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Building Kosovo as a Future Democratic Community for All

This initiative seeks to improve communication and collaboration between the various ethnic groups of Kosovo. By promoting mutual work and discussions on the future of Kosovo, cooperation and a reduction in ethnic tension follows.

Description

This initiative has mostly focused on improving cooperation and communication between young people and youth leaders who have the intention of helping the future democratisation of Kosovo. By working together people from Kosovo are able to exchange their opinions about the Kosovo situation and share knowledge and experiences that could be transferred to the wider Kosovan society. This has also helped people prepare for the possible scenarios after the declaration of Kosovo's status.

We have achieved this through a series of interactive workshops, roundtables and public talks about issues affecting the local community. So far these workshops have been only in Kosovo but we would like to implement them in the countries around Kosovo where people from Kosovo and other ex Yugoslavian countries will be able to share the knowledge and experiences that could be past onto Kosovo.

Aims / Objectives

Our aim was to bring together people from all religious and ethnic communities of Kosovo to be involved in common work and dialogue. Different religious and ethnic communities in Kosovo very rarely work or communicate with one another and this initiative improves communication between those groups.

How it is Articulated

The initiative has been articulated through common and mutual work (e.g. talks, preparation of the activities, arrangement of the activities like where to meet, what to discuss, media promotion, etc.), public presentations, roundtables, media campaigns, creating promotional material, workshops, and training.

The main themes of discussion included the integration of all communities into Kosovan society, and ethnic and religious tolerance in the society.

Achievements / Learning Points

It makes us proud to know that our organisation and the group of people who we have been working with are a part of Kosovo and that we are and initiating positive and constructive changes. What went very well was the interest shown by the participants and the fact that communication between individuals from various communities has improved, without any verbal abuse, violence or other conflict.

In the future we would like to widen this initiative and to implement it with international partners. Barriers are mostly financial in nature, meaning that we do not have a stable source of finance that would enable our organisation to function normally, only donations which are generally not enough or just partial. We need better financial support for our projects that are aimed at improving the lives of all people in Prizren. It is very hard to receive funds for a certain project proposal because even when there are some project funds there are no precise criteria for project selection.

Geographical Area of Operation

We have the idea and the wish to implement this initiative throughout all of Kosovo but the financial and other barriers (it was very difficult to fundraise for this activity, it did not get international support; other problems are mostly linked to administrative restrictions) have caused us to limit this initiative geographically to the municipalities of Prizren, Zupa, Dragash and Rechane.

Funding Resources

This was an initiative in collaboration with the Centre for Regionalism and NGO Mother Teresa (an international organisation with offices in Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo and elsewhere). The Centre is from Novi Sad and now there is a branch of NGO Mother Teresa in Pristina and we are their partners in regional cooperation.

Organisations Involved

Stories

We have had many individual anecdotes but maybe this one from one of the participants is the best: More workshops, more dialogue – less problems and more gathering.