Article written by Radio Goraždevac 102.5 MHz- inter ethnic youth collaboration
In Kosovo, many people still have a
pattern of identification based on ethnicity or religious identity laden with
security and incidents, especially in the Peja region. Inter-ethnic relations
in Kosovo are, to put it simply, specific, and this is particularly reflected
in the example of integration of returnees. There are few examples of genuine
multi-ethnic cooperation in the Peja. However, it exists through the
cooperation of civil society. Two projects are currently happening in the Peja
region, involving young people from numerous communities.
One is run by the George William Youth Center (YMCA) and the other by the Osojana Community Minority Rights Center. The Youth Building Bridges project is led by Zana Ramovic from Peja. "What we are currently doing is through art. We work in Goraždevac, Peja, Gjakova, Junik and Deçan. So far, we have held eight workshops on tolerance, peace, democracy, teamwork and conflict resolution." says Zana ramovic from the YMCA.
One is run by the George William Youth Center (YMCA) and the other by the Osojana Community Minority Rights Center. The Youth Building Bridges project is led by Zana Ramovic from Peja. "What we are currently doing is through art. We work in Goraždevac, Peja, Gjakova, Junik and Deçan. So far, we have held eight workshops on tolerance, peace, democracy, teamwork and conflict resolution." says Zana ramovic from the YMCA.
Marko Memarovic from the Center for
Minority Rights in Osojana is working on a project "Youth Educational
Service", which includes young people from Serbian and Albanian
communities. He says that cooperation is possible but that there are those in
the society who do not want to cooperate in any way.
"Collaboration is possible.
Like us, there are young people who are able to get involved in such a project
and also meet new people of other nationalists, while some are not, but here we
have young people who are in the mood for co-operation, ready to learn and
share their knowledge, use it in the near or distant future" Memarovic
says.
Many people blame the language for
the deep segregation and lack of any interaction between the majority of the
members of the two ethnic groups, in environments where they live almost close
to each other. Zana Ramovic believes that as long as there is a will to
communicate, language is not a problem.
"There are no language
barriers, even though everybody thinks so. It is true that young people in
Gorazdevac know only Serbian, young people in Peja only Albanian, but it is
not. If you bring together ten young people from Gorazdevac and Peja, they will
know communicate because they are young, they know English, through play, art
only if they want to collaborate" says Zana Ramovic from the YMCA.
In Kosovo, many see politics as a
major obstacle to interethnic co-operation. Marko Memarovic from the Center for
Minority Rights believes that for a healthy society, politics should not be an
obstacle. "I do not consider general politics to be an obstacle. At least
not for our kind of NGO. There are probably some things that hinder us because
of that, but from my perspective, there are no obstacles" Memarovic
In developed countries in the west,
knowing about the culture, customs and languages of fellow citizens belonging
to another ethnic group is considered a virtue. Attempts to find solutions to
conflict resolution and mitigate them in deeply divided societies present a
particular challenge not only to politicians but also to scholars.
This project was funded through a U.S. Embassy Pristina, Kosovo grant. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the Author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of State.
Find attached the link:
http://gorazdevac.com/2020/02/26/pec-retki-primeri-medjuetnicke-saradnje-nebi-smele-da-postoje-barijere/
Comments
Post a Comment