SYPN is a private non-profit organisation run by volunteers. Our mission statement is "to promote and encourage a Croatian network amongst Students and Young Professionals in the UK".

CSYPN has generated an academic and professional network of contacts between Croatia and Britain. This is used to help promote and increase awareness of Croatia amongst the British public.

Our members consist of both Croatian and British citizens. They are enthusiasts who love Croatia and work tirelessly to promote it, having fun in the process.

Since our start in 2000, we have gone from strength to strength. Our membership has been increasing every year and now we are the biggest and most important Croatian society in the UK. We produce a wide range of activities and events throughout the year.

Love culture? We do, too. CSYPN have organised lectures about the Croatian language and Glagolitic script in Cambridge and London by leading Croatian academics.

Furthermore, we invited 'The Independent' journalist and author Marcus Tanner to give a talk on his much praised history of Croatia and Margaret Thatcher's former adviser Robin Harris to give us a talk on his acclaimed history of Dubrovnik.

Add to that a few concerts we have organised, and other events our members have supported and you get quite a significant cultural calendar.

If your interest lies in sports - there is something for you. Many of us play or follow sports together - whether it is football or tennis or something else. Some even attended Goran's epic Wimbledon final. We booked space in a fashionable pub to watch the Euro 2004 games and it was packed with almost 200 Croatian supporters. The media turned up in huge numbers also. The BBC, ITV, Sky, and most newspapers they were all there enjoying the tournament.

But the best part is socialising - pub events, dinners, celebrations of Croatian Independence, countryside walks, etc. Many people attend our events and there is always somebody interesting to talk to. We even have had a few marriages.

CSYPN is on the right road and it will continue to organize many great events. Closer Croatia shows what we can do. Why not join us?

eople in Croatia take the culture very seriously.

If you are foreign, but consider yourself to be an observant visitor, sit in Croatian café in Zagreb, Osijek or maybe somewhere on the coast and listen carefully (learn a few Croatian words and phrases before you do that, I also advise). Chances are you will hear people discussing arts in a manner in which some other nations might talk about sport or politics passionately, with the strong conviction and infectious enthusiasm.

This is something that we don't lose when go abroad, quite the opposite - we want to convert other, more inhibited art lovers to feel free to do the same.

Croatian Artists Network (CAN) doesn't have a long history (it started only last year), but it has a more than a perfect timing. By conceiving and co-organising Closer Croatia, we hope that we started enjoyable process of unfolding and unpacking a hidden treasure which Croatian culture was and still is.

Now we want British audiences to join us in this wonderful, soul-lifting process and then ask us to bring some more.

Enjoy.

Andrea Miljkovic - Kosovac
CAN
andreamiljkovic63@hotmail.com