Sustainable return to Nenkalaja / Podkaljaja on track

June 25, 2013 by DRC Kosovo in Return

June 2013 Project Steering Committee meeting of the Sustainable Return to Nenkalaja/Podkaljaja project

The Project Steering Committee meeting of the Sustainable Return to Nenkalaja/Podkaljaja project was held in the Ministry for Communities and Return on 18 June 2013.

Participants included the HE Minister of MSR, Mr. Dalibor Jevtic along with other MCR representatives; British Embassy representatives, Mr. Dominic Hyadn Braithwaite and Mrs. Miranda Shala, UNHCR, DRC Implementing Partner Sveti Spas from Belgrade as well as DRC staff.

Mr. Jevtic also used the opportunity to thank the British Embassy in Kosovo and all other parties who are part of the implementation of the "Nenkalaja/Podkalaja" project. He went on to add that the Ministry for Communities and Return is fully dedicated not only to the current process of return to Prizren town, but also to supporting the continuation of the process.

Petrit Bllaca, DRC Project Coordinator, briefed the participants about the progress of the Sustainable Return to Nenkalaja / Podkaljaja project. ‘Currently nine houses are under construction and work on the tenth one is about to start. DRC is in constant contact with the beneficiaries,’ Petrit Bllaca told the participants, ‘since they are part of the monitoring of the construction of their own houses.' Furthermore, DRC presented information on the integrated Community Development projects and highlighted cases of assisting receiving community families. To date, DRC has received three projects and two individual cases.

The project is co-financed by the British Embassy and the Ministry of Communities and Returns. Mr.Dominic Hyadn Braithwaite from the British Embassy, Belgrade expressed his satisfaction with the work so far and the positive collaboration between the parties involved.

The final comment on the meeting was made by HE Dalibor Jevtic who raised the education issue of the returnees. He said that this should be our priority. Education, health care and employment, in addition to the construction of houses, need to receive adequate attention and must be part of the return package for the displaced. Therefore, the Ministry should plan a budget for education and health.

He concluded by noting that Prizren has always been an exemplary case and that we are very happy to have started with Prizren as an example for other cities.

Watch the documentary: Environment protection in Roma Mahalla

June 18, 2013 by DRC Kosovo in Community development, Return

This short film documents the activities of a community Environment Protection project carried out in Roma Mahalla, Mitrovicë/a in 2012. The film shows the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities’ efforts to improve their environment by organizing clean-up days, building a park and educating the community about recycling, garden maintenance and environment protection in general. Workshops and activities for children, women and men were implemented in partnership with Caritas Kosovo, Danish Refugee Council and the RAE LNGO Ardhmeria RAE.

Today, Roma Mahalla is home to around 300 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian families and is located in the southern part of Mitrovicë/a town, south of the river Ibar.

Before the conflict around 7000 to 8000 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians lived there. In summer 1999, all inhabitants of Roma Mahalla fled to Northern Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro, and Western Europe where they lived in lead-contaminated camps for the following 8 years.

In 2005 a political agreement was reached between the Mitrovicë/a Municipality, OSCE, UNHCR, and UNMIK to allow and support the return to Roma Mahalla. The reconstruction of Roma Mahalla officially began in April 2006 with the foundations being laid for two apartment blocks on municipal land, implemented by NCA, followed by the reconstruction of 54 houses on private land, implemented by the Danish Refugee Council.

With the support of the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR), DRC facilitated the return of 48 families to Roma Mahalla in 2007, most of whom have continued to rebuild their lives there. Roma Mahalla is one of the most challenging return sites in Kosovo, as it is the first significant return project in Mitrovicë/a and the first large-scale urban return of a minority group. DRC’s work with the community in Roma Mahalla continues and today focuses on economic development and community development measures.

IBCM / DRC cooperation kicks off with a student visit to Roma Mahalla

June 13, 2013 by DRC Kosovo in Business Incubator, Economic development, Community development

IBCM students

DRC Community Development Officer

IBCM students

IBCM Heads of Department

On 11 June, DRC welcomed 20 students from the International Business College Mitrovica (IBCM) to Roma Mahalla. DRC Project Manager Jasmina greeted them with a presentation on the community development and economic development initiatives that DRC is currently implementing in Roma Mahalla.

Together with DRC staff, the students went on to have a closer look at the businesses hosted at the DRC Business Incubator, and the various projects led by Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian community (RAE) LNGOs and supported by DRC. The students had a chance to see the Roma Mahalla Learning Center for children run by RAE LNGO RADC and the opportunity to chat with members of the women's handicrafts group, who put their latest creations on display.

The field visit ended on a high note with a performance by Shukarno Talenti, Roma Mahalla's very own folklore dance troupe, which was initiated by youths from the RAE community and is now in the process of registering as an NGO. As many of the students visited Roma Mahalla for the first time, they were keen to learn more about the community and DRC's work.

This field visit marks the first step in a closer collaboration between DRC Mitrovica and IBCM. In the coming months, two IBCM students will start an internship with DRC in Roma Mahalla. DRC's activities within community and economic development will provide the students with the opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge gained in IBCM's Marketing and Management and Public Administration programmes and to gain practical experience.

