YMCA in Kosovo Blog

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.

The scope of the YMCA's work was also moving in another direction - to include women and girls. The Young Women's  Christian Association, set up in 1855 was originally an alternative to the YMCA for women and has always been a separate organization. But by the 1960s women and girls were becoming involved with the YMCA - staying in hostels and joining mixed youth clubs. There were even some associations with clubs just for women. In response, in 1964 the national movement allowed women to become full members and encouraged local YMCAs to do the same. The 1960s and early 1970s were generally a time of re-assessment for the YMCA, centered on a 1970 report, "Changing Needs and New Perspectives". As a result of the report, it was decided to allow local YMCAs to have a single form of the membership, rather than full and associate membership if they wished. The conditions for this new membership did not stipulate that the member should be a Christian basis of the mo...

After the second world war, as in 1918, the YMCA helped restore normality after the chaos. As well as organizing trips to war graves abroad for bereaved, the relatives, the association also established hostels for refugees from Germany, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia. The British YMCA helped 20,000 of these “European Volunteer Workers,” settle in Britain, Giving them a home while they worked in industry and farming. Afterlife settles into a peacetime routine, this most recent period in YMCA history has seen ventures to inject Christianity into the industry, a rapidly expanding and changing hostel programme, and a concentration on youth work, health and fitness, and training. Soon after the war ended, a whole new programme of work, focused on bringing Christian values into business and industry, began. The programme - based at residential centers at Kingsgate in Kent, Cheshunt College at Cambridge, Rhoose Youth College in Wales and Dunford House Sussex ...

THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATION HISTORY OF WORK IN YUGOSLAVIA       I)           YMCA  WORK IN GENERAL     II)           YMCA WORK AMONG BOYS Y.M.C.A.  WORK IN GENERAL The foundation of the Christian activities among the laymen in our country was laid down by Dr. John R. Mott in April 1911. Dr. Mott has visited the University in Belgrade at that time , and a direct consequence of his conferences the Student Christian Movement begun. And and has continued its active work under splendid leadership of Dr. Marco Lecco, former Rector of the University. These activities has been purely spiritual  and limited only to the students and  professors of the University. At that time we had no other Christian laymen’s movement. The name of the Young Men’s Christian Association was known only in a limited circle. The war...