Activism is the path to change. In most cases, it is the only way to give voice to marginalized communities, to demand accountability regarding issues that affect all of us, to raise awareness about important issues and to build a better life for citizens without distinction. In Kosovo, activism is more important than ever before. In the period after visa liberalization, now when a lot of people are choosing to flee problems rather than work on solving them, having a voice that promotes the opposite is crucial.
The power of narratives has the impact to change the perceptions of youngsters by listening to different sides of the histories, hence contributing to the reconciliation and peacebuilding process. RCT’s Living Library, which was organized in Pristina, was designed to bring together these two groups: those who have stories of activism to share and those who want to believe that positive changes are happening.
Our guests, Rubija Redzepi from the K-Roma community and Dimitrije Obrenovic from the K-Serb community, started the event with positive remarks, talking about their first steps on this journey. They continued by discussing the areas and topics of activism they focus on as well as the impact that their activism had on the society that they live in and struggles that they encountered in their activism path. Rubije and Dimitrije highlighted how important their engagement in activism, human rights and peacebuilding activities was to their societies which afterwards helped them to contribute in several other environments by sharing and inspiring other youngsters.
Rubija: “I want to build a better image for thr people and I am very grateful that I am starting to see the change through my activism and advocacy for a just and equal society”
Dimitrije: “Through activism, I have encountered several people that now we work for the same injustices in the society and I can freely say that working for the peacebuilding process has impacted positively the society where I live starting from friends and family”
The event was attended by 30 participants in total, from all communities that live in Kosovo. Their discussion was followed by several curious questions from the participants who were highly motivated and inspired. We believe that this event served as a successful platform for youngsters to hear successful activism stories, socialize with each other and hear how inter-cultural dialogue and reconciliation could be achieved if youngsters take initiatives and steps through activism