Programme participants
Every time I am looking at the clouds I am wondering; What makes skies clear?
There are so many questions - so much to learn and so many things for me to see.
But every time I close my eyes I am hoping for just one thing:
that we may all live together - people, lakes and trees - in peace and harmony and unity.
Standing in a grassy mountain area in the Rugova Valley in western Kosovo, I try to capture what I see as I hear children's voices pierce through the air. Through my camera lens Kosovar mountains flash before my eyes.
The Rugova Valley is part of the mountain chain Alpet Shqiptare, covering western Kosovo, northern Albania and eastern Montenegro. The landscape is stunning but hard to get to. I had been lucky enough to get a ride up the mountain by car with Fatos, born and raised in the valley. I had noticed his characteristic looks on the way up the mountain - thick black hair, almost down to the shoulders, his eyes picking up every detail along the forest path as he drove his Suzuki jeep up the mountain.
The Rugova Valley is part of the mountain chain Alpet Shqiptare, covering western Kosovo, northern Albania and eastern Montenegro. The landscape is stunning but hard to get to. I had been lucky enough to get a ride up the mountain by car with Fatos, born and raised in the valley. I had noticed his characteristic looks on the way up the mountain - thick black hair, almost down to the shoulders, his eyes picking up every detail along the forest path as he drove his Suzuki jeep up the mountain.
Behind me, children are sitting in the shadow under a tree. Not far away
from them, a few cows are enjoying the fresh Rugova Valley grass. Most
of the children come from the villages around the Rugova Valley but some
have travelled into the mountains from the near-by cities of Peja and
Decan. They are all between 10 and 15 years old and part of the Rugova
Summer Programme in the village of Reka e Allages, a joint initiative by
the UK-based Balkan Peace Park Project (London) and Kosovo-based NGOs
The Ideas Partnership (Prishtina) and ERA - Environmentally Responsible
Action Group (Peja).
Elizabeth Gowing, British writer, teacher and education consultant, is co-founder of The Ideas Partnership and one of the key people leading the summer programme in the Rugova Valley. ”Last year, the Balkan Peace Park Project asked if I would be interested in leading an English Summer Programme for young children in the mountain village of Thethi in northern Albania. I gladly accepted. This year we decided to run a similar camp for children in Kosovo.” she says.
The organizers hope that the summer programme will help to support sustainable tourism in the region and increase the knowledge of environmental protection. ”Young people can change the mentality and attitude towards nature”, Elizabeth says. The possibilities for a different, exotic kind of tourism that Kosovo has to offer can become an important economic factor in the future and could replace the illegal logging as an alternative source of income in the Rugova region.
The old school building in the village was used for the indoor teaching. It was built by a Dutch aid organization after the war despite the fact that the village did not need a school at the time. ”We are actually the first people using the school since it was built. As a teacher, it feels pretty powerful to me that we brought teaching to the school and the people in the village came up to us and thanked us for bringing life back to the village”, Elizabeth says.
Raising money for the project was not that easy and in many ways, the summer programme could only become true thanks to the generous donations from private persons. ”Every single penny came from individuals” Elizabeth says. Sleeping bags, books, pens and other necessary material was donated from private homes in Great Britain. The organizations ”British Department for International Development” (DFID) donated the use of a car and a driver for the tough mountain roads and ”Cultural Heritage” lent an old traditional Albanian home, ”kulla”, for the staff to sleep in. British Airways donated free access baggage on their flights in order to transport what was needed for the camp. The outdoor clothing company ”Boden” also donated vouchers and the money from the sold vouchers went to the project.
The summer programme was also a way to make the children aware of their emotional relationship with nature. Susan Jones, a design manager, and Patrick McEntaggart, design teacher at the University of Leeds, both hobby photographers, participated in the summer programme as volunteers. ”We gave the children the change to capture nature with donated cameras. It focuses them to pay attention to details. Some of them had never held a camera before. It also opens our eyes because the children see the world differently. One gets lots of pleasure in seeing them doing something they have never done before. In total, 1600 photos were taken by the children and displayed on a wall in the end of the summer programme” Susan says.
”The photography project has enabled the kids to notice things and value the diversity and beauty of Rugova in a way that no number of lessons would have done. The only way to give the children understanding of nature is to bring them close to it and make them feel a connection with it and not want their habitat to be destroyed. All of them have also learned a lot of English” Elizabeth says.
During the summer programme, the children were divided into small groups and given 20 euros to spend on a small environmental project. One of the group ideas was to buy litter bins for the village, another was to buy saplings to plant in Peja. ”Implementing small projects like this is important for two reasons. First of all, it means that the effect of the project has spread beyond the summer programme. Secondly, it means that the children attending the programme have a sense of themselves as agents for change. If Kosovo has a population who believe themselves to be agents for change, nothing will be impossible.” Elizabeth says.
