NEWSLETTER
Below you can see some of the activities and other things we have been up to over the last year.
Combating early marriages in Fushë Kosova
Girls of ages 9 to 14 years old attend the activity called Girls Club, which aims to promote education among young girls, tackling the problem of early marriage. This is done through different educational activities and study visits, and more importantly through the guest speakers that serve as role models for the girls. As a guest speaker in the past we have had the president of Kosovo, female deputies, policewomen, ballerinas etc. This activity is activity is organized by our volunteers Jeta Lepaja, Albana Hoti and Floranda Morina and it would be impossible without their involvement, hard work and great ideas.
Children propose solutions to Global Water Crisis
The Ideas Partnership partnering with the NGO Level Up Village from United States has successfully completed the after school course called Global Scientists which made possible the virtual collaboration of young people from Fushë Kosova with their American friends in finding solutions to Global water crisis by learning water filtration through different practical experiments. Upon finishing this course successfully we agreed on further strengthening our cooperation with our U.S partners by implementing a Global Scientist course and another Video Game design course in the town of Janjeva/o.
Professional development of staff and volunteers
During 2015 we started the project with the British Embassy who has supported TIP with professional development support for the staff and volunteers. During this period of time our staff and volunteers have benefited from training courses, youth exchange either in Kosovo or abroad. Our staff also had the opportunity of learning from each other through shadowing positions which helped the staff members to gain new skills and improve professionally.
Bringing out the love for books
Since September 2015, we have started the Reading Together activity. This activity is held at least 3 times per week. With many volunteers of different ages who come from various backgrounds, the children enjoy being read to, either in English or Albanian. Most of these children do not have any books at home, and some of them have never attended school, so they really enjoy listening all the great stories from the books.
Lord George Robertson visits our center in Fushë Kosova
In the beginning of this year, we hosted former NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson, at our center in Fushë Kosova. He was accompanied by Kosovo’s Ambassador in the UK, Lirim Greicevci. They visited activities such as the kindergarten, intensive lessons classes and Level Up Village. Lord Robertson was very happy with all the work we are doing to keep the children of Fushë Kosova in school.
Life-changing work in Janjeva/o
During this past year we have implemented the project ‘Artisans of Janjeva/o’, supporting 10 families from the town of Janjeva/o in their artisanal work by helping them to market their products and organizing fairs to make it easier for them to sell their products and make a sustainable income for their families. Also, we worked in promoting Janjeva/o through shedding light on its cultural heritage and ethnical diversity, with five different communities living peacefully together.
Educating the teachers of tomorrow
Realizing that there is a lack of teachers in Fushë Kosova coming from the communities of Roma, Ashkali, Egyptian our volunteers Arian Maloku and Rron Gjinovci came up with the idea to organize a group of youngsters eager to learn and with dreams of becoming teachers in their future, to help them reach that goal. The activity is organized twice a week, and it consists of geography and history lessons as well as general knowledge. These youngsters then help out and play a pivotal role in the implementation of the Saturday Activities.
Being the change and making change happen!
Some members from the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities from Fushe Kosova came together to form the Changemakers group. Supported by The Ideas Partnership, The Changemakers group carried out five different projects which benefited their community. After identifying the needs of their communities they came up with ideas to improve the life in their community. Some of these ideas were implemented like delivering garbage bins to local businesses, involving the elderly in social activities, and starting the first kindergarten in the community and were realized with help from United Nations Volunteers which provided funding for these projects who have made the difference in their community.
Self-sustaining work for families
Last year we started the gardening project which benefits the communities in Fushë Kosova and Janjeva/o. There are twenty families which were supported during this project with tools and other necessary materials like seeds and fertilizers. The beneficiaries planted kale, tomatoes, peppers etc. and TIP helped in marketing these products with help from our volunteers through an online platform. This project is supported by the Embassy of Finland in Kosovo.
Supporting the most vulnerable ones
In July 2015 we started physiotherapy sessions at our centre in Fushë Kosova. From these sessions benefit around ten children with special needs living in neighborhoods 28 & 29.
These sessions are held once a week, offering support to the children and advice to their parents on treatment they can apply at home to improve their children’s condition. For most of the children, these sessions are the only form of medical treatment they get.
Additional educational classes
With two shifts, approximately 70 children every Saturday, and many volunteers, the Saturday’s activities are still everyone’s favorite activities. Starting in June 2015 we have implemented a curriculum for these activities. Now children are grouped based on the grade they attend in public school. This way we can make sure that the children are learning something new every week, and that we are helping them with the same material they are learning in school too. Also, we distribute the curriculum for the volunteers that want to be part of the Saturday’s activities, so they can prepare beforehand and deliver the material to the children, making it fun besides educational.
Here we want to share here the link of a video made from some volunteers from the American University in Kosovo, showing a glimpse of a typical Saturday at our center in Fushë Kosova.
Goals for this year
– support with bursaries community members who want to attend school or university but cannot afford it
– continue supporting families with microfinance projects so they can create a sustainable income
– continue helping the special needs community members with physiotherapy sessions
– continue work on keeping the children in school through our educational activities and support them with school material and transportation
– raise awareness on healthy pregnancy and proper child care through home visits and medical consultations with our midwife
– prepare young community members for the job market through training and mobility projects.
How you can support us
Our work is done solely based on volunteer work. If you want to become a part of our team of over a hundred volunteers please fill in the volunteer form:
BE A VOLUNTEER |
Or feel free to contact us by email at: office@theideaspartnership.org
You can always donate via PayPal by clicking “Donate now” button:
DONATE NOW |
Or you can support our Global Giving projects that you can find by clicking here.
We are always in need for clothing donations, so if you have clothes or shoes that you would like to donate feel free to contact us at office@theideaspartnership or drop them off at our center in Prishtina (str.Luan Haradinaj 11/5). These donation will be distributed to five families per week. The families are identified by our Clothes distribution coordinator Zyfer Rexhepi.
A big thank you goes to our volunteers and to our donors who made our work possible throughout the year: