By Jehona Gjurgjeala | Executive Director
Dear friends,
This year marks the 5th year of our Volunteer Clubs (Service Learning Clubs) and we couldn’t find a better way to celebrate this 5th generation: Close to 500 NEW volunteers will start their journeys in 28 NEW volunteer clubs, in 12 cities across the country. These new volunteers will be part of volunteer clubs, where they will learn new skills that will enable them to deliver a community project - benefiting many.
What’s more important is that 12 volunteer Clubs from last year, decided to continue into their 2nd year, even after they officially completed their program! This long-term volunteering is what we wanted to achieve, and it is slowly happening.
Amazing fact:
Out of all volunteer Clubs, there are 2 which are active for MORE than 5 YEARS! 13 other Clubs are active for more than 2 years (the regular Club program is for 1 year).
Featured Community Project:
Youth volunteers install a new water-reservoir for their school. During the second and third week of November, one of the winners of the “Youth Activism Competition” from Hani i Elezit and was financially backed with 100 EUR by their municipality, managed to work as a team, fundraise, and install a water reservoir for their school - at the SHFMU “Kështjella e Diturisë”. Starting from next spring season, the new reservoir – with its irrigation-system – will water 1,000 square meters of grass, plants, and flowers in the school’s yard.
More good news:
Youth are to be part of the international Solidarity Action Day. More than 40 youth volunteers are working on setting up the 1st edition of the Solidarity Action Day, an event originating from Sweden, that happens across Europe and Region, where youngsters work for a day and dedicate the salaries from that day to an organization they choose. They will recruit more than 500 volunteers and The event is organized in conjunction with the network of organizations from The Solidarity Action Day Movement in Europe (SAME).
The volunteers worked on two art installations for Manifesta 14 Prishtina Biennal. “When the sun goes away, we paint the sky” commissioned by Manifesta 14 Prishtina and led by the world-renown artist - Petrit Halilaj and with artists on the "Golden soundtrack" project.
Learning-by-doing, or our Service Learning program, is being integrated into the syllabus of the Faculty of Education. New teachers are being trained on ways to introduce the combination of volunteering and learning to their classes when they actually start teaching. What’s important here is that the method that we use for our after-school activities, is being integrated and will be part of official school curricula - meaning that more children will be exposed to the learning-by-doing methods.
Youth volunteers become Volunteer Club and Junior Camp Leaders. In our call for the 5th generation of Club Leaders and Junior Camp Leaders, we’ve had many applications from existing youth volunteers willing to take these roles. This shows that the volunteer youth, through various educational programs that we offer, are acquiring new sets of skills that make them capable of taking more advanced roles.
Learning youth-exchanges proved to be beneficial for our volunteers, as 13 of them that were in an exchange in Romania, managed to engage 88 NEW volunteers to work on community projects. This shows that exchange-programs serve as a good learning experience that can be put to good use by our volunteer youth.
Three community projects made it to the final of the Regional Service Learning Award. In the event that recognizes volunteer community projects from the region, we’re happy to see that three community projects from Kosova were shortlisted as finalists in the event. It is great to see that community projects from our youth volunteers keep getting international recognition and praise.
There is so much more that we would like to share, but you can always follow us on our newly-designed website, or Instagram, Facebook, and now on TikTok as well!
We’re so proud of how the volunteers are learning and using that knowledge to make our society a better one for all.
Until next time, I wish you good health to you and your loved ones.
Thank you for trusting us.
Sincerely,
Jehona
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