ADOPT A SCHOOL IN KOSOVO: 2011-05-22

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The Prague Thriftstore collection delivered!

There we go: the two boxes of books collected by the Prague Thriftstore (many thanks to Thomas and Barbara again, and to all those who donated their books!) traveled in the car from Prague over Bratislava-Budapest-Beograd-Kragujevac to finally make it to Kosovska Mitrovica, so I declare them the most traveled book-collection in Europe. :) Anyway, as my main mission in Kosovo this time was the elementary schools' teachers' training, I talked to my participants in order to identify the most suitable school for the collection, and I found it: it is the department of Aziz Sylejmani (Albanian) school, located in the Kodra e Minatoreve/Mikronaselje neighborhood of northern Mitrovica.

The school is not a building - it is three containers attached together and forming provisional classrooms. People: I hereby confirm that the kids (a tiny mixed class of grades 3-9) LOVED the donation as did Lirije, their English teacher and my course participant. Let's do more donations like this, I was truly moved to see how much difference can such a small collection make: apart from the books, the two small boxes carried a huge gift - the care and attention of people who have never been in Mitrovica, but who chose to support my program.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

English teachers' training wraps up in Mitrovica

The picture of our Mitrovica English teachers' training class - uploaded directly from the classroom, Sunday morning - the final day of our course. From the right: Miftar (Meto Bajraktari school), Figen (Abdullah Shabani shool), Selvije (Bedri Gjina school), Ylberina (Kadri Bistrica), Lirije (Aziz Sylejmani school), Habib (Bedri Gjina), Blanka (Prague:). Instant news: the participants are happy to attend the training even though it's weekend. :) We'll be back with more updates soon.

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What's this all about?

1. Each post of this blog brings a profile of one particular school in Kosovo. It provides basic information about the school's pupils and lists things they need the most.

2. No matter if you are a teacher, a student or a parent, you can help: Pair up your (or your kids') school with a local school - adopt a school in Kosovo!

3. If your school will put together a collection of books, maps, sports equipment or any other of the needed items, all of the following logistics and distribution will be taken care of by the author of this blog in cooperation with KFOR.

4. All updates and progress achieved by the school you adopted will be posted on this blog to give you the feedback on how your particular help and care made a difference in Kosovo.

5. Thank you for your interest and welcome!

For further information or for proceeding with the adoption of a particular school, write to kosovoschools@gmail.com.

Who's behind all this?

My name is Blanka and I am a lawyer from Prague, who worked for the OSCE Mission in Kosovo during 2007/2008. Before, I worked at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. In 2007/2009, I also was a part-time student at the University of Oxford (Kellogg College). During my assignment in Kosovo, I mostly dealt with human rights and institution building, so my daily tasks didn't necessarily bring me to local schools, but I always tried to stop.

The first person to bring up the idea of getting schools in Kosovo adopted by schools abroad was Dr. Geoffrey Thomas, the President of Kellogg College, who has been greatly helpful so far in terms of advertising this project in Oxford and among the members of the University. I hope to be able to welcome Geoffrey in Kosovo one day and show him that his idea has already made significant difference to local children.

Who pays for all this?

Kosovoschools is a privately funded initiative. It is entirely based on voluntary work and effort. Our major expenses include gas (trips to Kosovo), printing (photos, cards, booklets, calendars) and communication (phone and internet costs). All transportation, packing, administration and coordination are taken care of absolutely for free. Huge thanks to our supporters! Even carrying one single box down the stairs counts. It's help. Due to our purely non-profit character and voluntary basis, our plans remain modest, but we have produced a number of small achievements so far. Browse this website and check it out.

Kosovo Schools thanks its supporters and volunteers:

Value for the donor schools

Adopting a school in Kosovo does not only mean value for the recipient schools. Donor schools also significantly profit from their participation: 1) by organizing book collections and shipments, the students and teachers involved get motivated to think and learn about how to efficiently support people in a disadvantaged area - later, they often come up with their own ideas and initiatives, 2) the donor schools get a follow-up photo presentation about their school, as well as about Kosovo, humanitarian activities in the Balkans and the role and potential of private initiatives in similarly disadvantaged areas, 3) the students, teachers, volunteers and supporters get surprised by what's usually described as feeling good about having helped - but there's MUCH more to it: they learn that they can make a difference. They learn that current affairs can be much more complex than the spots of 7 o'clock news. They get curious. They don't sink into the popular apathy and skepticim of that an individual is powerless. Seeing results of their effort, they are inspired to be concerned and helpful later on in their lives.

KosovoSchools design T-shirts against rape in Congo

War over wealth of minerals and other resources in DR Congo had thrown the local population of women into inimaginable suffering: more than 200,000 women became victims of brutal rape committed mostly by various groups of poorly paid and managed soldiers operating in the region of North and South Kivu. Czech aid worker tries to improve the horrifying conditions in which the victims of rape are forced to live. Kosovoschools developed a special T-shirt design which is aimed at raising awareness of the situation. Email us at kosovoschools@blogspot.com and we will send you the design for free.