Genocide story told to students

Pupils from Ballymena and the wider Mid and East Antrim area have heard the poignant story of a genocide survivor at the Braid.
Students who attended the event pictured with the Mayor and Safet Vukalic.Students who attended the event pictured with the Mayor and Safet Vukalic.
Students who attended the event pictured with the Mayor and Safet Vukalic.

Safet Vukalić, a Bosnian Muslim who survived persecution in Bosnia in the 1990s, coming to the UK as a refugee in 1994,

was in Ballymena recently to talk about his own personal experience and give an insight into some of the most unimaginable events.

Students from St Louis Grammar School, Slemish College, Dunclug College and St Patrick’s College attended the event.

Three genocide visitors will visit over 50 schools and organisations across Northern Ireland, taking their stories to over 4,000 people.

Mayor Councillor Maureen Morrow, said: “I was very honoured to be invited to this talk organised by the Executive Office.

The stories that we heard from Safet were incredibly moving and I know the pupils will benefit from being able to hear them first hand.”

The programme is supported by The Executive Office working closely with the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. The event was part of the lead up to Holocaust Memorial Day 2020 which will mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1945 and July 2020 will mark 25 years since the genocide in Srebrenica, Bosnia.