20 February 2003

Pristina, Kosovo: The United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) has launched a national UN Volunteer initiative to enable Kosovars to serve the causes of peace and development at home.
"A growing demand for national UN Volunteers from a wide range of partners has led to the implementation of several national UN Volunteer initiatives in Africa, Latin America, Caribbean, Asia, Arab States and Eastern Europe," said Robert Piper, Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office in Kosovo. "Thousands of national UN Volunteers have been assigned worldwide to support development, humanitarian and peace-building programmes and their contribution is well known almost for everyone."

Attending a ceremony Tuesday at the UNDP office to launch the scheme in Kosovo were the first national UN Volunteers -- Visar Krusha, Violet Djokic and Shadija Ahmetaj, who are assigned to work for the Kosovo Youth Network (KYN), an umbrella of around 100 youth groups.

"Today we have three people here," Mr. Piper said. "After six months, the number of national UN Volunteers will be bigger and they will be present in other fields as well."

The national UN Volunteer strategy in Kosovo is to harness the enthusiasm of young people and their knowledge of the socio-cultural and prevailing political conditions. They volunteer in their own community to promote the concept of volunteerism and self-help in support of social development and humanitarian efforts. By tapping Kosovo's ethnic diversity, youth will be brought together to gain the necessary skills and tools through participatory workshops and training in confidence-building, in reconciliation and peaceful co-existence and in capacity-building. To this end, a number of nationals will be recruited in the coming months as coordinators and trainers at the regional level in the "Volunteers for Peace" Project in addition to those who will be assigned to minority integration and reconciliation programmes.