YMCA in Kosovo Blog

   Name: Aoileann Conway Where I live: N. Ireland Profession: Community Youth Work (Ulster University graduate) Age: 24 Interesting fact: I live for the outdoors and a good cup of tea! m-power is a youth project that is in nine YMCA’s and one YWCA and delivered in 10 locations across the isle of Ireland. The youth project is supported by the European Union’s PEACE IV program and naturally concerns itself with building, promoting, and facilitating peace. The three core pillars in which the project is based are good relations, personal development, and citizenship. Each program is delivered by qualified, professional youth workers in a non-formal, youth work setting. It offers qualifications, new experiences, adventure, outdoor pursuits, sports, difficult discussions, and a time to reflect. Each program has the same foundation, yet no two are the same as they are rooted in meeting the needs of individual young people to support their growth and personal development. I deliver th...

The following is a letter sent to the United Nations by the World Alliance of YMCAs. The original can be found in the World YMCA archives in Geneva. *In 2020 the Kosovo movement reached out to Mr. Nick Nightingale having a phone call with him on the 11th Anniversary of the the Republic of Kosovo and recieving a message from him 20 years after this letter.

As part of my job, international training is very important. This time I had the chance for the second time to be part of  YMCA Europe Roots for Reconciliation training. I was excited about this training because when I was in Berlin for the Peace Work institute we were separated in different tandem groups and the group that I was part of we wanted to do a  digital campaign for peace. After six months I was invited to be part of the P.E.A.C.E project in Budapest- which was my groups tandem idea.I was very happy that our project was chosen to be implemented. P.E.A.C.E project aimed to train different youth workers and leaders who work with young people and to spread peace-building through different online campaigns and build the participants knowledge of digital tools and platforms that can help them do this. Nita and Fiona from Kosovo Y I feel safe and not left out in RFR training's and this time again it was a very good because I had the chance to present about wh...

This time for the Roots for Reconciliation project I headed to Budapest with 35 young people from 17 countries. A wonderful week full of study sessions, workshops and presentations from brighter minds which I'm thankful for.  The main goal was to bring and find peace spreading it through a campaign and social media. Fiona and other participants in the P.E.A.C.E training  An old man once said: "The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old but building the new"... and that is what we did. Round-tables surrounded by minds thinking independently together, that I'm sure made all of us come to a solution "Peace is our gift to each other". Fiona and her group presented their ideas It was my second time training with RFR, and I'm honored to say 'It changed my way of thinking'. The skills we get to learn do not end there... with yourself, then pass it down and spread the message in our countries. ...

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...

When you first think of the word “PEACE” it makes you think and do something about it because everyone wants to change the disaster in the world… And that’s what RFR stands for. The first session was held in Tbilisi, Georgia but I didn’t have the chance to be a part of it because of a visa problem, however my mentor Adi didn’t let me miss anything what happened there and I was also connected with the group all the time. Fiona at the Roots training in Berlin We met all together in the city of  history, Berlin. We were 30 young people from different countries , where each of us has a story to tell. I was impressed how they managed to make every single detail on point. We started every morning with the “message of the day” and I felt so proud that the first message was a speech from Mother Teresa , because she’s a peace symbol and a role model for everyone, and she’s Albanian. Fiona and her tandem group The session “Do No Harm”  from the program really impress...

Budapest, the name of a city that I heard a lot about but knew very little. This was to become the next destination and the last stop for the Peace Work Institute for me.  Adrian (top left) with other Peace Institute Participants  Like every other training that we attend, this one also had the well known challenge for the young people of Kosovo... going through the visa process. Something I had done in the past but still a really stressing process, anyway I got the visa and was really excited about going to Hungary.  6am on the 8 th of February, I was supposed to be on the way to meeting my colleagues but instead I was sleeping! For some reason I missed my alarm clock and if I wouldn’t have got a call or two from Dorina, I would most certainly missed that taxi... 30 minutes late but i made it! We got to the airport of Pristine, as always waiting in an airport without free Wi-Fi it is boring and it feels like an eternity that was in really a long hou...

