UNDP-UNV: Voluntarism in Kosovo
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Even though not necessarily recognized as such, voluntarism has been an important part of Kosovo’s history. In the communist period, a considerable amount of construction was done on a voluntary basis. During the Milosevic era, Kosovo Albanians relied on voluntarism to survive and in the post conflict period, people from minority communities, facing harsh living conditions and limited freedom of movement, also benefit from the help of volunteers. Volunteerism has then helped keep people together, it has helped to organize people, to create social coherence and it has certainly helped reduce hardship across all ethnic groups.
Essentially, Kosovo’s history of voluntarism can be divided into three distinct periods: the period before 1989; the period from 1989 to 1999 and the period after 1999 The period before 1989
There are also many stories about the numerous working brigades that essentially reconstructed those countries in South Eastern Europe that had been devastated by the Second World War. This work included the building of roads, factories, railways and so on. Communist countries were famous for these working brigades that were in essence voluntary; even after reconstruction, “voluntary” work was a big part of the Communist doctrine. However, not participating in the brigades was seen as disrespectful to the Communist party with potentially grave consequences. Therefore, some of those interviewed for this report argue that the brigades were in effect, forced labor. 1989 to 1998 Kosovo Albanians look to the years from 1989 to 1999 as the period with the greatest evidence of voluntarism. With Ibrahim Rugova as leader, Kosovo Albanians organized parallel elections and a referendum on independence in which the Serbs of Kosovo and some other minorities did not participate. The majority of Kosovo Albanians voted for independence and a parliament was created with a government that had to operate in exile. There was a parallel public service, mostly consisting of shadow government workers and education personnel. This form of organization lasted until 1999. The parallel government was funded by the voluntary tax that Kosovo Albanians paid everywhere, in Kosovo and abroad, which amounted to 3% of their income. The Public Sector consisted of a limited number of government workers, information agencies, an education sector (primary and high schools, and university education), and a health sector. The political situation had a grave impact on education in Kosovo. The Belgrade government wanted schools in Kosovo to work with the program foreseen by the Ministry of Education in Belgrade. The Kosovo Albanians contested that they should write their own curricula. The Yugoslav government withdrew funding from schools that disregarded the plan of the Ministry of Education in Belgrade. Many teachers were dismissed or left their jobs in solidarity with their dismissed co-workers. Sstudents, in all levels of education in Kosovo, had to continue their classes in private houses rather than in official buildings. The Kosovo parallel government paid the salaries of the teachers as well as other government workers. Very often, the Kosovo parallel government did not have funds to pay salaries every month. But, people continued to work; even if they received salaries, it was low for the work that they were performing. So most of those interviewed for this study agree that this was voluntarism in action. During this period, there was a small number of Non Government Organizations (NGOs) operating in Kosovo. Organizations like Mother Theresa were known at that time for distributing food freely to people struck by poverty due to the difficult political and economic situation. Most of them were not registered as NGOs. Yugoslavia did not, at that time, have a proper law on NGOs, and in addition, the organizations did not want the Serbian government to find out about their activities. Mother Theresa had a network of volunteers that it used when distributing food. Most of the time, these volunteers were political activists. However, sometimes they were ordinary people who just wanted to extend the hand of hope to struggling neighbors. Their help was purely based on humanitarian reasons. People would see the suffering of other people and offer help. This activity however, rarely crossed ethnic boundaries. It is also worth noting the activities of the Soros Foundation during this period. Soros Foundation Youth clubs worked to organize joint projects with people of different ethnicities all over Yugoslavia. As the conflict gathered speed, the number of internally displaced people, mostly of Albanian ethnicity, increased dramatically. This period saw many people volunteer to help others. Doctors also volunteered to go and help the affected areas. They helped in basic medical supplies, basic surgeries in the field, many times being very close to the fighting. Even though in some literary work, the names of these doctors are mentioned, there is no organized list of everybody who voluntarily helped during the period 1998 -1999 before the NATO bombing started. The period after 1999 The end of the conflict in 1999 brought a lot of opportunities that resulted in the creation of a new legal environment but more importantly it developed a new civil society. Numerous international NGO’s entered Kosovo, working on a wide range of projects from food distribution to infrastructure. Most importantly perhaps, international NGOs helped the local NGO sector. Many local NGOs participated in many large projects, learning a lot in the process. However, this period has also witnessed a decrease in voluntary activities and voluntary organizations. Even though the number of NGO’s has increased more than tenfold, voluntary activities have dropped significantly. Nevertheless volunteerism is still evident. As the funds began to decrease, local NGO’s began to understand the importance of volunteerism. This can be concluded from interviews with representatives of these NGO’s who conclude that their NGOs would be unable to do any project without the aid of volunteers. Whether it means that people should work for less money then they received in the immediate aftermath of the conflict, or whether it means mobilizing workers and people to raise awareness, volunteerism is now considered to be more than important. Local NGO’s include volunteers in most of their projects; however most of them are initiated with the help of an international donor. There are a lot of training courses, especially in rural areas and there are a lot of projects in education, and in women’s rights. Lately, there is an increase in advocacy in political decisions in all levels of government. Every time there is a piece of legislation or a policy issue to be decided by the government, an NGO that deals with similar issues organizes a group of NGO’s and prominent citizens to make sure that all the issues are taken under consideration. This was especially the case during the latest discussions on the creation of the Freedom of Information Law. It included a lot of input from all parts of the civil society. One of the latest discussions that is expected to draw a lot of debate and input is the type of election system to be used for the next elections. There are also examples of local NGO’s and citizen groups following the work of local governments. They voluntarily follow their work and decision to make sure that the government is closer to the people. This includes a lot of voluntary monitoring by citizens. There were also some initiatives to clean the environment, where citizens cleaned their neighborhoods for a day. On the latest initiative, the Minister of Environment, Ethem Çeku provided the initial example by going in the outskirts of Prishtina to clean the environment. Even though such acts did not have a great response, they were great examples of what Kosovo leaders should do and hopefully not just in the environment. At the time of the cleaning day, the Minister promised that such activities would continue. After the conflict the security situation in Kosovo for Serbs and other minorities such as Roma has caused many to leave the province in fear of violence. In addition, Serb villages and communities in different parts of Kosovo have become isolated. The situation has improved a little bit but still their freedom of movement is quite limited. A lot of international organizations target these communities, but the economic opportunities are really low due to the limitations that they face. Very often they rely on voluntary activities, especially in distributing food and other basic necessities. However, as the level of cooperation and communication with the central government is quite low, it is quite hard to gather information on the number and level of voluntary activities in these communities. International organizations promoting voluntarism helps, but is not the key to success, because they are not necessarily examples of what people want to follow. Therefore, projects where ethnic tolerance is promoted would have a much larger impact if organized by the political or other leaders from the local communities. Material has been extracted from the UNDP – UNV Executive Report “Volunteerism in Kosovo”, September – November 2003 |
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