YOUth can change the future for Kosovo

As PLAY progresses with the recruitment of a new cohort of youth volunteers from around Kosovo, we are preparing to facilitate their first interactions with peers from other communities. This first seminar, which takes place in April 2020, focuses on group dynamics, learning sport animation techniques, and breaking down barriers of discrimination and prejudice.

In anticipation of these new experiences for project beneficiaries, we decided to reconnect with Ragip – a youth volunteer who went through the same experience in 2018 – to explore his memories of going through the same process and to share his impressions of this transformational seminar.

Ragip is a Roma youth from Kamenica – a town in the East of Kosovo where Serbians, Albanians, Roma and Ashkali all live in close proximity. He joined the project at the beginning of 2018 and became one of the best and most dedicated volunteers in the group. Reflecting on his feelings before arriving at the first seminar, Ragip said, “I remember that I wasn't afraid, but I didn't know what to expect so I felt a bit stressed. But as soon as we got on the bus, we all started talking together so it was reassuring. When we arrived, we all played a game together called "Tiajaja", which was a dance that we danced before every activity. It was one of the best things of the weekend!”

One major focus of the seminar is to get the group to bond and learn how to interact positively with peers from other ethnic communities. For some, there is a lot of apprehension because of they have never spent time with peers from other communities before. For Ragip, it was an opportunity to find out about peers from other communities, especially Albanians. “If I thought about the Albanian community, and it’s not my opinion, but I had heard that they were not good people, especially in the past. It's not that I hate them or that I'm afraid of them, but compared to other communities like in Kamenica, a lot of bad things happened in the past. So, during the meetings, I said to myself that I should try to talk with Albanians because I figured that if they had come to the seminar, it meant that they must be good people. I tried to talk with them but it took some time to have the courage to do that. However, I soon discovered that they were really nice people and that it had been a mistake not to talk with them right from the beginning of the seminar. The seminar changed my views about them.”

Another major goal of the seminar, is for youth to learn technical skills in how to be a sport animator. They learn how to lead a cooperative game (as opposed to a competitive game) and how to adapt different games so that all children, regardless of age, gender, ability, or community, feel included and successful. When he was younger, Ragip had participated in PLAY activities in Kamenica and so learning how to lead the activities had a special meaning for him. “One thing I remember when I went back to Kamenica to run activities was when a girl started crying. It really affected me because I don't like to see children crying. One of the techniques I had learnt during the seminar was to how to make sure that the children feel they are in a safe and secure environment. She was crying because she wasn't getting to touch the ball enough. So, I promised her that in the next game she would touch the ball more and it was true because afterwards I decided to do the game "10 passes", where all the children must touch the ball before scoring a point. And I realized that PLAY had given me the tools to deal effectively with these situations.”

Before finishing, we were really interested to find out what advice Ragip would give to a new participant who is about to attend the first seminar with PLAY and to try to summarize his experience. “First, I'd tell them to definitely take this seminar! If they are someone wants to work with children and do a good job, they should be part of PLAY International. The experience and knowledge that you will gain from the seminars and activities with PLAY, believe me, will stay with you for the rest of your life as good memories and it is not something you can buy. And to sum up everything in 3 words, Budite deo porodice! (Be part of a family!)”

YOUth can change the future for Kosovo is a volunteer program that provides youth, aged 15-19, with the opportunity to become sport animators and role models. These youth work in multi-ethnic teams in their home town or village to run inclusive sport activities with children, aged 8-12. In the 2018-2019 program, 39 volunteers ran a total of 317 inclusive activities, impacting the lives of 1,366 unique children, 44.6% of which were girls. 59% of those children came from non-majority communities – the most vulnerable sections of society in Kosovo.

Links:

• Find out more on PLAY's website

As PLAY International prepares to begin a new project cycle at the beginning of 2020, it is also celebrating 20 years (1999-2019) of changing young lives in Kosovo. As we consider the next step in this journey and get excited about identifying the young people who will become a part of the project for the next two years, we have been reflecting on how Youth can change the future for Kosovo, by taking a look back. This is the story of one young ethnically Albanian woman from the divided city of Mitrovicë/Mitrovica, who was one of 40 young people who took part in the project in 2018 and 2019.

In a recent interview with Mathieu Menard – a journalist from France writing about the 20^th anniversary of the 1999 Kosovo war – Drenushë (pronounced Drenousha) began by telling him why she joined the project: “A few years ago, a friend told me she couldn’t come to my birthday because she was working as a volunteer for PLAY on the same day. I became very curious and wanted to know more about the association that deprived me of my friend during my birthday party. When she explained what activities she was doing and why, I knew right away that I wanted to become a member of this volunteering program!”

In a city divided during the 1999 war along nationalistic and ethnic lines but connected by a few bridges over the river Ibar, most ethnic Albanians and Serbs never venture over the river to the “other side” for fear of violence. Through participating in PLAY’s project, Drenushë has managed to build a personal bridge over this divide, made new friends and even managed to visit parts of her city where she had never been before. “I thought it really was a great opportunity to make some friends from other communities, including Serbs!” she says. “Before meeting them, I was afraid because of what my parents had said about them. Now, we have coffee together on both sides of the bridge!”

Reflecting on her experience, Drenushë spoke about how being a part of the project has opened her eyes about many of the common assumptions and prejudices that dominate daily life. “This experience made me more open to children and taught me how to interact with them, how to better understand their psychology. By engaging with PLAY, I made many discoveries and formed my own opinions, despite what my parents told me about other ethnic communities. I think we are all equal, regardless of our origins; this is what I try to make my Albanian friends understand.”

While her point of view has changed dramatically, she knows that not everyone thinks in the same way that she does. However, with the confidence she has built from being part of the project, she knows that her journey is well-underway. “I haven’t yet succeeded in changing my parents mind about the stereotypes, but we need to change and progress! The past is the past and we need to live differently now! My curiosity has been awoken by this experience.”

With the help of the funds raised through GlobalGiving, PLAY is embarking on a new Sport4Youth journey in 2020, with a new group of youth volunteers in the municipalities of Fushë Kosovë / Kosovo Polje, Lipjan / Lipljan, Obiliq / Obilic, and Shtime / Štimlje. We are looking forward to sharing the challenges and the rewards we face along the way, and the life changing impact of the project on these young people that your support makes possible.

PLAY would like to acknowledge the contribution of Mathieu Menard and Hans Lucas for the photos and the interview with Drenushë.