My job with YMCA takes me to some incredible places and this weekend is no different. It is 20.15 on Saturday 21st May and I find myself sitting down to have dinner in a hotel in a city called Peja in Kosovo. The hotel sits below the magnificent mountains referred to by the locals as the Albanian Alps. One young woman described the mountains as the country's treasure, the reason being on the possibility of increasing the number of tourists to her country and assisting in the economic development of this young nation, she is 18.
Two young women, one 17 and the other 18 hosted me for coffee this morning, they spoke with passion about how engaging with YMCA has given them a sense of purpose. The have just finished high school, one is going to university to study music and the other public policy. They talked about how they want to have a positive impact on their country. It was a wonderful experience for me to hear them. They see themselves as peer trainer within YMCA. Simply wonderful.
Put all this in context. It was just 20 years ago that the former Yugoslavia was plunged into one of the darkest periods in recent European history. Ethnic cleansing came into our vocabulary and we witnessed some of the most horrific images many of us have seen in our lifetime. I still have those pictures in my minds eye.
Today 60% of the population is under the age of 30. In 2003 YMCA was born in a new emerging country called Kosovo. Even today there are European countries who do not recognise Kosovo as a country. We witnessed this recently when the European Alliance of YMCA's was held in Madrid Spain and the Spanish government would not issue participants from YMCA Kosovo with visas to attend. With saying that, when YMCA England hosted the General Assembly in 2012 the British Government also refused to issue visas to those from Kosovo.
So, why on a Saturday evening am I sitting in Kosovo. Well some three or four years ago the National YMCAs in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland started a programme called the International Leadership Programme (ILP). The programme was intended to provide opportunities to participants to increase their Leadership development skills by engaging with the International YMCA. Relationships were developed, one of the group fell in love with the National General Secretary of the YMCA in Kosovo, packed in his job at Bolton YMCA and moved to Kosovo where he then married the NGS. The relationships that had been formed at that stage continued and three of the origional ILP participants decided to attempt to organise a joint leadership programme between Northern |Ireland, England and Kosovo. Lead by the newly appointed President of YMCA Ireland (Origional member of the ILP) they submitted a bid for European Funding to support their dream. They set out to recruit five young leaders from Northern Ireland, five from England and five from Kosovo to engage a week long seminar in each of the countries. The Kosovo seminar is the final one in the series.
Here are the participants from today.
I learned today that YMCA Kosovo has four hundred young people under 20 on their leadership development programme every week. The worlds biggest youth charity contributing to the building of a young vibrant country lead by a young female NGS and some of the most fantastic young people I have had the previlage of engaging with.
Today I witnessed four groups of the programmes participants from our three Nations delivering leadership sessions for around forty young people from Kosovo. I am reminded again of the words of Ghandi when he said 'the little things you do today may seem insignificant but it is crucial that you do them.'
Today my heart sings!
Two young women, one 17 and the other 18 hosted me for coffee this morning, they spoke with passion about how engaging with YMCA has given them a sense of purpose. The have just finished high school, one is going to university to study music and the other public policy. They talked about how they want to have a positive impact on their country. It was a wonderful experience for me to hear them. They see themselves as peer trainer within YMCA. Simply wonderful.
Put all this in context. It was just 20 years ago that the former Yugoslavia was plunged into one of the darkest periods in recent European history. Ethnic cleansing came into our vocabulary and we witnessed some of the most horrific images many of us have seen in our lifetime. I still have those pictures in my minds eye.
Today 60% of the population is under the age of 30. In 2003 YMCA was born in a new emerging country called Kosovo. Even today there are European countries who do not recognise Kosovo as a country. We witnessed this recently when the European Alliance of YMCA's was held in Madrid Spain and the Spanish government would not issue participants from YMCA Kosovo with visas to attend. With saying that, when YMCA England hosted the General Assembly in 2012 the British Government also refused to issue visas to those from Kosovo.
So, why on a Saturday evening am I sitting in Kosovo. Well some three or four years ago the National YMCAs in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland started a programme called the International Leadership Programme (ILP). The programme was intended to provide opportunities to participants to increase their Leadership development skills by engaging with the International YMCA. Relationships were developed, one of the group fell in love with the National General Secretary of the YMCA in Kosovo, packed in his job at Bolton YMCA and moved to Kosovo where he then married the NGS. The relationships that had been formed at that stage continued and three of the origional ILP participants decided to attempt to organise a joint leadership programme between Northern |Ireland, England and Kosovo. Lead by the newly appointed President of YMCA Ireland (Origional member of the ILP) they submitted a bid for European Funding to support their dream. They set out to recruit five young leaders from Northern Ireland, five from England and five from Kosovo to engage a week long seminar in each of the countries. The Kosovo seminar is the final one in the series.
Here are the participants from today.
I learned today that YMCA Kosovo has four hundred young people under 20 on their leadership development programme every week. The worlds biggest youth charity contributing to the building of a young vibrant country lead by a young female NGS and some of the most fantastic young people I have had the previlage of engaging with.
Today I witnessed four groups of the programmes participants from our three Nations delivering leadership sessions for around forty young people from Kosovo. I am reminded again of the words of Ghandi when he said 'the little things you do today may seem insignificant but it is crucial that you do them.'
Today my heart sings!
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