At a time of great temptations, faced with one of the greatest global challenges for all mankind, the “Karic Brothers” Foundation presented the Awards for the 23rd time

“We managed to realize the most important project, to maintain continuity and present our Award for the 23rd time! We have never given up, not even in the most difficult times from the end of the last century when our country was bombed, nor during the ten years of great temptations for our family and the persecution of the founder of this Award, my Bogoljub. We kept on going in spite of everything and we kept on bringing more brilliant personalities and ingenious minds of extraordinary people to our, currently very large family of the “Karić Brothers” Award.”

Milanka Karić –
founder of the Karić Brothers Foundation

The “Karić Brothers” awards were presented to brave, noble, humane, persistent and, above all, exceptional individuals. Their outstanding work and lives that are unique only to great people and those dedicated to their work, speak for themselves. This year’s winners of the “Karić Brothers” Award are:

• In the category of Culture and Arts – Prof. Dyusen Kaseinov, Prof. Dr Uroš Dojčinović and Prof. Milovan Vitezović.
– Impressive biography of Prof. Dyusen Kaseinov started with studying music at the Tattimbet High School of Music; then he pursued his studies at the Kurmangazy State Institute of Fine Arts, also from 1966 he worked as a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Kazak Radio and Television in Almaty, later he pursued his professional career as a teaching instructor at the Moscow P. I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Between 1972 – 1978, he assumed the duty of Chief Instructor at the Kurmangazy State Conservatory of Almaty.
After having worked as a member of the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra for three years, he returned to Kazakhstan where he assumed the position of Chair of the Violin Department at the Kurmangazy State Conservatory of Almaty. In 1997, Prof. Dyusen Kaseinov was appointed Chairman of the Culture Committee and Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Following the period of his presidency as the Chairman of “Degdar” Social Foundation, he was appointed Minister of Culture of Kazakhstan in 2003, and he worked as Special Duty Ambassador of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan between 2004 – 2005. In the coming years, he also assumed the duties of the Secretary General of the Kazakh National Committee of UNESCO and ISESCO.
In recognition of his valuable contribution, dedicated work and strong encouragement to the rapprochement of cultures and peoples as well as for his impressive international diplomacy, Prof. Kaseinov received numerous state awards and medals from many organizations around the world, including the selected recognitions of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Kyrgyz Republic, Medal of Culture – Poland, as well as decorations of the Order of Friendship – the Russian Federation, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
Prof. Kaseinov made a special contribution to the development of cultural cooperation between the Balkan states and nations. Numerous concerts, special artistic endeavors and presentations of the representative achievements of the Serbian cultural scene have significantly improved the cultural exchange between Serbia and the member countries of the the International Organization of Turkish Culture in the Balkans, thanks to Prof. Kaseinov.
Since 2008, Prof. Kaseinov has been the Acting Secretary General of the International Organization of Turkish Culture (TURKSOY).
He deservedly won the “Karić Brothers” award 2020 for his unwavering faith in the ideas of art and culture as universal civilizational values that unite the people of the world and promote tolerance and peace among nation; for his spanless and lasting contribution to strengthening and developing traditional, friendly and brotherly ties between nations as well as for an exceptional engagement in the promotion of both Balkan and Serbian culture in the world.

– Prof. Dr. Uroš Dojčinović, although modest, is known not only in Serbian but in the world of music around the world. He himself said that for everyone who performs or listens to music with passion, just enjoying the music is the greatest reward. Music is equally the most magical a way of reminding of the power of one’s personal achievement and the triumph of Prof. Dr. Uroš Dojčinović, whose music has toured and delighted the world, is all the more noteworthy because music has imprinted life on his philological, musicological, pedagogical and publishing worlds.
Dojčinović received his general and secondary music education in Belgrade, and completed basic academic studies at Zagreb Academy of Music in the study program of Classical Guitar within the vocal-instrumental department.
He earned his master’s degree and later dissertations at the University of Belgrade, Faculties of Philology and Philosophy: he defended his two Ph.D. dissertations, one in the field of national guitar and its literature, and the other on the topic of research into the development of classical guitar in Southeast Europe.
He is the author of the first Yugoslav history of classical guitar and initiator of the publication of the first edition of works for this instrument by domestic composers. He designed an innovative plan and program for classical guitar of the Republic of Serbia and wrote the first Serbian didactic-instructional opus for guitarists in the field of chamber music.
