Contributor: Blerim Cerkini

Three young men in Mercy Corps' Support for Kosovo's Young Leaders program spearheaded a project to install streetlights in their neighborhood, improving the safety of more than 1,000 residents. Photo: Mercy Corps staff

Life was scary on the dark streets of Kodra in northern Kosovo. As the sun set in this multi-ethnic neighborhood of Mitrovica, children would scatter, afraid of what might hide behind the corner. Residents had seen their share of violent conflicts between Serbs and Albanians before and after the Kosovo War, and safety has remained an issue in the poverty stricken area. Lingering trauma and fear flourished in the darkness.

But a group of young people decided to shed some light on the issue. Through Mercy Corps' Support for Kosovo’s Young Leaders (SKYL) program, Fatlum Bejtullahu, 20, Xhafer Beka, 26 (both Kosovo Albanians), and Alexander Zdravkovic, 20, (a Kosovo Serb) spearheaded a project to install streetlights along nearly one-mile of the main street, easing the lives of more than 1,300 residents.

“Since this street is now light we feel safe. Young people can spend more time together after the sun sets; older people started to go for walks during the evenings,” said Alexander.

He and the other two leaders came up with the plan during a two-day SKYL workshop they attended in Macedonia with 26 other young people from different ethnic backgrounds. The program is designed to motivate youth to become active participants in building a better future for themselves and their communities. There is also a specific focus on bringing together diverse cultures to connect and work together, a start at healing generations of division.

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For 20-year-old Albana Konjuhi from Kosovo, interning paved the way to success in the future job market. Through training in basic negotiation skills, civic engagement and community mobilization, Albana’s work at the European Commission helped her develop skills crucial for a young professional emerging into a competitive job environment.

Albana Konjuhi at her new job. Photo: Blerim Cerkini/Mercy Corps

“These trainings show me there are many different ways of communication, and that communication is the key to my education, employment and career,” she explained.

Through our Supporting Kosovo’s Young Leaders (SKYL) programme, Mercy Corps supported Albana in her first internship experience at the European Commission, specifically on the Infrastructure Project Facility (IPF) in the Western Balkan region.

“When I started working in the IPF project, at the beginning I was not confident that I could do it, but the knowledge that I gained during SKYL training helped me to successfully implement programme activities,” Albana added.

Albana’s internship also provided her with knowledge and resources to help her family through difficult economic circumstances. Albana’s family struggled to make ends meet; her father’s monthly income of €212 (about £180) was hardly enough to provide for a family of five. Working as an intern at IPF, however, allowed Albana to supplement her family’s income while still continuing her education in economics.

The IPF internship eventually led Albana to a full-time job with the programme. “Albana is a big support to our project,” expressed Violeta Jakupi, Office Manager of the IPF Programme. “Her communication skills have helped us to improve our communication with clients. For her contributions to the project, our management has decided to hire her in a sub-project as regular staff.”

Albana’s experience is only one of the many success stories from the SKYL programme. SKYL training through IPF encourages Kosovo youth to actively participate in building bright, viable futures for themselves and their communities.

Editor's note: Hanife Limani, SKYL Civic Engagement Specialist for Mercy Corps Kosovo, also contributed to this story.

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Rifat Sulejmani (right, in red shirt) and part of his eight-person family in front of the house that Mercy Corps helped provide them after years of displacement and life in squalid camps. Photo: Blerim Cerkini/Mercy Corps

“Life in the camps was terrible for my family and all who lived there” said Rifat Sulejmani, a former refugee in Mitrovica, Kosovo. “Living in a ghetto was very difficult; there were very bad living conditions like shared bathrooms, it was crowded, small barracks, lack of food and clothes, and many other things.”

Rifat is 58 years old and heads a family of eight (including his wife, daughter, two sons, granddaughter and two daughter-in-laws). Prior to the war of 1998 and '99, he and his family lived in Roma Mahalla; during the war, they were forced to move to the Zitkovac refugee camp in North Mitrovica. In 2004, they moved again to the Osterode camp, hoping to find better living conditions.

Mercy Corps’ European Union—Mitrovica RAE Support Initiative, funded by the European Commission, started in February 2010. The project is aimed at permanently resettling the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian (RAE) community to better and safer living environments. The RAE people have lived in refugee camps for more than a decade in North Mitrovica, and are numbered among thousands of Internally Displaced People (IDP) in Kosovo.

Rifat first heard Mercy Corps’ name in 2008 when Mercy Corps began working in his community. He did not realize then that the organisation would change his life forever in only two short years. During the first months of 2010, the Sulejmani family received long awaited news: they had been selected to receive a new home from Mercy Corps’ project. The family was one of 38 families resettled back in the Roma Mahalla district during the resettlement phase of the project.

”We are very happy to have our own home. We lived long enough in the camps — I don’t even like to recall the experiences we had for more than 10 years there,” Rifat said.

New homes are not the only benefits offered by Mercy Corps. Rifat’s son, Sulltan, explained that he was able to attend a vocational training though the programme: “With Mercy Corps’ support, for three months I attended vocational training at the Regional Vocational Training Centre in Mitrovica to become a cook. At the end of the training I got a certificate and now I am a qualified person. This will help me a lot to establish our future business.”

The Mercy Corps programme also provides Income Generation grants to help resettled families who have clear business plans. Rifat’s family has over 30 years of experience as butchers, and with Sulltan’s new certification as a cook, their goal to open a kebab shop in Roma Mahalla is not far off.

