Field Updates

Women for Women International Breaks Ground for the First Women's Opportunity Center in Kosovo - September, 2009

September 11th, 2009 Prishtina, Kosovo-  The foundation has been laid for the next step in Women for Women, International’s (WfWI) mission to empower women in conflict and post conflict areas. The groundbreaking for a new Women’s Opportunity Center (WOC), took place in the urban city of Pristina in Kosovo.  Said the Country Director for WfWI, Hamide Latifi, “In America where new buildings seem to pop up over night, the idea of a groundbreaking may not seem worthy of so much fanfare, but in a country such as Kosovo, whose independence is younger than 2 years, and where women are completely isolated from the outside world, having a Women’s Opportunity Center is a dream few of us can even imagine.”
 
With over 20,000 Kosovo program graduates and hundreds more added every year, the WOC will serve as a training location for the core WfWI program, as well as a center for continued education and assistance for program graduates. Currently the Women for Women, International- Kosovo core program serves 9 municipalities and 33 communities across the country. The core training consists of twelve months of vocational and life skills training, financial and emotional support and an opportunity to meet regularly in supportive Women’s Groups. WfWI has developed programming and infrastructure that teaches women survivors of war the skills to become economically self-sufficient and active in their communities. The curriculum is specifically designed to address political activism, social empowerment, economic self-sufficiency and psychological and physical health.

Besides housing the core curriculum, the WOC will serve as a community center for current participants and graduates alike. For a small membership fee, graduates will have access to a variety of business advisory services, including business development, loan application assistance, job placement, and continued microfinance education. In addition the WOC will provide leadership and other opportunities to continue to help program graduates become economically self sufficient and active citizens within their communities. Now these innovative programs will have a permanent home.

Working pro bono, architect Sharon Davis, of the Sharon Davis Design Studio, is utilizing her extensive experience in sustainable design and urban renewal to create the new home for WfWI-Kosovo. Construction began in the summer of 2009, and a grand opening is expected in early 2010. The design uses passive airflow to keep cool in the summer, and heavy insulation and southern exposure windows to keep warm in the brutal winters. Natural gas, a far more environmentally sound fuel than common traditional wood and coal burning, will be used to heat the building. An internet café will be housed within the WOC for participants use.

Ultimately, the Women for Women, International’s Women’s Opportunity Center in Kosovo will serve as a permanent safe haven for women to gather. It will provide a center of steady activity, learning, and commerce in the community, and a source of support for the women of Kosovo.

 

Women for Women International Recieves 2006 Conrad Hilton Humanitarian Prize, September 2006

Women for Women International is the recipient of the 2006 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, the world’s largest humanitarian prize of $1.5 million. The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation presents the annual award to an organization that “significantly alleviates human suffering.”

“We are incredibly proud and grateful to receive the Hilton Humanitarian Prize, and to be the first women’s organization recognized with this honor,” said Zainab Salbi, President and CEO of Women for Women International. “It reinforces our vision that stronger women build stronger nations and encourages us to work harder to bring the voices and concerns of the women we serve to the forefront.”

"Creating Peace through Economic Opportunity in Kosovo," OutReach, Spring 2006

"Being a woman is hard, especially in war, when women are still expected to carry on their duties as if nothing has changed. A woman still must feed her children breakfast, lunch and dinner. But how? She is expected to wash the clothes. But how?"

 

Training Group Updates, December 2004

Janjeve II
The Janjeve II woman group is made up of 57 participants who started the program in May 2004. Janjeve is a city about two hours south of the capital city of Prishtine; before the war, many of the women were employed by the plastics industry located there, but since the war unemployment across Kosovo is as low as 65%, with the unemployment of women at 80%.

Although women in the Janjeve II group were eager to start the program, tensions from the war still existed, and initially Croatian and Roma women refused to interact with Albanian women during the sessions. However, after we explained that Women for Women International does not separate women of different ethnicities and that they must all learn to share opportunities, the situation calmed down significantly. Now, even though the women use different languages to communicate, they are able to share stories and learn from each at the discussions during the rights awareness and leadership education segment of the program.

Through the rights awareness classes, women in the Janjeve group are learning to stand up for themselves. Shukrije Sopjani, a 25 year-old participant, said, “I work at home but I never realized how important my position in the family is. In my life I applied the teaching of my mum; to speak less, and not say my opinion since I might make a mistake and create problems in a family. Now I have changed my opinion and I expect that my opinion is respected the same as I respect my husband’s opinion, and opinions of others in a family.”

