I AM A VOLUNTEER!
The primary and main reason why I started working as a volunteer is that I want to help people in need, through the work and commitment to express to them that they will have someone to support. Since I live in a place where I see prejudices against women and girls every day, I thought why not be one of those girls who will prevent these phenomena that happen every day in the district where I live.
Illustration by: Argjira Kukaj
I live in Janjevë, where there is diversity in religion and culture. I work as a volunteer in a non-governmental organization called The Ideas Partnership. This organization focuses on education, through various activities, for young children and adults, in several different locations throughout Kosovo. One of the places is also Janjevë. In addition to working to stimulate multiethnic education for children, The Ideas Partnership also promotes sustainable tourism in Janjevë.
This organization offers many different programs and activities. And some of the programs are: mothers’ parenting classes and new leaders. These activities are attended by girls aged 12-15. The group of young leaders discusses women’s rights, sexual harassment, prejudice, discrimination and many other topics that occur in Janjevë.
The interest of the participants who come to The Ideas Partnership is so great that it is already required to have a math course twice a week. Since the beginning of the organization in Janjevë there are 340 active students who have taken and are continuing to participate in various activities that are organized every day, such as: the course of fine arts, English, German and Albanian.
The primary and main reason why I started working as a volunteer is that I want to help people in need, through the work and commitment to express to them that they will have someone to support. Since I live in a place where I see prejudices against women and girls every day, I thought why not be one of those girls who will prevent these phenomena that happen every day in the district where I live.
The difficult periods of time that have passed, the mental, emotional state or the difficult economic situation I think have pushed them to participate in various activities held in Janjevë. The genesis of this problem I think comes as a result of non-schooling. Lack of education then brings us difficulties in employment, which then leads to dire economic situation. Therefore, encouraging young women to attend school and create employment opportunities for themselves is one of my missions in the organization.
The beauty of all this is that I have the opportunity to work and see girls and women of all ethnicities, which become part of our programs. “Mothers’ parenting classes”, is one of the activities held in the organization, in which I also participated. This activity is attended by 15 Roma women who belong to different age groups.
Every Tuesday I am there working with women from the Roma community, some of them are at a young age, and some others are at my mother’s age. Every day when I meet them, I feel a lot of obligations to myself, a little embarrassment, and even a lot of doubt in myself that the words and information I give them are correct? Because I ask them to pass on the information they receive during the lectures I give to others.
During the 45 minutes I am with them I go through a lot of challenges, one challenge that I find difficult is that the words I interpret, will they understand as I think they should, or maybe to think differently. The difficult economic situation, or the difficult emotional periods of time they go through, the obligations they have to do the housework and many other things they go through I think have pushed them to be part of this activity. Sometimes these obligations that women in the community have are very difficult, and for this reason they find it difficult to express them. But, I always try to find the right words to discover their problems and then solve them together.
Then during the work, I am extra careful not to say any words that could hurt those good women, who have a lot of kindness and respect for me, and of course this is mutual. I have a responsibility to make them feel comfortable, not to feel like they have obligations, to leave a good impression that next time they will be willing to come.
I discuss various topics with them, most often about forced and early marriages. Each expresses their own opinions, which are sometimes strange to me. There are cases when one of them told me that they should marry girls before the age of 18 because they have a tradition, and someone else tells me that they even sell them! The different views they give arouse different discussions among themselves, and cause these topics to be discussed even in their own homes with family members.
We are not someone’s property, nor are we sold, and we will always work for ourselves and our future! Together we can defeat evil unanimously!
About the author: Rajmonda Maloku, 14 years old from Janjevë, is a middle school student.
This grant is supported by the ‘Civil Society programme for Albania and Kosovo’, financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and managed by Kosovar Civil Society Foundation (KCSF) in partnership with Partners Albania for Change and Development (PA). The content and recommendations do not represent the official position of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Kosovar Civil Society Foundation (KCSF).