Sulltan looks forward to providing for his family and settling into the family’s new permanent home. “We are satisfied with our neighbors and we feel better now. We have a place to live and now we are focusing on how to reintegrate into our new living environment,” he said. “Through this grant, our family business will generate a monthly income of up to £240 dollars.”

With a new home and the prospect of a family business, the Sulejmani family can begin to reestablish the lives they lost in 1999. The security, independence and dignity that they have been deprived of during their displaced years will slowly — but surely — be recovered.

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Ramadan Sahiti with the hay baler his community was able to purchase through Mercy Corps’ Livelihoods Enhancement for Returnees programme. Photo: Blerim Cerkini/Mercy Corps

Ramadan Sahiti is a 37-year-old Roma farmer from the village of Koshare/Košare in southern Kosovo. Ramadan and his family recently returned to their home village of Koshare after a nearly 12-year absence; he and his family fled the village after their house was burnt down during the 1999 conflict in Kosovo. The family has been unable to return to the village for lack of resources and employment opportunities since then.

But recently, through Mercy Corps’ Livelihoods Enhancement for Returnees programme, Ramadan learned of renewed economic opportunities and job support for those wishing to return to their homes. Moving into housing made available by the Municipality, Ramadan, his wife and four children returned to Koshare to restart their lives and recover the lost years.

Soon after returning, following a series of community meetings, local farmers nominated Ramadan to act as the primary representative of an agricultural improvement project with Mercy Corps and the local government. With a matching investment from the community, Mercy Corps supported Koshare to purchase and manage use of a hay baler, helping to resolve the problem of the lack of sufficient fodder for livestock and very high transportation costs to purchase and transport feed.

“As a result of this community project, so far I have made 20,000 hay bales [valued at more than £31,800] for 50 families to use for their livestock needs; and the surplus they will sell in the local market,” Ramadan boasts. “In addition, I helped six families with free-of-charge service, while other families have paid a 50 percent lower price than market rates during the season.”

Ramadan continues: “The equipment is essential for our needs, especially during spring and summer season. We help each other by sharing our equipment to plow, plant, harvest, bale and transport the bales. The villagers are happy to have the equipment nearby, because the weather in our area can cause trouble for the crop.”

With the new machinery, Ramadan and other farmers have increased the surface of land used by an average of more than 70 percent. With greater arable land and fewer household expenses going towards hay for livestock, farmers in Koshare have been able to increase the size of their livestock herds.

Ramadan reports monthly his earnings for the season of May to December 2010 at more than £180 each month, while employing three people who each earned around £156 per month. “I have increased my family’s herd to seven cows so now I’m able to earn a daily income of £9 by selling milk from my cows and £6 by selling milk from my 12 goats,” he continues. “This year, I will also have seven calves that I intend to sell and seven to nine goat kids that I’ll keep to increase the goat herd. Remember,” Ramadan takes a long pause, “last year I had only four dairy cows and no goats!”

With increased land planted, more feed for livestock and a growing herd of cattle and goats, Ramadan is better able to support his family of six, and they are more comfortable getting resettled in their new — old — home.

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After 11 years of living in the lead-contaminated internally-displaced person (IDP) camps of Cesmin Lug and Osterode near North Mitrovica, Kosovo, the first wave of 50 Kosovo Roma families are resettling into their former neighborhood of Roma Mahalla in the city of South Mitrovica.

Under the USAID-funded RESTART programme, Mercy Corps, the local municipality and local non-governmental organisations and international partners have successfully resettled approximately 250 out of 600 displaced Roma into newly constructed homes. In addition, construction has commenced on the final set of housing units for the remaining 150 families in the camps.

Displaced following the 1999 conflict in Kosovo, the Roma were resettled to these camps by the UN, who had assured them this was a temporary solution. A year later, NATO closed the massive Trepca complex mining due to its hazardous effects on the environment and surrounding communities, but neither the international community nor the government of Kosovo supported neither the closure of the camps nor the resettlement of the Roma to safer land.

Most of the families had lived in the Cesmin Lug IDP camp — the worse of the two IDP settlements — built directly on the territory of the Trepca lead mining and smelting facility, and adjacent to an exposed hill of lead and other heavy metal tailings.

Many of the children born in the camps and who have lived there for most of their lives show signs of lead poisoning — including grey gums, memory loss, stunted growth and dizziness. One blood test of lead levels in some area children showed the highest levels of lead poisoning recorded here in Kosovo.

Shabedin — a 35-year-old Roma, father of three children and one of the beneficiaries of the project — told us his story.

Shabedin and his family outside of their new home. Photo: Mercy Corps Kosovo

“Life in the camp was very difficult. In 2003, together with my family, I came to the camp [Cesmin Lug], hoping to be there for a short time. But, unfortunately our hopes were not realized…and in the end, our expectations had turned into only pipedreams," he explained. "To make things worse, there were promises made by numerous organisations that always remained only promises until the day when Mercy Corps visited our camp. From that day, we started to see a light at the end of the tunnel."

With facilitation by Mercy Corps, the newly-resettled families are receiving services in their new neighborhood such as lead treatment and other health services; income-generating opportunities with trainings, apprenticeships and small business support, facilitating their economic reintegration; and support for access to education in new schools.

"During the project implementation, this light became brighter and today we stand here as people with dignity," Shabedin said. "Now, I have my home, and I am very happy that I am here.”

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