YMCA in Kosovo Blog

A short but memorable visit... This month August 2019 the YMCA celebrated its 175th birthday, which was held in London. We volunteered at this 4-day event, where our goal was to represent Kosovo and tell about our work at the YMCA. Dea with YMCA Kosovo delegation at the YMCA 175 In addition to participating in the workshops, we also had the honor of leading our own workshops, sharing our culture with other people. Not only did we share our culture, we also got to know many other cultures from around the world, where we also had the opportunity to make friends with other young people who were part of the event. Dea with her new friend  And finally, we took a stroll through London visiting some of the many tourist sites and museums. Dea with YMCA Kosovo Delegation visiting London

A trip to London… The journey we undertook had a purpose: Attending the YMCA175 event, where we as a delegation from Kosovo had the honor of sharing the beautiful work of our youth with the world, how they help the community, empower youth and how it has impacted and continues to impact, influence. The YMCA is a place where young people can make a difference and feel valued in their community. Diona with the YMCA Kosovo Delegation in the YMCA 175 event I am fortunate to have the honor and privilege to be part of leading one of the many workshops of that event where I had the opportunity to share our culture and the role of young people from my country in empowering youth and changing socializing with people who were eagerly attending and involved in the session we had prepared! Diona during her workshop  Also, during this time I had the opportunity to participate in various workshops where I had the opportunity to get to know a large number of people from all over th...

When I first found out that I was chosen to go to London for YMCA 175 I was too excited, not only because I was going to London but also it was my first time in an airplane and my first time in an international event with YMCA. As days went by, the 3rd of August finally came. After a day of traveling, we saw our self in London. I still couldn't believe it. For the event, we had to take part in different workshops that were held by different countries around the world. We also had to lead a workshop "TenSing in a new country" which was on the last day of the event. The first day was amazing... It was the opening of the event where our ambassador Florent Abrashi sang some amazing songs, creating a wonderful atmosphere. The second day went great. Jora with Era, Dea, and Diona at YMCA175  I took part on workshops about wellness, leadership, and inclusion, which made me learn a lot about those topics and I’m happy that I can share that knowledge with our yout...

Tea Cars and Bombed-out Birthday Celebration Almost as soon as the second world war broke out in September 1939, the YMCA stepped in with a new idea for bringing comfort to the troops.   The first “Tea Car”, or mobile canteen, a second-hand van fitted out with a small kitchen and painted camouflage green, was in use on the streets of East London by September 23. By the end of 1940, there were 500 vans in service.  As well as visiting isolated army outposts along the British coastline, these vans followed the troops into France and Flanders. As the German armies pushed the British back to the French coastline the vans raced alongside the withdrawing armies, serving tea and selling cigarettes, chocolate, cake, hair cream, tooth-paste, and stationery. The crews, many of the woman, stayed with the armies until the very last moment. As rowing boats arrived from Britain to evacuate the army from the beaches of Dunkirk the crews of three mobile canteens saw their vans and ...

It was 1851 and the whole world was in London for the Great Exhibition - a grand showcase of British industry held in the specially constructed Crystal Palace. For the YMCA it seemed the perfect chance to try to spread their ideas worldwide. More than 300,000 leaflets about the YMCA's work were handed out and as result, branches were set up in the U.S.A and Canada. In 1852 George Williams himself set up a YMCA in Paris, and associations were formed in Adelaide and Calcutta. Over the next few years, letters were sent and visits were made between the countries and in 1855 it was decided to hold a conference of the YMCA's.  By this time Holland, Switzerland, Germany, France, and Belgium were also involved. The delegates decided to form a confederation, soon to be named the World Alliance of YMCA's. The resolution they made about the aims of the YMCA, which became known as the Paris Basis, is still at the core of the movement today. It said: " The Christian Association...

After the war, as Britain was changing so was the YMCA. The new programme used ideas and equipment left over from the war and adapted them to meet the needs of a country recovering economic recession. At this time youth work, education and physical fitness became a more fundamental part of the YMCA’s work. Rather than just fringe activities. In the aftermath of the war, the YMCA spent years picking up the pieces. From 1916 until 1927 its Employment Department for men discharged from the forces found jobs for 38,000 ex-servicemen. It was not until 1923 that the association began to settle down once more to peacetime work. The thousands of huts which provided comfort for troops during the war were dismissed and put together in cities, towns, and villages as “Red Triangle Clubs”. In 1932 there were 406 of those across the country. They were centers for YMCA activities and provided a meeting place, with billiards or pool and bar serving tea. Some of them died out, others went t...

For many people, the name of the YMCA conjures up memories of the organization’s work during the two world wars. Through its work with the forces and their families, civilian victims of war and prisoners of war, the organization touched more people and gained more publicity and recognition than ever before. In 1917 the association was mentioned 143 times in the “Times” newspaper - more than at any other time before or since. Certainly, during the first world war, the YMCA suddenly began to come into contact with a much broader section of society.  Work with soldiers had first begun in Britain in 1890 when Colonel Goldsmith, a YMCA president in Devonport, suggested the association should provide activities and support at Summer training camps for army volunteers. Over the next few years, the YMCA became involved with the expanding Territorial Army. Interior of World War One YMCA hut at the Sling Plantation, Salisbury Plain The moment war broke out in 1914, the YMCA imme...

Born The Son of a Somerset farmer, George Williams died a wealthy businessman renowned for setting up a world-wide Christian movement with more than 7,000 branches in 45 countries. With his commercial empire and a lifetime of good works behind him he had become the "last of the merchant philanthropists".  His life began humbly at Ashway Farm, Dulverton, Somerset, on October 11th, 1821. After going to school in Tiverton he returned to the family farm, but it soon became clear that he was not cut out for a life on the land. By the time he was fourteen, he was apprenticed to a draper in nearby Bridgwater. Far from showing signs of being a potential Christian leader, he said of himself:  "I entered Bridgwater a careless, thoughtless, godless, swearing young fellow." But he was soon to be converted. His apprentice's indenture agreement said that he must attend the Zion Congregational Church. Gradually he was influenced by the service and by some of his fellow appren...

The YMCA was not the first of its kind; there had been other groups set up for young man, some with a religious basis. Its rapid growth, however, was unmatched by anything that had gone before.  The strong evangelical Christianity of its members, which was not confined to one denomination, was a firm foundation for success. The time and the place of the YMCA’s foundation were also important. As Britain became industrialised, communications improved-the first railway opened in the 1830's and 1840. The drapery trade was the fastest growing, most efficient business and London was its heart. Hitchcock and Rogers had a wholesale business with contacts across London and in other towns and cities, making it easy for news of the YMCA to spread. This, along with the influential friends George Williams had made while worshiping at the King’s Weigh House Chapel, helped to seal the YMCA’s growth. The association expanded quickly. Members sent a letter to other drapers’ houses across Lon...

The world-wide YMCA movement began in a small bare room above a  shop in St Paul’s Churchyard, in the heart of present day London. London at that time was a dirty, chaotic city. Mingled among its population were about 150,000 young, male shop workers. They were supporting more “respectable” than the manual workers of the metropolis, but they worked very long hours- from 7am to 8 or 9pm, six days a week. With such little time for themselves, and usually living cramped in their employers’ homes, usually living cramped in their spare time to blot out their boredom at a local tavern or gambling house. According to a shop assistant at the time, who went on to become a clergyman: “No class was more degraded and dissolute, none were sunk deeper in ungodliness and dissipation, than the shop-men of London.”        One of these 150,000 was Georges Williams, a farmer’s son from Somerset. George had taken up a post at Hitchcock and Rogers, a draper’s shop with 14...