Reconciliation doesn’t start with one person, regardless of their profession there are so so many people that dedicate their time working towards peacebuilding, reconciliation and conflict transformation, interethnic dialogue, and cooperation, and what #RCT aims to do always through podcasts is to bring these positive and inspiring stories closer to people.
In our fourth podcast episode for this year, we were pleased to have Lulzim Bucolli as a guest.
Lulzim is an actor, producer, and writer from Pristina. He finished his Bachelor’s studies in Pristina, Kosovo, and continued his Master’s studies at New York University, School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. He has been part of many successful projects and worked for various NGOs on youth program development, developing skills, youth training skills, TOT, etc., in the Balkans, Western Europe and USA-Hawaii. Currently, he is more engaged in training, he is Chief Executive Officer of “Theta Training”.
He started his professional career as an actor, as he states “Initially I wanted to be an actor, in fact at the same time I was working as a trainer. I did various training, in consultation, cooperation, and communication. I am also a teaching artist, which makes me half an artist, and half an educator. In a way, I combined education and art in one field, so if I could sum myself up briefly, I am enthusiastic and enjoy working with people”. As the conversation continued, he shared that he also does drama therapy, which is his favorite thing to do.
He is so excited when he talks about the things, he does but also, he gets bored doing only one thing, as he says, “I have a problem with having only one job, only one profession, it’s boring, I want to move from one side to the other, explore more and I am interested in learning as much as possible”.
Bearing in mind his 20 years of the background when we asked him how were his projects/cooperation with multi-ethnic groups, he said “It has been very difficult for me, for me a human is a human, I have fun with them, respect for whom they are, I don’t care where they come from, even that questions I make it very rare because it seems to me that it’s like an invasion where you are and it gives me a prejudice, maybe because I have been also biased in those aspects. I have been working for a long time with the Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities, later as well with the Serb community in Gracanice, even in these small towns that have more people from different communities, and I found it very interesting and challenging”.
His message for the #RCT audience was as he stated “Those people who will listen to this podcast, if you find yourself spending all your time with the same people and feel like you are entering in box, you consider yourself liberal, open-minded but you spend all your time with the same people, challenge yourself, go somewhere you’ve never been. In Kosovo, there are many villages, full of people who seem to you that you don’t fit the same, that you have a slightly different culture, go out for a walk, and challenge yourself, drink a coffee in a small town in a community that is “not your community”. In general people in Balkan have more similarities than differences, so just go out, eat beans or pie with people you don’t know, with people from the other communities, you can also meet people and friends who are not close to you, but they are different, and you learn something new, so simply just get out of your comfort zone”.
This was the sixth 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.
VIDEO TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtCk4c9_xgU&t=1s
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