Kosovo is full of positive examples and individuals whose hard work and dedication are imperative for the overall prosperity and resilience of our society. #RCT through storytelling is bringing positive stories to the people and our society, to be inspired and use the catalytic effect to make changes in their surroundings, regardless of any differences.
In our second podcast episode for this year, we were pleased to have Dhurata Prokshi as a guest. Dhurata is a translator and language teacher from South Mitrovica. She graduated in Sociology and has finished her Ph.D. at University St Kiril and Metody, Skopje, North Macedonia. She has been working in a civil society organization for 16 years while pursuing her passion for language teaching for the last 6 years, throughout which she was contributing to teaching the Albanian language to Serbian-speaking communities.
She shared with us how she sees the importance of language in a multiethnic community, and how it is a crucial element for any ethnic group; it enriches and connects people, and in the Kosovo context, it breaks prejudices., As she states, “Being a resident, a citizen of Mitrovica enabled me to have easier access and communication in the Serbian language. I started learning Serbian from an early age..”. During the conversation she also mentioned the benefits that come with learning each other’s language, she said: “I used the advantage of knowing the Serbian language in communication with my project partners, project beneficiaries, and from all this, I have understood that people feel better when you speak to them in their mother tongue, but at the moment you don’t know each other’s language then automatically its created a gap and it is more difficult to achieve any cooperation, either in the field of education, health, social issues and so on”.
When it comes to the reconciliation process, she says that she wasn’t skeptical of reconciliation but there has always been a dose of doubt as to how realistically such a process can be done and to what extent it can be developed, and these dilemmas are still present. Kosovo citizens are witnessing the impact different political events have on the communities and how fast they may break or reverse all achieved results which have been marked mainly by non-governmental organizations, such example as the #RCT Activity. She shared with us her experience in working in a Serb majority team, as she states, “Our relations are extremely correct, professional and it is an environment which provides you with support”.
Her message was to “respect each other first, and then respect each other’s culture and to love and respect each individual regardless of their ethnicity”.
This was the fourth episode of the podcast recording as part of the Storytelling component part of the Reconciliation and Conflict Transformation Activity, other podcasts will be on the way with inspiring and positive stories on reconciliation and the trust-building process in Kosovo.
This event was a part of the Reconciliation & Conflict Transformation Activity, implemented by Community Building Mitrovica and partners from New Social Initiative and Youth Initiative for Human Rights – Kosovo, and supported by the American people through USAID Kosovo.