ohrid, Skopje and Hvar summer festivals, and she has given concerts in Germany, Spain, Poland and Russia. She has recorded for radio and television in her native country and Italy. 

In 1996 Ms. Dukan received a full scholarship to study with Julian Martin at the Peabody Institute, Baltimore. She graduated with a Graduate Performance Diploma in 1998 and was immediately admitted (on full scholarship) to the prestigious Artist Diploma Program. Her North American appearances include the 1998 American Liszt Society Festival in Hamilton, Canada and the Texas Festival of Young Artists, where she first appeared in 1997 and was immediately invited to return in 1998. Ms. Dukan recently appeared in the Church of the Epiphany's Tuesday Concert Series and the Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Center Summer Concerts in Washington DC as well as the Fairfax Concert Series in Virginia. 

Selected Recitals 

Washington DC, Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Center Summer Concerts , August 2001 
Washington DC, Musicians Resource Council Concert Series, February 2000 
Fairfax, Virginia, Rising Stars Concert Series, January 2000 
Split, Croatia, 45th Split Summer Festival, August 1999 
Washington DC, Church of the Epiphany, Tuesday Concert Series, March and October 1999, April 2002 
Baltimore, Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall, Francis Poulenc Centenary Celebration, January 1999 
Hamilton, Canada, Central Presbyterian Church, The Great Romantics Festival, October, 1998 
Plano, Texas, John Anthony Theatre, Texas Conservatory for Young Artists, June 1997 and June 1998 
Poland, Concert Tour, October 1995 

Selected Concerto Appearances 

1989 P. I. Tchaikowsky, Concerto in b-minor with Croatian National Orchestra 
1988 S. Rachmaninov, Concerto No. 2 with Croatian National Orchestra 
1982 E. Grieg, Concerto in a-minor with Croatian National Orchestra 

Selected Recordings 

CD Recording with Palexa, Montreal, supported in part by the Peabody's Career Development Grant (in progress) 
CD Live Recording of recital in Texas (1998): 
-A. Scriabin: Preludes, op. 16; Two Poems op.32 
-S. Rachmaninov: Sonata No. 1 
Radio Milan, Italy: E. Pozzoli: Piano Pieces (1985) 
Radio Split, Croatia: L.v.Beethoven: Sonata op. 31, No. 3; F. Chopin: Balade op. 52 (1986) 

Selected Competition Appearances 

2000 Russel C. Wonderlic Memorial Recital Competition, Baltimore, second prize. 
1999 Concert Artist Guild Competition, New York, semifinalist 
1997 Harrison Winter Concerto Competition, Baltimore, second Prize 
1995 Frederic Chopin International Piano Competition, Warsaw, Poland 
1986 International Piano Competition, Stresa, Italy, First Prize 
1986 P. I . Tchaikowsky International Piano Competition, Moscow 

Professional Appointments/Teaching Experience 

2000-present, Piano Teacher (part-time) at the The Academy of Music in Gaithersburg, Maryland 
1999-2000, Piano Teacher (part-time) at the Musicians Institute of Baltimore 
1998-2000, Teaching Assistant in Piano Performance in studio of Julian Martin, Peabody Conservatory 
1997-1998, Graduate Teaching Assistant in Accompanying, Peabody Conservatory: 
1996-1997, Graduate Assistant in Opera Couching, Peabody Conservatory: 
1993-1994 Graduate Assistant at the European Piano Teacher Association (EPTA) 
1984-1990 Teaching Assistant in Accompanying, University of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia 

Academic Background 

2001 Artist Diploma, Peabody Conservatory, class of Julian Martin 
1998 Graduate Performance Diploma, Peabody Conservatory, class of Julian Martin 
1988 Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance, University of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, class of Yokuthon Mihailovich 

Is there a community in Croatia which could use assistance in the following categories:

" Business Experience
" English Conversation
" Community Infrastructure: Building and Painting Projects
" Improve Basic Health Care
" Nurture at-risk Children 
" Work with Disabled Adults
" Work in Libraries

Since 1984, the "Global Volunteers - Partners in Development" set the standard for "volunteer vacations" as the first private, non-profit, non-sectarian organization providing short-term volunteer teams to host communities in 18 countries, including Italy, Romania, Greece, Spain, Poland, Ukraine, Ireland, etc.As a non-governmental organization, the Global Volunteers is an accredited charity in Guidestar. Please see their web site and financial statement onhttp://www.globalvolunteers.org/  


By working hand-in-hand with local people who are in charge, volunteers are simply there to assist them using their own vacation time and money. By encouraging and enabling residents of the United States and Canada to spend short periods of time working with and learning from local people in communities around the world, volunteers pay their own airfare, program and lodging costs which are tax deductible to US tax payers. The cost could be anywhere from $500.00 to over $3,000 depending on the location. All contributions and program related expenses are deductible because volunteers do the work of Global Volunteers. 

Global Volunteers philosophy of service is to wage peace and promote justice. Local people are in charge! Local people are the source of development. Individuals, families and neighborhoods must initiate and conduct their own development efforts through community based organizations. Effective development is initiated at the local level and requires the full participation of local people. 

The Global Volunteers have been invited to teach English in the classroom, tutor English teachers, explain how North Americans employ the basic principles of free enterprise and sound business practices via seminars and one-on-one consultation, provide agribusiness instructions, train home gardeners in the field, teach planning and problem solving by facilitating community forums, help local people build schools and health clinics, identify crop diseases, construct water purification systems, etc. 

Global Volunteers does only what local people ask them to do. The reason is simple: in order for people to become self-reliant, they must be in charge. 

Global Volunteers provides some capacity in the form of materials, tools, etc. Where the project is ongoing and there is a need for funding to complete it, Global Volunteers may provide financial assistance on a matching basis. 

This program requires 5 hours of work during the week and then volunteers are free to enjoy the rest of their day on their own. 

I know there is many Croatian Americans interested in volunteering to work and vacation in Croatia. I'm one of them. This year, I'm going to Greece, but I would prefer to go to Croatia. I hope that very soon a host organization or a community in Croatia will invite Global Volunteers to establish a partnership.