Since 1978, he has been engaged as a pedagogue in several music-pedagogical institutions in Croatia and Serbia, and since 1989 he has been expanding his teaching as a visiting professor to several foreign educational institutions, academies, universities and conservatories. He is credited with introducing the teaching of classical guitar and is the co-author of the very first version of the guitar curriculum „The First Guitarists steps“(Guitar Method) for the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. As a full professor at the Faculty of Contemporary Arts, he passed on his vast experience to generations of future artists through the methodology of artistic research.
He gave a strong impetus to the struggle for the establishment of a value system that affirms the complete cultural and artistic contents through the improvement of the development of festival life in the domain of classical guitar. He was the art director and one of the founders of the First Yugoslav Classical Guitar Festival in Zaječar in 1986. Also, he was engaged as an art director, initiator and organizer of numerous cultural and musical events in Serbia, including the International Guitar Series GITAFES, the International classical guitar festival SORABIJA, the International OLD GOLD Chamber Music Festival, VRNJCI International Music Festival and many others.
Dojčinović is a full member of the Association of Musical Artists of Serbia(UMUS), the Association of Composers of Montenegro, the Guitar Foundation of American, MATICA Srpska, the UK’s Guitar Teachers Association, also he writes music critics and articles for prestigious foreign guitar magazines and journals.
So far in his career he’s held over 3,500 solo and chamber music concerts, participated in hundreds of radio and television shows, music-poetry and similar programs throughout Europe, America, Africa and Asia, made more than 60 discographic releases and published more than 600 works, sheets of music, transcriptions, reductions, arrangements, professional publications, studies and articles in musicology.
Fruitful and diverse artistic activity, brought to Dojčinović over 50 different plaques, medals, diplomas and other recognitions in the country and the world. He was awarded numerous charters, prizes, recognitions home and abroad for his exceptional work and contribution to the development of national culture and art.
Appreciating the outstanding results achieved on classical guitar, as a performer, composer, pedagogue, philologist, historian-musicologist and publicist, for his lasting contribution to the development and promotion of Serbian culture in the country and the world, the Karić Foundation presents the “Karić Brothers” Award to Professor Dr. Uroš Dojčinović for culture and art.
– Prof. Milovan Vitezović is someone very well known to the public thanks to decades of his versatile work. Patiently and diligently he created the worlds of historical and fictional figures, finding catharsis in all tragedies, giving a personal contribution to the spiritual renewal of Serbian history and honor. He was the editor of journals such as Književne novine, Susret, Satirikon and Jež, also was a long-time editor-in-chief of the RTS Feature Program, editor-in-chief of the Art&Entertainment Program of RTS and he is a professor at the Academy of Arts, Belgrade teaching Film and Television Screenplay.
Vitezovic’s diverse and complex opus contains novels, poems, plays, movie and TV scripts, children’s books, essays and aphorisms. He has published more than forty books in over two hundred editions. He is the author of twelve bestsellers among which are, next to the most popular “Professor Kosta Vujić’s Hat” and “Barking at the Stars”, the “Vinaver Symphony”, “The Socks of King Peter”, “Hajduk Veljko Petrović”, “Milena from Knez Mihailova street”, “Sacred love”, “Sindjelić calmed with the Sun “, “Prince Rastko of Serbia”, “Burlesque in Paris”, “When the marigold was the Sun” and “Miss Desanka”.
There is no space now to mention his numerous collections of poems, books of aphorisms, books of poems for children and youth, as well as major works he has prepared. Milovan Vitezović’s books have been published in many world languages, and his name is also recorded in the General Encyclopedia of the Yugoslav Lexicographical Institute, the Matica Srpska Lexicon of Serbian Writers, the Lexicon of the American Biographical Institute and the Encyclopedia of Serbian Historiography.
As a playwright, he wrote for theater, radio, film and television. The works written for the theater include the plays „Fairy Tale of the Wolf and the Serbs“, „Prince Rastko – Monk Sava“, „MiSterija“ (Patriot), „Sterija’s Way to the Serbs“, „Svetozar“, comedies „The King and His Comedian“, „How to Ban the People“, „Serbian Affairs“ as well as satirical cabarets: „Marx , Marx, what’s the time?“, „Come to the park”, “A Crazy one tuning the Confused one,” and “Hamlet Goes to Acting School.” Also, he is the author of more than twenty mono and radio dramas.
Vitezović is known to a wider audience as a popular TV author. Let us mention the TV drama „Professor Kosta Vujić’s Hat“, the feature TV series „Vuk Karadžić“, „Dimitrije Tucović“, „The Storytelling of Radoje Domanović“ as well as the cult movies „Barking at the Stars“, „Professor Kosta Vujić’s Hat“, „The Principality of Serbia“, „The Kingdom of Serbia“, documentary series „Karađorđe and the Serbian Revolution“. He was awarded the Golden Knight prize at the International Orthodox Film Festival in Moscow for the films „Where the Yellow Lemon Blooms“ and „Professor Kosta Vujić’s Hat“.
