Nearly 18 months after 1 million ethnic Albanians fled Kosovo most of the refugees have returned from Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The region is now abuzz with people rebuilding their homes, hospitals, schools, roads and bridges and their lives. As conditions in Kosovo have gone from emergency to recovery, CARE activities have shifted from providing relief to longer-term rehabilitation programs. CARE is currently addressing two broad sectors in Kosovo: health and social protection as well as rural infrastructure and economic development.
Ongoing activities include:
Economic Development:
Small businesses continue to reopen in Kosovo and farmers — who lost so much during the war — planted new crops, and many of these have already been harvested. CARE has been instrumental in providing replacement parts for more than 400 combines to have them operational for vital wheat harvests. CARE also has completed its initial plant protection project in which more than 300 farmers were trained in and provided materials for pest management. Despite an unusually dry summer, inspections of treated fields indicate farmers may expect 40 percent increases in production of some crops.
Health:
CARE has launched a new program to purchase medical equipment for regional clinics and Pristina Hospital. Specifically, the program will supply general medical and maternity equipment as well as other materials in order to improve the range and quality of services offered at these facilities. CARE also proposes to refurbish the regional clinics in Lipljan and Kodra, which together serve nearly 200,000 people and have had little more than basic maintenance during the last decade. Lacking proper plumbing, among other things, has made it impossible to maintain even minimal standards of hygiene at these facilities. CARE is continuing to operate a mobile gynecological clinic in isolated rural villages in the Mitrovica area.
Schools:
CARE is carrying out the rehabilitation of 22 schools in the Mitrovica and Skenderaj areas, including a school for special needs children and a music school. Repairs to schools in the villages of Cirez, Izbiza, Kllodernice, Rezalla, Turiqevc and Vojnik will be completed in September. Rebuilding in other areas are underway or planned.
Other Training:
Other training is being provided through a special psychosocial program that helps teachers to identify and deal with signs of trauma -- as well as learning disabilities and behavioral problems — in schoolchildren. The program educates teachers in ways to draw out traumatized children, and help them cope with their feelings of loss through role playing, singing and drawing. Hundreds of primary school teachers from different parts of Kosovo are taking part in the program.
A 12-month program to render technical assistance and provide resources to the Centers for Social Work is also underway. The centers are in three towns in the southeast region, Gjilan, Kamenica and Viti, and Leposavic in the northern region. Goals are to improve the skills sets of staff of these centers so that they can better meet the needs of individuals, families and communities.
CARE is working with urban planners from both sides in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica, to help strengthen their capacity to rebuild and redesign urban spaces. CARE is providing technical assistance and equipment to the Urban Planning departments, and acts as a "broker" between the Serb and Albanian sides.
Food Assistance:
Though CARE is no longer directly providing food aid, the agency is taking part in a United Nations sponsored food transition project to ensure that families still needing aid are transferred into a province-wide social assistance program run by the Centers for Social Work.
Click here for more background information on the Kosovo Crisis, or to read more about CARE's response to the crisis.
Join us on a Virtual Field Trip to Kosovo, one year later.