The organisers are happy with the way the summer programme turned out. ”The other day I asked one of the boys if he is enjoying the camp. He told me that he enjoyed himself as much as there are trees in the forest” Elizabeth says.
Valbona, 12 years old, comes up to me. ”Me and Jusuf helped Kushtrim pick strawberries in the forest! The strawberries were red!” I ask her what she has learned during the summer programme. ”I have learned so much English” she says. Bali, 10 years, joins us. ”I learned about what role nature plays in our lives. And I learned English and how to walk in the forest. I made lots of friends and I would like to stay one year in this school if I could” he says and smiles.
The Rugova Summer Programme was held in the end of July. Two months later, several of the small environmental project that the children came up with have been implemented. Anna Wiman is a freelance writer. You can read more about her at http://www.annawiman.com/ or contact her at annawiman[at]tele2.se.
Elizabeth Gowing, British writer, teacher and education consultant, is co-founder of The Ideas Partnership and one of the key people leading the summer programme in the Rugova Valley. ”Last year, the Balkan Peace Park Project asked if I would be interested in leading an English Summer Programme for young children in the mountain village of Thethi in northern Albania. I gladly accepted. This year we decided to run a similar camp for children in Kosovo.” she says.
The organizers hope that the summer programme will help to support sustainable tourism in the region and increase the knowledge of environmental protection. ”Young people can change the mentality and attitude towards nature”, Elizabeth says. The possibilities for a different, exotic kind of tourism that Kosovo has to offer can become an important economic factor in the future and could replace the illegal logging as an alternative source of income in the Rugova region.
The old school building in the village was used for the indoor teaching. It was built by a Dutch aid organization after the war despite the fact that the village did not need a school at the time. ”We are actually the first people using the school since it was built. As a teacher, it feels pretty powerful to me that we brought teaching to the school and the people in the village came up to us and thanked us for bringing life back to the village”, Elizabeth says.
Raising money for the project was not that easy and in many ways, the summer programme could only become true thanks to the generous donations from private persons. ”Every single penny came from individuals” Elizabeth says. Sleeping bags, books, pens and other necessary material was donated from private homes in Great Britain. The organizations ”British Department for International Development” (DFID) donated the use of a car and a driver for the tough mountain roads and ”Cultural Heritage” lent an old traditional Albanian home, ”kulla”, for the staff to sleep in. British Airways donated free access baggage on their flights in order to transport what was needed for the camp. The outdoor clothing company ”Boden” also donated vouchers and the money from the sold vouchers went to the project.
The summer programme was also a way to make the children aware of their emotional relationship with nature. Susan Jones, a design manager, and Patrick McEntaggart, design teacher at the University of Leeds, both hobby photographers, participated in the summer programme as volunteers. ”We gave the children the change to capture nature with donated cameras. It focuses them to pay attention to details. Some of them had never held a camera before. It also opens our eyes because the children see the world differently. One gets lots of pleasure in seeing them doing something they have never done before. In total, 1600 photos were taken by the children and displayed on a wall in the end of the summer programme” Susan says.
”The photography project has enabled the kids to notice things and value the diversity and beauty of Rugova in a way that no number of lessons would have done. The only way to give the children understanding of nature is to bring them close to it and make them feel a connection with it and not want their habitat to be destroyed. All of them have also learned a lot of English” Elizabeth says.
During the summer programme, the children were divided into small groups and given 20 euros to spend on a small environmental project. One of the group ideas was to buy litter bins for the village, another was to buy saplings to plant in Peja. ”Implementing small projects like this is important for two reasons. First of all, it means that the effect of the project has spread beyond the summer programme. Secondly, it means that the children attending the programme have a sense of themselves as agents for change. If Kosovo has a population who believe themselves to be agents for change, nothing will be impossible.” Elizabeth says.
The organisers are happy with the way the summer programme turned out. ”The other day I asked one of the boys if he is enjoying the camp. He told me that he enjoyed himself as much as there are trees in the forest” Elizabeth says.
Valbona, 12 years old, comes up to me. ”Me and Jusuf helped Kushtrim pick strawberries in the forest! The strawberries were red!” I ask her what she has learned during the summer programme. ”I have learned so much English” she says. Bali, 10 years, joins us. ”I learned about what role nature plays in our lives. And I learned English and how to walk in the forest. I made lots of friends and I would like to stay one year in this school if I could” he says and smiles.
The Rugova Summer Programme was held in the end of July. Two months later, several of the small environmental project that the children came up with have been implemented. Anna Wiman is a freelance writer. You can read more about her at http://www.annawiman.com/ or contact her at annawiman[at]tele2.se.
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