He has won many awards, recognitions and medals for his unusual and extraordinary faith in the necessity of the living word of literature and its artistic strength and human role in which lies motivation and an incentive for far-reaching insights into history and culture as well as for his lifelong contribution to Yugoslav and Serbian literature. For his outstanding achievements in film and television art, the Karić Foundation awarded Prof. Milovan Vitezović the “Karić Brothers” Award for culture and art.
• In the category of Science and Scientific research – Prof. Dr. Danica Grujičić, kwho said on the occasion:
“To be among the Nobel Prize winners, to be among our athletes, among the Olympians, in the company of our late Patriarch Irinej, one Nikita Mikhalkov, Emir Kusturica, Željko Obradović, Peter Handke and all other laureates is a great privilege for me. All of them are the people who have dedicated their lives to giving to others, working for their communities and for their people. Thank you very much for recognizing my kind of effort as an effort for my community, for my people and country. Let me dedicate this Award to our people in Kosovo and Metohija, who are now on the front line, fighting for the rights, for the preservation of this Serbia of ours, our only homeland. I only have words of gratitude for them being there and for staying there. Long live Serbia! ”
Although, so to speak, she was committed to neurosurgery since her high school days, her professional and personal life circumstances directed her to the more delicate fields of oncology and neuro-oncology. She earned her Master’s Degree in 1987 and received her Doctorate in 1996 at the Medical Faculty in Belgrade. She started working at the Institute for Neurosurgery of the Clinical Center of Serbia in 1984, where she has been the Head of the Department of Neuro-Oncology since 2007. Parallel to clinical practice she was hired as a lecturer at the Medical Faculty of the University of Belgrade, she was elected assistant professor in 1992, a docent in 1998, and has been a full time professor since 2009.
As a pedagogue she proudly emphasizes that the training and education of young neurosurgeons to be able to perform the most difficult surgical procedures, is her greatest achievement.
She will be remembered as the first lady in the position of the Head of the Department for Surgery and Anesthesiology since the founding of the Medical Faculty in Belgrade and as a physician tirelessly dedicated to the medical profession. She has published more than 250 scientific papers in professional journal publications and monographs as an author and co-author. Dr Danica Grujičić is a member of the Serbian Medical Association, the Serbian Neurosurgical Society and the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies. Working with the team she is very proud of, she realizes on an annual level over 300 of the most complex neurosurgical procedures.
As the Head of Working Group for the National Gamma Center, she is one of the most deserving that the most modern treatment technologies, including Gamma-Knife and X-Knife, have been used in Serbia in recent years, and patients with the most severe neurological diseases no longer have to go abroad for treatements.
The freedom-loving spirit and uncompromising attitude of Professor Grujičić were noticed in public with her courageous and quite loud testimony of the truth, especially when it comes to a thorough analysis and pointing out the dangers of depleted uranium and other toxic substances after the 1999 NATO bombing. At the Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia she heads, she diligently works on reducing waiting lists for examinations, fights for the dignity of doctors, of all medical and other staff, for improving the work of the Institute through capacity expansion, so that numerous patients for whom the Health Care system primarily exists, as she often knows to point out, get equaly and adequately cared for. She was awarded the Order of Karadjordje’s Star of the Second degree in 2020.
A General, Speedy Gonzales and a Merciful one for whom the impossible does not exist, a woman who, at every opportunity, pointing out the problems of our Healthcare System with wise and concrete proposals and with the help of her colleagues and people of good will, found solutions.
Professor and doctor of inexhaustible energy and perseverance, temperamental modern heroine, whose biography and life represent better and more beautiful Serbia and the world of today, Dr Danica Grujičić, is the winner of the „Karić Brothers“ Award for science and research and for an outstanding contribution to the development of science and scientific research in the field of Neuro-Oncology, in our country and in the world.
• In the category of Benevolence – Sisterhood of the Monastery of Saint Parascève (Izvor).
Mother Glikerija received the award in front of the sisterhood and sent the following words of gratitude:
“The things you do are rarely done today, only a few understand, few feel. It is really something very special and I think that the Karić Foundation does it for the following reasons: not out of a desire to show off, but you really feel it with your heart and soul, and your satisfiction is that you have the opportunity to do something like that. For that pleasure one works and not for ’well, they’re rich so they can’; there are more affluent people, but they do nothing, they don’t see the poor, nor anything else. The Karić Foundation is the one that lives from the pleasure of being able to help. ”
At the exit of the Čestobrodica river gorge, at the foot of the Kučaj Mountains, built on a rock on the right bank of the Grza River, stands the monastery of St. Parascève.
The monastery is a Home for children and women with mental and physical disabilities. In this oasis of the infirm built by the hard-working sisterhood, the light, joy and love illuminate those in need, and this house of benevolence Established by God and the beloved Serbian Saint bears yet another name: The Home of the Pure Heart.
From the first days, a close mutual relationship between nuns and protégés was built, a kind of happy-sad bond of simple sincere love and affection. Relying on the common patron and protector of St. Parascève, being convinced countless times through temptations and troubles that the Saint herself is in charge of this Home and constantly takes care of it, both nuns and protégés have come to know the joy of living in this blessed place, giving each other unconditional love, care and spiritual solace.
Caring for children is a special and exceptional monastic obedience for nuns that gives the monastery of Saint Parascève an important status and special reputation, not only in the Serbian Orthodox Church and among such Homes in Serbia but in the country in general. With gratitude to the sisterhood for their care, love and tenderness shown to the wards, many parents admitted that they wouldn’t or couldn’t entrust their children to anyone except these nuns.
With special respect and gratitude for every hard-working moment of parental care over the infirm, the Karić Foundation awards the sisterhood of the monastery of Saint Parascève at Izvor with the „Karić Brothers“ award for benevolance, for their mercy and compassionate care for people with mental disorders who found protection, love, peace and consolation under this God-blessed nunnery roof.
• In the category of sports – Zoran Terzić, volleyball player and a coach.
“It is really a great honor to be a laureate of the Karić Foundation, to be in a truly such a select company not only of athletes, of course, but also of people from all walks of life. The Karić Foundation with its Award really is one of the top in the world in the sense that the prizes go to people for their humanitarian work, the scientific work, for culture and sports, and all the previous laureates are indeed from the very top, not only in Serbia, but in the world. So, once again, it is a really such a great, great honor and a great pride to be in such a company. ”
An unwavering pillar of support that encourages and establishes his team, watches over the daily exercise routine without which great results are lacking. A wise whisperer who does not only explain or teach but inspires, an enterprising, far-sighted educator occupied with small, daily evolutions.
Zoran Terzić made the Serbian National Women’s Volleyball Team one of the best, patiently waited for bright moments and won the respect of both Europe and the world. Behind the wizard who soared from Marakana, there are successes and achievements that testify to an exceptional man and coach of inexhaustible energy, will and motivation.
The coaching of the girls happened unexpectedly. When the women’s team was left without a coach in 1999, Aleksandar Boričić, then director of the Red Star VC, asked the famous Terzo to take over the women’s team temporarily. He accepted the task, took over Zvezda’s seniors, until 2006 when he continued his brilliant career abroad. As a VC Red Star coach he successfully interrupted the eight-year championship series of Jedinstvo from Užice, a team that was absolutely undisputed in Serbian women’s volleyball at the time, and managed to win the national championship in the 2001/2002 and 2002/2003 seasons. He made his debut as a selector of the National Women ‘s Senior Volleyball Team in 2002 and immediately managed to qualify our girls for the 2003 European Championship after a full twelve years of absence from the European volleyball scene.
Under the leadership of Zoran Terzić, in the past ten years medals have been won at all major world and European competitions.
The greatest success achieved with the National Team was at the Olympic Games in Rio when Serbia won a silver medal, also gold medal at the 2018 World Cup and three gold medals in 2011, 2017 and 2019 at the European Championships in Ankara, the same place where he started his brilliant coaching career back in 2003.
In the year in which he celebrates coming of age as a coach of the National Women’s Volleyball Team, for his dedication, desire and strength to bring Serbian sport to the roof of the world, Karić Foundation awards coaching legend of rare talent and exceptional abilities Zoran Terzić the “Karić Brothers” Award for outstanding achievements in European and world volleyball and for improving Serbia’s reputation in the world.
• In the category of Economics and Commerce – Architects, Takaharu and Yui Tezuka couple.
“Nowadays, we have technology that allows us to do whatever we want. However, there are much more important issues that we haven’t discussed as architects. That includes the question of what it means to be human.”
The name “Tezuka Architects” reveals the heritage and authorship of the studio that, since its founding in 1994, has been credited with numerous international award-winning projects of schools, kindergartens, hospitals, residential buildings, showrooms and other spaces. Tezuka believes in the primordial bond between man, his habitat and nature from ancient times to the present day. Free open space in his architectural interpretation is directly proportional to the quality of life.
