Projects of 2003

The year 2003 was characterized by the continuation of work from previous years. During the period January – December 2003 Syri i Vizioni published the advocacy magazine for young people Kasneci (financed by OSCE). During this year, the “ZOOM” Youth Center was initiated and opened (supported by Trentiono Con il Kossovo). In addition, within the “ZOOM” center, the “Journalism School” was organized and coordinated, which was intended as an initial phase and lasted 9 months and with a continuation plan in the coming years (supported by Trentiono Con il Kossovo. The year 2003 was characterized by the continuation of the work from the past years. The main focus during this year was information and advocacy. With the work and partnership created until then, the opportunities were greatly expanded with the creation of new media and greater spaces for engagement activated once again during this year, while the journalistic activity was also focused on the “Kasneci” magazine, the Oneworld portal, while another important project in this period started the School of Journalism, a project that helped create new journalists, which led to even more further work in this sector. This year “Syri i vizion” became a co-founder of the Kosovo Initiative Porgram network, which in the following years was also important for Kosovo to meet the standards, but also to raise the capacities of the organization.

KIP
KIP, a group of 17 non-governmental organizations from Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro, which were created at the initiation of the DRC and worked to support the process of return and integration, which was of exceptional importance for Kosovo, especially in the well-known phase called as the “time of standards”, the conditions that the international community had set for Kosovo as a precondition before resolving its status. The activity of these organizations was especially important in the first year of the creation of KIP, with the riots of March 2004, which brought destruction and victims throughout Kosovo and after which events the international community established a list of demands, which are mainly related to on the treatment of minorities, return and integration and the creation of peace and tolerance. The KIP program did not deal directly with the return, but in partnership with the municipalities and the government helped this process by covering a good part of the work with the community based on creating the climate for the return of the displaced and refugees to Kosovo. The program lasted until independence in 2008, when it ended its mission and existence. Two separate sectors operated within this network: the Open Fund Sector and the Secretariat Fund. Within the framework of the Open Fund, projects are carried out with two or three partner organizations based on inter-ethnic or cross-border partnerships. Whereas, within the Secretariat Fund there were four components: Youth, Community Development, Information and Training. Syri i Vizioni within this program has implemented about 20 different projects and activities in different municipalities of Kosovo, expanding the activity outside the region in municipalities such as Prizren, Mitrovica and Skenderaj, but also in joint projects with organizations outside Kosovo. The KIP program has greatly increased the capacities of the organization in all aspects, it has helped the sustainability and professionalization of almost all the staff of the organization that in one way or another has been involved in these projects.

Zoom-school of journalism
During this year, the “ZOOM” Youth Center was initiated and opened in Peja. The center aimed to create a place for the youth of Peja where they can gather, develop activities and develop their talent in several relevant fields. There were four groups of young people who started joint activities: NGO “Syri i Vizioni” with the School of Journalism, the group of climbers “Merimangat e Peja”, the Corporal Group and the Photography Group. The opening of the center was made possible by the organization “Trentiono Con il Kossovo” which continues to support this center even now, while “Syri i Vizioni” as one of the founding organizations continues cooperation and assistance for this center. Within the youth center “ZOOM” starting in 2003, during the year 2004 until 2005, the “Journalism School” was organized and coordinated by Syri i Vizioni, which was intended as an initial phase and lasted 9 months and with a continuation plan in the coming years (supported by Trentiono Con il Kossovo and participating students). The school was attended by 25 students, with the involvement of professional journalists from Kosovo and Italy. Several journalists have graduated from this school who today professionally develop their profession in the national media.