Sonja Novak, Head of the Public Administration Department at IBCM notes: "We are very happy to work more closely with DRC and the community in Roma Mahalla. The internships offered by DRC are a unique opportunity for our students to apply in practice what they learn about social inclusion for instance. At IBCM, we not only promote quality education, but also strive to give students from all communities in Mitrovica the opportunity to learn."

More information on the students chosen for the internships and DRC's cooperation with IBCM will follow.

When plastic is fantastic

May 02, 2013 by DRC Kosovo in Community development

If you’ve been in Mitrovica recently you’ll have seen bright yellow cages in strategic locations in the city centre. You may also have seen women swinging classy crocheted handbags or tote bags in funky colours and made from a strangely familiar material.

It’s a new project being led by the NGO Lulebora with the Danish Refugee Council (and the support of the municipality for the placement of the cages) to recycle plastic bags by collecting, washing, drying, cutting and… crocheting them into new and gorgeous creations. The cages have been set out as collection points where the citizens of Mitrovica can leave the plastic bags they would otherwise throw away to landfill, choking Kosovo’s natural environment. Instead, the bags are now collected as valuable raw materials for a project set up in the Roma Mahalla in October last year. Twenty one women have been trained in how to crochet, shown examples of products that can be made from crocheting plastic yarn, and have set up a small enterprise turning Kosovo’s ‘national flower’ - the plastic bags which bloom in every field and across every piece of waste ground – into something useful, and income-generating.

It requires a lot of plastic bags to be cut and knotted into these new uses, and a lot of work. The women say that they can get on with the crocheting at home in between other obligations with their households and family but working like this takes about three days to make just one of the bags. They produce a range of designs, some following patterns they’ve borrowed from abroad, and others using their own imagination to create shoulder bags, purses, baskets and floor mats (particularly useful for the bathroom because of course the feature which makes the cancer of plastic so toxic to the environment, where it takes 400 years to break down, is what makes it waterproof). They have been clever with the colours they use, sticking to single tone or two-tone designs, and – in the case of one particularly chic evening bag – using old black bin bags. They tell me they’ve even experimented with cassette tape and video tape for finer work. I love the idea of an iPod pouch made from old cassette tapes I can’t listen to any more.

As well as working individually at home, the women also come together three times a week for a few hours to talk and work together. In the UK such chances for women to work together on their handcrafts and have a gossip have been nicknamed ‘stitch and bitch’ sessions, but these women are serious, telling me about the psychosocial support and health education they’ve received through the project when they’ve come together each week.

The bags are reasonably priced, at four or five euros, depending on size and the complexity of the design. They’ve gone on sale at various handcraft fairs where the women have exhibited, and to visitors at the centre in Roma Mahalla. They’re also available in two shops in Mitrovica, and the women hope to expand the project, especially as the weather warms up later in the year and customers will want to have waterproof bags to take to the seaside with them. ‘We could go on a work trip to Durrës and sell along the beach,’ suggests Bukurije, the natural leader of the group, with a smile. She is from Roma Mahalla and has worked on the project as a volunteer to develop sales and marketing opportunities for them all. She says she doesn’t mind putting in the extra work because ‘the person who works most gains most’. Each woman only gets paid when a product she has made personally gets sold which encourages hard work and careful craftsmanship - and a moral dilemma for me trying to choose what to buy as I’m watched carefully by the group of jealous producers. I walk away with six different bags all knitted and knotted from a waste product that would otherwise be thrown away. Plastic has never been so beautiful.

Elizabeth Gowing is a founder of The Ideas Partnership, a Kosovan NGO working on educational, cultural and environmental projects. She is also the author of Travels in Blood and Honey; becoming a beekeeper in Kosovo (Signal Books, 2011). She can be reached at theideaspartnership@gmail.com

Originally published in Prishtina Insight.

Business Incubator enters next phase

April 11, 2013 by DRC Kosovo in Business Incubator, Economic development

DRC's Business Incubator is one of the few of its kind in Kosovo. Targeted support for minority entrepreneurs and other local businesses provides a platform to boost local private sector development.

More families to return to Prizren

March 07, 2013 by DRC Kosovo in Return

Beneficiary house marked for reconstruction, Prizren

Following the success of the first round of returns, DRC Kosovo is in the process of re-building the homes of another 13 families and preparing for their social and economic reintegration into the local community.

With this urban return project DRC, its beneficiaries and partners contribute to create a multi-ethnic Kosovo, support the Kosovo government’s IDP returns programme and promote integration and reconciliation between ethnic communities in northern Kosovo.

The project is co-financed by the British Embassy and the Ministry of Communities and Returns. The project is being implemented by the Danish Refugee Council and its partner Sveti Spas.

Shukarno Talenti perform at Roma festival

March 04, 2013 by DRC Kosovo in Community development

Join us on 14 March, when Roma Mahalla's first folklore dance group will perform for their community.