By Friday afternoon I was sitting, feeling sad, on a plane from
Pristina to the UK. I was mulling the implications of what I’d heard
for the Kosovan institutions, mothers, children and young people I had
met who had been beneficiaries of NGO work - this ‘third sector’
activity which in the past has had a higher economic value for Kosovo
than either of the ‘first’ and ‘second’ sectors, public and private.
I was saved from despondency by the people sitting next to me on the
plane. They were Alan and Mary Packer, a British couple who have been
living and working in Kosovo for nine years. They told me about the
work of the NGO they helped to set up in Kosovo in response to the need
they had seen there. Here was no sense of dwindling commitments or
Western resources being hoarded from the jaws of the credit crunch.
Motivated by strong personal connections with the people they’d met
living in Kacanik, and supported by individuals from the UK who had
heard about Kosovo’s needs, Alan and Mary worked with Kosovar
colleagues Burim Piliqi and Kadrije Berisha to form an NGO called
LiveLink Kosovo.
The name, they told me, is important: they see themselves as the link,
the Live Link, that can make a meaningful contact between financial
contributions from the UK and local knowledge in Kosovo which
identifies areas where a small amount of money can make a big
difference. They described their journey to the airport - driving in
poor visibility but being able to steer clear of the bobbing column of
bright yellow which marked out Kacanik schoolchildren’s walk home. The
children were visible thanks to reflectors and hi-vi jackets which
LiveLink Kosovo had distributed to them, along with teaching about road
safety.
From the other things they tell me as we fly between Pristina and
Gatwick, the road safety project sounds typical - it is small scale,
but potentially life-saving. Other work has focused on fire safety
training in primary schools or women’s health meetings in rural areas
where women may not be able to access other information or supplies.
LiveLink Kosovo uses an understanding of local needs as well as Burim
and Kadrije's experience in firefighting and women’s health
respectively.
LiveLink Kosovo has worked with the charity Hope and Aid Direct to
obtain the reflectors, to distribute surgical instruments to hospitals,
and fire extinguishers for schools amongst other things. They are now
involved with another charity, Kosova Support, in bringing a British
ambulance to Kacanik. Whether it is the women’s awareness of breast
cancer which has enabled early intervention and saved lives, or the
Doganaj building which was saved from burning down because a boy who
was passing remembered how to call the fire brigade from Burim’s
presentation at his school, or those primary school children walking
safely home in their hi-vi jackets, the charity seems to be a great
example of the power of using local expertise to solve local challenges
and make Kosovo a better place to live.
Nearing the airport, the plane started its descent over Surrey, and we
circled the swimming pools and parklands of my homeland. From friends
and family who have lost their jobs I know that the financial crisis is
really biting in the UK. But I also know that there’s a country that
needs help even more than the owners of those swimming pools. I gave
thanks for the Packers and the people like them who are giving to
charities and NGOs large and small, and for the Kosovars like Burim and
Kadrije who have not given up working for the benefit of their country,
despite the challenges it faces. It’s better to light up one
fluorescent armband than to curse the darkness.
For more information on LiveLink Kosovo, contact Kadrije Berisha at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or Alan at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
