Projects of 2002

With 14 published issues of the magazine, with dozens of organizations and activities that had mobilized thousands of young people, in 2002, Syri i Vizioni” entered with plans to expand the activity more as a new organization. The magazine had increased the number of activists who engage in about 50 young people, willing to be active voluntarily in other activities. But despite their voluntary commitment, maintaining the magazine was expensive and like all the media in Kosovo, “Vizioni” was left without funds, which made the magazine do not go out for more than a year. This period was used for the expansion of the activities and the increase of the circle of activists, the search for donors and the collection of funds in an independent way The youth network of Peja, a network of local NGOs, which in the period of four years developed several projects in the municipality of Peja.

Youth activation and fundraising
Other activities continued with the organization of a big concert on the occasion of Valentine’s Day. The concert invited young people to feel together on Valentine’s Day. 2,000 young people participated in this event, which was held at the “Karagaç” sports gym. After that, during this year, with the organization of “Vision”, many youth evenings, fun activities, concerts and many different activities were held that brought together the youth of Peja in entertainment but also with the constant invitation to engage. At the turn of the year, “Vizioni” organized a “New Year party”, with the participation of hundreds of young people. These activities simultaneously served the purpose of raising the necessary funds to continue the publication of the “Vizioni” magazine, which had been left without funds and had not been published for several months. The provision of funds and the continuation of activities, in this period had become the main goal of the organization, especially after the financial losses that were left from the organization of Valentine’s Day, where in the absence of insurance for the object, it was not possible to manage the entry of people and ticket control. In this period, the cooperation with the OSCE came at a very necessary moment and served especially to increase the organization’s capacities and expand its projects. From this period the OSCE became an important partner of the organization in many aspects. From this cooperation, the creation of the Youth Network of Peja and the cooperation for the preparation of the advocacy newspaper of the civil society “Kasneci” were encouraged.

Miss Peja
Another important activity in this period was the organization of the Miss Peja 2002 spectacle. “Syri i Vizioni” had taken responsibility for the realization of this spectacle, an organization with a much larger size and responsibility than other previous organizations that Vizioni had done. . This year, for the first time, the organization was held under the care of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, with the organization of the company “Art Motion” based in Geneva. Their representative office in Prishtina had selected “Syrin e Zonit” for the organization in Pejë, which made this organization in cooperation with the municipal directorate for culture. The jury created by “Syri i Vizioni” had chosen Njomëza Rozhajen from Peja as Miss Peja, a prize that automatically paved the way for her to participate in Miss Kosovo, in which she was also announced as Miss Kosovo 2002. In addition to Miss, from competition in Peja, two more girls were selected to participate in Miss Kosovo, who also received various prizes in the beauty contest at the central level held in Pristina. The organization of this spectacle served the massification of the organization, because it showed the professionalization of the organization and its organizational skills to deal with more massive projects such as the selection of the Miss.

Peja Youth Network
The youth network of Peja was formed in April 2002 with the initiative of 7 organizations and youth centers and supported by the regional office of the OSCE in Peja. Eye of Vision was one of the founders of this network. The RrRP in Peja gathered a large number of young people from the communities living in the municipality of Peja, such as Albanians, Serbs, Bosnians, Egyptians and Roma, who were represented in the network through NGOs and Youth Centers operating in Peja. The network had an executive board with seven members, had an assembly that met every six months, and was led by rotation, each organization for one year. During 2002, RrRP realized several projects: computer training with the leaders of youth organizations members of the Network with support from the Irish organization “Concern” and the OSCE office in Peja. During this training for 1 month, 20 young leaders from all communities living in the municipality of Peja were trained. The “Youth Initiative for Reconciliation” project brought together 80 young people from Peja, members of the member organizations of the Network in Brezovica. The purpose of this project was to engage young leaders from all different ethnic backgrounds from the municipality of Peja in a joint initiative with the aim of establishing social ties among themselves, to understand that any kind of discrimination and prejudice against minorities or majority groups is major obstacle for the development of Kosovar society. In November, 13 young people from RrRP member organizations traveled to Northern Ireland with the aim of exchanging ideas and gaining experience between themselves and young people from Ireland. They stayed for 7 days at the Center for Peace and Reconciliation in the town of Corrymeela where they learned about the history and coexistence between the Catholic and Protestant cultures in this country and their experience in managing the conflict they have had for a long time.

Crier
The continuous cooperation and support from the OSCE in July 2002 led to the cooperation between “Eye of the Vision” and the OSCE in Peja for the publication of the advocacy newspaper “Kasneci”. The newspaper was created by the OSCE, was published in two languages, Albanian and Serbian, and was distributed free of charge in the municipalities of the region. During 2002 and the following year, “Syri i Vizioni” was a partner with the OSCE in implementation. Initially, together with the NGO “Lingua” 4 numbers were prepared financed by the OSCE and KSCF, then “Syri i vizioni” collaborated with the OSCE for six more numbers in which distribution and design were done. It was published in 8500 copies in the Albanian language and 850 in the Serbian language and was distributed throughout the region: Pejë, Deçan, Klinë, and Istog and was named as a civil society newspaper. In this period, Kasneci was prepared by the Department for Democratization of the OSCE, with a continuous increase in the role of “Vision” in the future. From number 25 in 2004, “Syri i Vizioni” became fully responsible for the publication and distribution of the newspaper, while the OSCE only dealt with financing. The newspaper “Kasneci” was published by “Syri i Vizoni” until 2007 and was one of the important projects that served the organization to successfully expand and push forward its advocacy mission. In 2005, the newspaper was initially co-financed by the OSCE and USAID, and then completely separated from the OSCE.

Vision Library & CD-DVD club
With the commitment of the organization’s staff and in search of new forms of action to encourage young people towards books, in this period the idea was created to create a library in the organization’s offices, which was then followed by the CD-DVD club . The library was created simply and without expense: all the members of the organization brought books from their homes and called on others to bring other books there. In this way, for a very short period, a fund of over 1000 books and 700 CDs was created, which were made available to those interested in reading. In the following years, the number of books and CDs increased continuously. Besides these books gave a new look to the office and environment of the organization, they were a way of generating some income for the needs of the organization, at a time when there were not many donors who could help new organizations, especially those that were with youth topics and information. The library was equally a constant call for young people to easily access the book and to create a connection with reading and knowledge in general, as part of the organization’s mission.

Brochure on women’s NGOs
During this year Syri i Vizioni was committed to the research and publication of the situation in the sector of women’s organizations. The women’s organizations that had started to be created after the war had reached a large number in the region. The support and strengthening of these organizations was important in this period, as part of society’s commitment to gender equality, but there was a lack of information about their condition and commitment. Engaged by the Department of Democratization at the OSCE in Peja, the NGO “Syri i Vizioni” in November published a brochure with data on all women’s organizations in the region that were operating at that time. Its publication was made after a process of research and information gathering in the field. The brochure provided data on about 45 organizations in the region of Peja covering Peja, Istog, Deçan and Klina, data in one place on these organizations, their work, capacities and projects that are implementing them on the ground. The brochure was published in three languages: Albanian, Serbian and English.