Summer 2009 will be our first trip to Kosovo. We are beginning by offering a slightly more limited selection of projects than we hope to be the case in the future. If you would like to help us make the other projects a reality in future years then please do get in touch with us.

Location

Most of our projects this year will be based around Podujeva, a town in eastern Kosovo, about 40 minutes from Pristina by bus (€1 each way). There is a large lake nearby and Podujeva has everything you’ll need.

Summer 2009 trips

1. Podujeva Community Work (August or September)
   in association with Manchester Aid to Kosovo (MaK)
   MaK have contacts in a range of different areas, and you would be working alongside their own volunteers from around the UK (but particularly Manchester) and also from Kosovo, of course. It’s likely that you would combine at least two of the following options:

   a) Working with women’s groups, providing education and training about women’s rights, and also helping to provide training for widowers who suffered during the 1990s and the 1999 war.

   b) Working with children in a summer school - particularly if you have experience working with children (babysitting, youth groups, etc.). It will also be very useful if you have art / drama / sport skills, though this is not essential.

   c) Working with local environmental groups, helping to formulate and carry out an environmental awareness (or improvement) campaign.

   d) Working with local media, including organising coverage of events in August. This would probably also involve working with Urban FM, a well-known radio station based in Pristina.

   e) Helping with construction the Podujeva Peace Park

   f) Working with local artists, if you have particular art skills.

   g) Working with the OSCE’s Podujeva office to construct a project promoting democracy and human rights

2. Democratic participation and awareness with young people
   in association with Kosova Youth Council (KYC)
   KYC is an organisation that tries to encourage greater awareness and debate of political issues among young people in Kosovo. This project would probably be based in Pristina, but there would be scope for other work in the field. Volunteers would be requested to bring their own laptops to do some research work, and we would design a programme to perhaps run a project with young people through the KYC.
3. Teaching English
   working with a range of different organisations
   Volunteers (preferably with a teaching qualification) would be very useful in helping to provide education in English. This would be based in either Podujeva or Pristina.

There are a wide range of other projects that we would like to offer in Kosovo in the future. Click the links above for more information on each of these.

Hands-on

• Podujeva Peace Park, in Eastern Kosovo
  run by Manchester Aid to Kosovo
• Art Exhibition / exchange
• Teaching English (Podujeva)
• UNICEF (direct action)
• OSCE collaboration

Working with Children

• HandiKos (working with disabled children)
• SDSF (children’s shelter)

Working with students and older children

• Assistance at LINK (student careers service, University of Pristina)
• Kosovo Youth Council
• Youth Development Project (World Bank)

Engineering

• HandiKos (repairing wheelchairs and ’sit-up’ chairs)

Internships

• UNICEF (Policy)
• Kosovo Women’s Network
• Kosovo Institute for Policy Research and Development (KIPRED, political think-tank)

Journalism

• Urban FM (journalist goes to work with new Independent News Centre)
• Urban FM (journalist comes to UK from Pristina)
• Urban FM (program link)
• University of Pristina Student Newspaper

Medical

• Medical students at Podujeva clinic

Last updated: April 26th, 2009