Kosovo – youth work in a war-torn country

When the Kosovo War ended in 1999, the children continued to suffer from the complex consequences of the armed conflict for years to come: besides often losing their father or siblings, they were also left with a mother who herself was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, thereby rendering her barely able to meet the needs of her children. In addition, the bereaved were often plagued by feelings of guilt for the death of their relatives. The fact that many war victims could not be located, particularly in Gjakova, made the grieving process of the children and relatives all the more difficult because they were denied a final farewell.

CHILDREN FOR TOMORROW was confronted with a situation in the former Yugoslavia in which a large number of traumatised children and young people only had a small number of professional helpers. Moreover, there was a lack of youth social work as a broad-based preventive strategy aimed at hindering conflict. Among the children and young people, the lack of employment opportunities and the absence of meaningful leisure activities triggered frustration, anger and aggression, which also turned into self-destructive and other forms of destructive behaviour.

CHILDREN FOR TOMORROW – KOSOVO worked with teachers and the university in an attempt to take a more targeted approach to identifying traumatised children so that we could offer them the necessary help, support and therapy within our foundation. In our individual and group activities, the children also had the opportunity to work on models for constructive conflict resolution in a post-war society.

Through our work with CHILDREN FOR TOMORROW – KOSOVO, we wanted to make a contribution to the advancement of peace in south-east Europe. Besides political and economic reconstruction work, this requires an inner willingness on the part of the people to embrace reconciliation.