A modern and unconventional roof house project, initially created as a modern solution for expanding living space, represents a versatile structure which realization intersects the principles of space user needs, ease of execution, wood as a basic material and the creation of open environments that allow nature to enter the living space.
Together with his wife, the architect Yui, Tezuka built his home for a long time. With the birth of their first child they realized the demanding and exciting nature of the reconstruction process of their family home according to the criteria of real needs. At the same time, inspired by traditional family values and ancestral lifestyle, they created spatial complexes without walls that enable the family to be together and live beyond all limitations and one-dimensionality, always in coexistence with others.
The future of Tezuka’s conscious architecture proved to be healing not only in number of schools and kindergartens, but also in the IVF (in vitro fertilization) clinics and children’s oncology hospitals. Design of churches has also brought the affirmation of a new understanding of community lifestyles.
The now legendary Fuji Kindergarten, recognized by UNESCO as the representative design, is a respectable and authentic project that is the most known demonstration of Tezuka’s fundamental understanding of children’s needs and their behavior. Through the concept of open classrooms so valuable for improving children’s ability to concentrate, the adjustment to the offered freedom and space for joyful movment is accelerated, and the absence of pressure from a possible fall or injury improves the process of independent learning and more flexible adaptation to conditions.
Takaharu and Yui Tezuka, focused on the interconnectedness of the community, design their own as well as other people’s dreams, always finding a new lifestyle and everyday life in a new order of things.
For achievements in shaping the humane spaces of the future, the Karić Foundation awards the “Karić Brothers” Award to Mr. and Mrs. Tezuka for the Economy and Commerce, for an outstanding contribution to the development and progress of modern architecture.
• • In the category of strengthening democracy, peace, cooperation and friendship between nations – the Prior and Archimandrite Sava Janjić and the brotherhood of the monastery Visoki Dečani.
“I would like to express my sincere gratitude on behalf of the brotherhood of the Visoki Dečani monastery and on my own behalf, for the Award of the 2020 Karić Brothers Foundation for peace, cooperation and friendship among peoples. I am deeply honored by this recognition and I want to say that everything both me and my brothers do, represents our joint effort, work we have been doing for many years together with our previous prior and the current bishop Teodosije. We all work together because neither of us in this monastery could achieve anything without the help of the other. That is why we are one common thread, one living organism and, as it is said in the text of the Award, I see this as a sincere recognition, first of all as a recognition to our brethren, to all of us, but also to all the monks and priests, and the people in Kosovo and Metohija who strive and struggle everyday to save their shrines, their homes, to preserve their history and identity. I wish you all the best from the monastery of Visoki Dečani, may the Lord grant that all our labors and efforts yield good results with His help. Thank you so very much.” The Prior Sava Janjić said on this occasion.
The monastery is located on the territory of the Serbian Orthodox Raška-Prizren Diocese and represents an immovable cultural asset as a monument of exceptional importance.
According to the testimony of the current prior of the monastery, the dignitary Archimandrite Sava Janjić, today, the monastery of Visoki Dečani remains one of the most endangered religious and cultural heritage sites in Europe and the world.
In his efforts to preserve the Kosovo-Metohija community, prior Sava Janjić also known as the „Cyber Monk“ for he was among the first in the church community to be active in the Internet and communication via social media, always tried to take any personal engagement out of the political context and to affirm the Dečani shrine as a place of reconciliation, where beauty and spirituality unite people of good will in humanity and mutual understanding.
Today, there is a permanent network of friendly organizations from Serbia, countries in the region and abroad for assistance programs that are implemented through monasteries. Visoki Dečani inspired, among many others, friends in Italy to establish a humanitarian organization and thanks to them, among other things, six children with serious heart problems had successful heart surgery in Milan.
Despite living in relative isolation, the monastery strives to preserve traditional hospitality, so Dečani remains one of the most popular places to visit for numerous international civilian and military officials, as well as pilgrims from all over the world. In recent years, more guests have come to Dečani as part of UNESCO monuments tour in the region.
For strengthening democracy, peace, cooperation and friendship between peoples, proven piety and justice, for demonstrated courage in inhuman times, the Karić Foundation awards the “Karić Brothers” Award to the dignitary Archimandrite Sava Janjić and the compassionate attentive brotherhood of the monastery in Visooki Dečani for their courage in the wholehearted struggle for the preservation of Serbian spiritual, historical and cultural heritage, for sacrifice in selfless care for Serbian shrines and the Serbian nation, for significant efforts to promote dialogue for reconciliation between peoples and for the missionary endeavor of maintaining the Orthodox ethos in Kosovo and Metohija.