YMCA in Kosovo Blog

I'm Leon from Peja. I first heard about the YMCA at school when YMCA staff introduced the organization and from there I liked the idea of a new place to pass my free time and express my thoughts. Leon whith friends at Peja Y I started with the 'mYcommunity' program where we held 8 meetings. During these 8 weeks, we discussed various topics and one that I found interesting was Democracy because I never heard about it in school.  How people in ancient times in Greece have discussed in large groups and decided for their state/ cities. While nowadays, however, it is not as old as before, when poor people did not have the right to vote but now we are all equal in our cities regardless of gender, ethnicity, and age. Leon while playing the Leader Game In addition to the sessions, I also enjoyed the activities or games during the sessions and the opportunity to express my thoughts freely. Also, in the end, we as a group have prepared a video for ‘‘Violence against Chi...

I’m Njomza. I'm 15 years old and I'm from Gjakova. Njomza Bytyqi I've heard from many friends about the YMCA and they suggest me to be part of the YMCA. I participated in the ‘’mYcommunity’’ program where we discussed Democracy, Prejudice, Volunteering, Stereotypes and many other topics. During this time in this program, the topic which I have liked the most was about Prejudice and Stereotypes. In my opinion, prejudices are unnecessary. In everyday life, we should not use them because we must love everyone as they are without changing anything to them because we do not like them. Njomza while reading for her group We, the whole group, have participated in the assembly meeting of the Municipality of Gjakova, which was held together with the Mayor and the citizens. There we learned that we as citizens have the right to participate in decision-making processes, to complain about issues that concern us, such as hospitals, parking lots, traffic lights, taxation, et...

I am Ela Perolli, I'm from the city of Gjakova and I'm part of the YMCA. Ela Perolli My story began at 'mYcommunity' program. I feel so lucky that I had the chance to be part of it because we had so much fun and we discussed various topics such as volunteering, democracy, prejudice, leadership, stereotypes, violence, and feminism. The topic that I liked the most was democracy, where we watched a video of how it started in Greece. We learned that democracy is not just about voting, but also about protecting people's interests, regardless of race, gender, religion or political opinion. Now I realized that it is good that our state is a democratic place and we are all equal before the law. Also, we were in the municipal assemblies meeting where we heard about citizens' complaints and problems. I felt good listening to citizens talking about their problems in the community because by complaining, working, and commenting on the work of the Municipality, we...

When I first found out about the existence of an organization like the YMCA in Kosovo that supports youth empowerment, I did not show any interest, but I decided to go to the leadership project and see what activities does this organization. Shpat Ramosaj Right from the first meeting I realized that the idea of ​​coming in was not a mistake, but I was very happy and decided to continue. During those first weeks I really had a great time and memorable experiences, at the same time we were trained about leadership and having a great time with friends. In addition to leadership training, the YMCA made me expand my social network with new friends and strengthen my relationship with old ones. Shpat and his friends during the leadership training  The days at the YMCA were memorable, I would recommend to any young person to join the YMCA because such experiences should not be missed and must be experienced! *The "mY community" project implemented by GWY is implem...