Kosovo

At the height of the refugee crisis, there were 800,000 refugees and internally displaced persons from Kosovo living in Albania, Macedonia and other areas of the region. This crisis touched the American Jewish public like no other.

Following an extensive emergency relief and reconstruction program, which included the rehabilitation of approximately 40 primary schools, JDC is partnering with the Soros Foundation’s "Kosovo for an Open Society (KFOS)" and UNMIK (the United Nations Mission in Kosovo) to create an applied Psychology Department at the University of Pristina. With input from the Ludwig Maxmillian University of Munich, Germany and Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva, Israel, JDC and its partners have established a Bachelors degree program, which began in October 2001. In June 2004, a party was held honoring the program’s first 63 graduates, many of whom are now attending graduate school, including several in the United States. This represents a great achievement, demonstrating that established universities recognize the quality of this new degree program in Kosovo.

JDC is also supporting the development of a Masters degree program through 2006. Despite political and logistical obstacles, lectures began in February 2005 for the 30 students enrolled in the program. The curriculum includes clinical, child/school and research tracks, with an emphasis on social and developmental psychology.

JDC also supported the "Services-Based Training for Kosovar Community Mental Health and Prevention" project, implemented by the Kosovar Family Professional Education Collaborative. In coordination with the local Ministry of Health, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the American Family Therapy Academy, this project developed new community services for the mentally ill in Kosovo and strengthened the province’s mental health infrastructure.

Following the mass repatriation of Kosovar Albanians to Kosovo, JDC and World-ORT provided computer and English language courses in nine schools in Pristina and Prizren. During JDC’s multi-year involvement, nearly 6,000 students completed the English course and over 2,000 students completed the computer course.

JDC also supported the "Multi-ethnic Children and Youth Peace Center" (MCYPC), an NGO located in the divided town of Mitrovica. As part of this effort and in coordination with local officials, the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), and the Soros Foundation, JDC established a computer lab for MCYPC’s Albanian and Serbian staff that provided training to the town’s multi-ethnic population. Today, JDC continues to play an advisory role as the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) now operates the Center. In June 2005, it established the Inter-Ethnic Dialogue and Resource Center (IDRC), which focuses on connecting Mitrovica’s different communities and isolated ethnic groups, encouraging peace-building and reconciliation.

Please click here to read more about the center in Mitrovica.