In addition to rights awareness classes, women in the Janjeve group had the opportunity to choose which vocational skills training opportunity they wished to learn: handicrafts or beekeeping. Many of the women are either widows or the sole providers for their families because their husbands were injured during the war. Whereas they were previously confined to their homes after the war to take care of the family, the vocational skills program has allowed women to learn skills that will help them to generate incomes for their families.

Rabije Maloku participates in the beekeeping course. She is happy with all program parts she is attending and says, “Until now it was not even in my mind that I can learn something like this. I was always scared of bees. Today I work with them without any problem. For us, housewives, this is great activity. Bees don’t need lot of space in the house, they need nature, which we have, and human care, which women can provide.”

Finally, the women refer to their sponsors in the United States as their friends who help them. These women are struggling to support their families -- many of them live in harsh conditions without running water or access to electricity, and walk 3 miles to get water for their families. With the support of their “friends” they are able to afford things that were previously unavailable to them.

Luljeta Kyeziu attends the handicrafts course. She says of sponsorship, “The financial support I am receiving from my friend through Women for Women International’s program to me is huge. I use my sponsorship funds to provide food to my family. To women in my village, the day we attend the program is special day. I have learned a lot and produced a pillow with needlework. I had lot of materials at home which I didn’t know to how to utilize. Now I have learned a lot, how to best utilize different materials. I have learned quilting and I can produce things from materials I have.”

The women of Janjeve II are very eager to receive letters and spend the day that letters arrive reading their letters over and over again, and sharing them with everybody. They read the letters and share information about themselves to feel closer to their friends who are so far away. Fikrije Gashi thanks her sponsor, saying, “I am happy to have friend far way (geographically) who cares for me and my family. I believe that I will be able to improve my life in the future with my own work. I hope one day I will be able not just to care for my family, but also to support others, as someone supports me now.”

Prishtine VII

There are 23 women in the group Prishtine VII, all of which are from the capital city of Kosovo -- Prishtine. Many of the women in the Prishtine VII group currently live in temporary shelters and several of them are widows or have husbands who were injured during the war and are unable to work. The women in the group are forced to support their families. However, with an unemployment rate in Kosovo at 65% -- 80% for women – it is difficult for the women in Prishtine VII to find work.

While receiving their sponsorship funds, women in Prishtine VII are also participating in rights awareness and leadership education through Women for Women International’s Renewing Women’s Life Skills (ReneWLS) program. The women meet several times a month in small groups to discuss such topics as women in the family or women and the economy. One participant says about the classes, “I can hear many interesting histories from women’s lives in different parts of the world. Also I can hear lot of histories about women experiences in my community, and I can learn from that, especially from the older ones.”

As they participate in the classes, women are beginning to build their self-confidence. Having seen so much violence, many of the women were very shy and reserved when they began the program. Now they have all learned to find comfort in sharing their problems and are now more optimistic about the future. Nasime, a participant from Prishtine, was beaten very badly and now has trouble with day-to-day tasks as well as speaking. Before enrolling at Women for Women International, she was paralyzed by post-traumatic stress disorder and feared for the future of her children. Several months into the program, she thanks her sponsor, saying, “Engagement in the Women for Women International program helped me very much to overcome my problems and to think about my children’s future. I appreciate the help and support of the Women for Women International staff for all of their understanding and for all of their efforts in helping us to overcome difficulties and sorrows. I appreciate the help, concern and support of the American people. In my country there is an expression: “A friend in need is a friend indeed.”

Women have also been given the chance to participate in vocational and technical skills training. The women in Prishtine VII could choose between handicrafts or beekeeping courses so they could find work in their communities to support themselves and their families. Rabe Musa, who is 45 years old, lives with her husband and six children in a temporary shelter provided by Habitat for Humanity. Her husband was injured during the war and cannot work; her daughter, Vlora, is disabled and must attend a special school; and her son, Ardit, is blind. All of the treatments for her husband and children must be funded by Rabe’s work and small income. She says, “This is my destiny, and I am trying to overcome this by getting skills and doing handicrafts in order to earn income and support my family. Before my engagement in the Women for Women International, I was very much occupied in taking care of my children and with domestic chores, but now my life has changed completely. I am very happy and pleased with the program and with the new things that I am learning, and I hope in the very near future, with the new skills that we are gaining through our training, I will be able to earn an income and support my family. I use my sponsorship funds to purchase medicines and clothes for my children.”

 

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