The Greenbelt Camp – An ESC testimony by Qendresa Volunteering is something that always gives me a purpose and makes me feel valuable, knowing that I’m also doing my part in a community. I just got finished with my studies abroad and I came back in Kosovo by the time I saw this ESC project.…
A One Day Festival to Celebrate Art Mitrovica, Kosovo – 4 June 2021 In the old Craft Center of Mitrovica, just behind the Balkan sweet-shop, there is a little colorful yard with two tall trees making shade during these hot summer days. It’s in this place that the volunteers of the Mitrovica program of GAIA…
A green lung in the heart of the city Since the team of the “Social Space for Deconstruction” opened the place in October 2020 in the old and quiet “Qendra Zejtare” (crafts center) of the city of Mitrovica, one of the priorities has been to revitalize the area, once a dynamic place that slowly became…
A volcano and a lot of nature – The ESC of Labinot in Iceland Labinot went to volunteer in Iceland for 2 months in 2021 through the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) programme. Find out about his experience through his testimony! Yoop! I am just one of the camp leaders that have passed through Worldwide Friends…
Stepping into the change – The story of Pranvera, ESC volunteer in Romania So, at some point in our life we all have the feeling that we need to run away, make a change in our life, and this change has to be the biggest we can imagine in that one moment. Right after the…
Finding new perspectives in the divide In many aspects, Mitrovica is not an ordinary city. Kosovars who do not live in Mitrovica will often be quite puzzled when you tell them that you’ve decided to come back volunteering for another year. Most of the time, thinking about Mitrovica only brings out images of ethnic division…
Painting School in Lepina Under the shadow of a big tree, six kids are sitting behind their canvases, in a warm and peaceful atmosphere. From August to October 2020, the backyard of Bajram and Farija Mehmeti was turned into a painting school. Four afternoons a week, kids from Lepina and surrounding villages were welcomed by…
Burnt plastic was the scent that accompanied me the first day I arrived in Kosovo. As I reached Gračanica, where GAIA’s non-formal education center was waiting for me, the people of the Roma mahalla, my new neighbours, were burning their trash outside, in the streets. An incongruous thought came up to me: “Does Kosovo…
It is weird how you can discover your living place, once you start to look around from another perspective. Since years I am living in the city of Dresden in Saxony, Germany. I know the roads I am taking every day; walking, riding along them with my bike or taking public transport. But as much…
Shifting perspectives is a response of GAIA’s volunteers to the Covid-19 pandemic. As an environmental and peace building association, we could not postpone our activities and only wait for this crisis to end. Most of the world is facing social distancing measures but yet we are witnessing a real collective desire to exchange, to communicate.…