Kosovo
-
Photo: David Snyder for Mercy Corps
Our strategy
Alleviate poverty by helping refugees return and reintegrate into society, teaching families how to start and expand small businesses, and promoting leadership, conflict resolution and job skills training among youth.
The context
Thirteen years after the war and four years after its declaration of independence, Kosovo continues its struggle to emerge as a peaceful and prosperous independent state. Tensions between the majority Albanian and non-majority Serbian populations in Northern Kosovo demand the attention and resources of international organizations. Meanwhile, a continuing economic crisis contributes to 48 percent unemployment — one of the highest rates in the region.
Our work
- Economic opportunity: Providing training, loans and other financial services to small business owners
- Emergency response: Helping families still displaced from the Kosovo war resettle away from lead-contaminated camps
- Children & Youth: Engaging youth in civic projects, internships and activities that promote inter-ethnic cooperation
All stories about Kosovo
-
Kosovo: New homes after more than a decade of displacement February 13, 2013
We built new houses and apartments so families could finally move out of lead-contaminated camps where they had been living since the Kosovo War in 1999.
-
Kosovo: Streetlights pave the way for brighter future March 30, 2012
Life was scary on the dark streets of Kodra in northern Kosovo. As the sun set in this multi-ethnic neighborhood of Mitrovica, children would scatter, afraid of what might hide behind the corner.
-
Libya, Kosovo: Mercy Corps mourns death of former colleague in Libya April 21, 2011
Mercy Corps is mourning the loss of photojournalist Chris Hondros, who was killed by a mortar blast along with his colleague Tim Hetherington on Wednesday in Misurata, Libya.
-
Kosovo: Enough living in the camps March 30, 2011
“Life in the camps was terrible for my family and all who lived there” said Rifat Sulejmani, a former refugee in Mitrovica, Kosovo.
-
Kosovo: A life-changing project for a Roma community March 30, 2011
Ramadan Sahiti is a 37-year-old Roma farmer from the village of Koshare/Košare in southern Kosovo.
-
Kosovo: Coming home after more than 11 years of displacement October 21, 2010
After 11 years of living in the lead-contaminated internally-displaced person (IDP) camps of Cesmin Lug and Osterode near North Mitrovica, Kosovo, the first wave of 50 Kosovo Roma families are resettling into their former neighborhood of Roma Mahalla in the city of South Mitrovica.
-
Kosovo: Last Sunday, somewhere between Atlanta and Milloshevë October 14, 2010
Sitting at our dining room table and reading the local paper the other day, I came across a story that immediately made me think, "Hmm. That sounds familiar."
-
Kosovo: Making the economy buzz August 9, 2010
Ali Rama is a 50-year-old beekeeper from the Vushtri Municipality in northern Kosovo. While Ali has enjoyed relative success in his honey production and sales for the last 10 years, he was looking to expand his business into new opportunities.
-
Kosovo: How a tractor changes everything August 9, 2010
The village of Videja is a rural community of 1,000 residents near the Dukagjini Valley, the heart of western Kosovo's agricultural lands.
-
Kosovo: Not small potatoes August 9, 2010
Naim Fejza is a veteran potato farmer in the small town of Mogila in southern Kosovo. For his entire adult life, he and his household — which includes his parents, wife and three children — have eked out a living on the small income from the sales of potatoes on their farm.