New Kasnec
During the period January – December 2003 “Syri i Vizioni” cooperated with the OSCE in the publication of the civil society advocacy magazine “Kasneci”, which in the second phase continued to be published under the name “Kasneci i Ri”. The newspaper in its third year of publication was published once a month and was financed and coordinated by the OSCE. The newspaper was named as a civil society newspaper. It presented the activities of the civil society, adhering to its advocacy mission. The newspaper carried articles on the functioning of municipal institutions, the content of new laws and regulations, financial reports and the life of minority communities in the region. It continued to be distributed in the municipalities of Pejë, Klinë, Deçan and Istog and was published in two languages, Albanian and Serbian. The newspaper engaged the young journalists of “Vizoni”, some of whom had graduated from the School of Journalism and the rest from “Vizioni” magazine. At this time, the drafting of the newspaper’s articles was done mainly by “Syri i vizion”, even though the newspaper continued to be under the responsibility of the Department of Democratization in the OSCE, which also distributed it. Apart from the articles made by the journalists, “Syri i Vizioni” did all the technical support and design of the newspaper.

Oneworld
Another activity that took place in September 2003 was the agreement that “Eye of Vision” managed to sign with the portal OneWorld (Unimondo in the Italian version), the section for South-Eastern Europe. This is an electronic media portal with almost worldwide reach and coverage, which is based on providing support through the exchange of online and printed information and materials related to the fields of direct cooperation and public information. In addition, OWSEE enables readers to obtain information about various social, economic and political developments in the countries it covers. Communication between network members is based on partnership where each organization exchanges information and materials for coordinated distribution “Syri i Vizioni” became the partner and main representative to provide news and information for the portal in the Albanian language, becoming a representative covering the territory of Kosovo and Albania. This initiative, which started this year, had a very successful continuation in the following years and turned into one of the ongoing projects that the “Eye of the Vision” holds until today.

“Vision” magazine
After a short period of stagnation, “Eye of Vision” during 2003 began publishing its initial magazine “Vision”. Issue 15 of the magazine was published in July. In addition to the previous donors USAID and KFOS, the publication of the magazine was now also supported by the OSCE. The magazine continued its goal of integrating more young people into Kosovar society and creating a core group of young people as leaders who act within the community as well as their further professionalization in the media sphere. The magazine was already distributed not only in the region of Peja, but throughout Kosovo and abroad. After the July issue, during 2003 the magazine was published every two months, with 3 issues being published this year. Issue 18, published in February 2004, was the last issue of Vision to be published. In this period, many newspapers and magazines were created in Kosovo and the number of youth magazines was large. The journalists of “Vizioni” were engaged in other publications made by organizations such as “Kasneci” and Oneworld, but also in other projects in the community, while some of them had become professionals by joining the central Kosovar media. The magazine “Vizioni” at the time it came out, however, was an opportunity and a powerful engine of youth thought and activism in the region of Peja. About 60 young people were directly involved in the production of the last issue, some of whom, with the steps they took there, continued the profession of journalism with a name in the media outside of Kosovo. From this founding group of the magazine emerged activists who became leaders and bearers of important ideas and projects in the future.

Youth Network
From 2003, the Youth Network of Peja was led by the representative of the NGO “Syri i Vizioni” and until its extinction in 2006. This year several projects were realized. The “Youth Initiative for Reconciliation” of 2003 was held in Ohrid in August. The project aimed to create bridges of cooperation between young people from Kumanova, Macedonia and from Peja. 60 young people participated (30 from Peja and 30 from Kumanova). For eight days, various trainings were organized on topics such as: holding NGOs, managing conflicts, drafting Project proposals. During the camp there were also cultural, entertainment and sports activities organized by the young participants themselves. The “Youth Problems Research” project was prepared in the Ohrid Camp, while it was implemented in the September-November period with financial support from Care International. Within this project, 1,500 young people from all communities and from different social strata of society were surveyed, and the results of the research served as a basis for other later projects. The “Island” project is a continuation of the “Care International” projects. In the framework of this project, 7-day trainings have been organized for the youth of the Serbian community that has returned to Kosovo, as well as for the Albanian, Egyptian and Roma communities in the region of Peja and Istog.

Digitization of Municipalities
In December 2003, a partnership was created with the organization “KACI” for the implementation of the project “Digitalization of municipalities” for the municipality of Peja, for which project the organization is coordinated with the local government. During 2004, joint work was done and ideas were given and a plan was drawn up on how the website of the municipality of Peja will look and what it will include. The website this year has not been published on the Internet because it is foreseen that the training of the staff of the municipality that will work in this field is necessary. This was then realized in later years.