This year I participated in the “Youth in Peace Education” Training that took place in Istanbul from 22-28 of September. The training was organized by IYLA, UNICEF and HABITAT. It’s main topic was on how to achieve peace, how to deal with conflicts and conflict analysis. We had two great coaches from Germany and Catalonia, they taught us many things that I know I will always need! I found out about this training on a Facebook group that’s about youth. It’s kind of funny because two days before finding out about this training I told my family that I would like to go to Istanbul. So, I felt really happy when I saw the application. I read the description and knew that it would be a great experience.  After that two amazing ladies helped me with the application answers, the YMCAs CEO gave me a great reference which i needed for the training. On September 4th, I got an e-mail saying that I was accepted. I couldn't feel happier! On September 22nd, I traveled from Pristina to Ist...

2004. YMCA Europe was organizing "Catch the vision" in Prizren, a multiethnical, multicultural city in a new and unknown territory: Kosovo. When I got the email confirming that I will be one of the participants I was very happy and curious to find out more about the place. Unfortunately at that time not too much information was available, so I ended up in Pristina airport, surrounded by military forces from different countries, getting a KFOR stamp in my passport. It was one of the first "wow" experiences in my YMCA life. Prizren 2004 The image of the parking at the airport was a bit strange for someone who had not seen any weapon so far. Tanks and military cars, helicopters and barbed wire all over the place. I was waiting with other participants and all the faces around me were scared and concerned.   Prizren was indeed a real experience: buildings, architecture, food, smells, people, thousand of electric generators on the streets making a huge noise. L...

From the first moment I heard about the peace institute I was excited to know more about it and really wanted to experience it! Not because of traveling out of the country but because for the first time in my life I knew I was going to have the chance and experience YMCA in a whole new dimension... I was going to experience the international YMCA. The big question was... was I ready for that? YES! Was the big answer, because I knew that a piece of international YMCA was already in Kosovo. Everything started the day when Dorina and Adi called me for coffee and I presumed it was just a coffee meeting like most Saturday mornings, but no it wasn’t they asked me if id like to be involved in YMCA peace work because of my previous experiences and they thought I was the proper person to attend this training.  The preparation started and I was sorting my documents for the visa application (the hardest part of every international training in Kosovo). I had experienced visa application...

The Regional Youth Peace Camp is held in Prishtina from 13 th till 20 th of September and really successfully accomplished to get together young people from different countries that used to be in war just a few years ago: Kosovo, Albanian, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia. At the first look it doesn’t sound very interesting, but it was! The first night people were cold with each other as nobody knew each anyone, but everything start next morning. The first person I meet was my roommate Jetmir from Macedonia, we stayed there in our room talking for about 15 minutes and then decided to go and meet the others. It wasn’t anything big because we were from countries that have been in war. But it wasn’t how everyone was expecting and we started talking to each other and started sharing our experiences on that great sunny morning that made the atmosphere even better. Days were passing and on the third day everyone felt like it was more than just three days that passed in...

Dear friends, let me first thank everyone within our movement for trusting me to represent them. It’s no secret that Kosovo has been involved in the peace institute for years, even hosting a conference back in 2007. When I first met young people from Kosovo it was during a peace conference in Prague and now 2 years later I find myself speaking on behalf of our movement. Before i arrived in Yerevan i was told it was similar to Kosovo, but that was not the impression i got. Like Kosovo it has stunning scenery and there is rich history. There is plenty of new buildings being developed and the backdrop of mountains again left me breathless. Armenia doesn't accept the Kosovo passport so there was extra pressure on myself to speak on behalf of our movement, this will one day change but brings home the reality we face as a movement in Kosovo about giving our youth international opportunities. The training in Yerevan was the second stage in the current process, after Istanbul in O...