On the path of youth in Kosovo

By Stephanie Harfensteller

More than 50% of the population in Kosovo is under 25 years old. This is why ThinkYoung, the first think-tank concerned with young Europeans, decided to do a project in Kosovo, sparked by our idea to work in bridging the cultural gap between countries of Eastern and Western Europe. Our first project “Advocacy for Young People in Kosovo” was motivated by the goal to raise awareness of the youth population in Kosovo and their struggles to study abroad due to visa restrictions. Besides filming the documentary “A po vjen n’Prishtine? – Wanna Come to Prishtina?” in February 2010, ThinkYoung organized an essay competition “Promising Kosovo” and conducted two surveys on European integration and visa liberalization. The outcome of the project was then successfully presented at a conference in the Google office in Brussels in January 2011.

           What can foreign citizens do to help young Kosovars have access to better opportunities in Europe than those they have now? Leaded by this question, we wanted to explore with our own eyes what kind of needs we could address with our expertise. The success in meeting these goals, in the first project, as well as the engagement of a diverse range of individuals, civil society and political actors has led us to launch a second edition for our project, Sustainable Kosovo.

                The second documentary in Kosovo conducted by ThinkYoung as part of the second edition of our project was guided by the idea to extend our report on young people in Kosovo beyond the capital city. Since ThinkYoung is concerned with young people, our aim in the second project is to show young people involved in securing the sustainable development throughout Kosovo. Thereby, we visited the cities Gjakova, Meje, Prizren and Mitrovica to catch a broader picture. Accompanied by our friends from Uni Group, a junior enterprise from Prishtina, we met with young people who showed us around their hometowns.

Read attached Stephanie’s travel diary.

 *Stephanie Harfensteller is HR Manager and Research Fellow at  ThinkYoung, the first think tank concerned about young Europeans.