project details

The project Our Place and We started in 2012-13 in two municipalities in Kosovo (Kamenica and Ranilug). However, the project in Kosovo with Albanian schools began much earlier under the name Kosovision Contest as a joint initiative of KFOR, Paedagogische Hochschule Zürich (PHZH), and the Regional Education Office in Prizren. The basic idea was organizing a competition for all fifth graders for developing their mutual visions of the future of Kosovo in the form of a Project. From 2008-09 through 2010-11, PHZH implemented the project throughout Kosovo, together with the Kosovo Education Center (KEC) and the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MEST). During this phase, the project received financial support from the SDC, the Lotto Fund of the Canton of Zurich, the Karl Popper Foundation in Zug, and other private donors. Phases of the “Kosovision Contest” were realized from 2011-12 to 2013-14 with KEC as the leading partner in implementation, PHZH in the role of “backstopping” (monitoring and executive control), and MEST as the main stakeholders. The phase was co-financed by SDC and MEST.

In principle, the Kosovision Project is a national competition in which all primary schools in Kosovo participate, more precisely the students of the fifth (in the Serbian school system of fourth grade). The number of participants is about 30,000 per year. Children deal with topics related to their environment: living together, education, sports, economy, infrastructure, environment. From a methodological point of view, this corresponds to the process of Education for Democratic Citizenship promoted by the Council of Europe.

Fifth-graders of all primary schools in Kosovo develop their visions of the future of Kosovo in the form of project posters and project ideas related to arranging their environment (classroom, school, yard, places). Each year 80-85 classes are awarded and receive prizes for the realization of planned projects. The activities require teacher training, school support and assistance, a poster exhibition, and the dissemination of activities. In seven years, the project has reached nearly 200,000 children in Albanian schools.

Although the Kosovision Contest is a multi-ethnic project and open to all ethnic communities, for well-known political reasons, it has not been possible to reach Serbian schools. And that is why the “Our Place and We” project was launched in March 2013 with the idea of expanding the “Kosovision Contest” to Serbian schools operating in Kosovo. It started as a small-scale project and was initiated by the Swiss Cooperation Office in the region of Kamenica and Ranilug in eastern Kosovo in the region of Gnjlane. In 2013, from March to June, only 12 classes from the Gnjilane region participated in the project where the program was slightly adapted to the local context. Partners in the implementation are the Kosovo Education Center (KEC) and the Center for Depoliticization of Kosovo Society (CDKD), a local Serbian organization based in Kamenica. Support, where needed, was provided by PHZH (Katherine Washington).

In this school year, 3 classes were awarded with school projects.

In the academic school year 2013-2014, the project became a broader competition for fourth graders of Serbian schools in Kosovo, although not all are included yet. Eighty-four classes from 11 municipalities (Štrpce, Obilić, Ranilug, Kosovo Polje, Gračanica, Lipljan, Novo Brdo, Klokot, Parteš, Gjilane, Kamenica) agreed to participate in the competition, but this was not the case with the municipalities in northern Kosovo and Serbian schools in the municipalities of Dragaš and Orahovac. In this school year, 15 classes were awarded school projects.

In the academic school years (2015-16-17-18), the project Our Place and We involved all Serbian schools in Kosovo. In each of the mentioned school years, we had 140 to 150 classes involved in the project. During these three years of the project, 450 teachers of the fourth-grades were trained and we had about 6,000 students working on this project. Likewise, we financially supported over 80 school projects. It was of great importance to every school being involved, especially as students made suggestions for projects and realized them.

In the academic school year 2018-19, we did not have a single official donor. We only continued working along with the efforts of the respected Mrs. Katherina Washington because she provided funds where we supported 12 school projects and the team of non-governmental organization CDKD volunteered and we completed the project without compensation but with a small number of classes involved even though all schools, included in previous years were interested in.

In 2019-20 , we planned to continue with the project in agreement with Ms. Katherina Washington invited all schools to get involved in the project. All schools expressed interest, but due to a lack of funding, we could not continue working on the project. Although non-governmental organization CDKD applied to many donors in Kosovo, we did not find understanding and importance of the project and did not receive support for the continuation of the project. Taking into consideration such a bad situation regarding the support and financial support from the institution, CDKD management, and Mrs.Katherina Washington as well as Mr. Urs Brechbühl agreed to continue working on the project Our place and We in the academic 2020-21 year. A plan of ours is to work on the project until 2023.

Funding for the project will be provided through a public call to small donors and to other friends and citizens of Switzerland to continue the project. The project was launched with 94 grades and covers all communities living in Kosovo, but at a later stage, we will have joint projects among communities and thus establish good cooperation of all communities in Kosovo.

The project Our Place and We is significant for many reasons:

 There is a great deal of interest among the student communities of all ethnic communities living in Kosovo;

 It is especially important for students who through project activities acquire many life skills that will significantly help them both through further education and in life.

 Since there is not enough funding for schools for their various needs, the project Our Place and We also helps them to solve many issues of school needs, especially the needs of children and better conditions for their schooling.

 Over time the project must establish cooperation between all communities that share a common space, which is a prerequisite for establishing good relations and building a mutual future.

vCreating opportunities for such funding ensures security and support for all the above importance, especially when we do not have the financial support of local donors and institutions in Kosovo.