This interactive meeting gathered 13 residents of the village Gorazdevac near the municipality of Peja, out of which 6 were women. The participants shared their experiences of living in a rural part of Kosovo, by emphasizing the lack of essential living conditions such as a good sanitation system, electricity, and the lack of public institutions including kindergartens and youth centers where their residents conduct activities. Overall, the meeting shed light on a load of problems and poor public services in this area.
More specifically, Visar Prebreza, editor-in-chief at BIRN started this gathering by presenting the topic of the discussion and then invited residents to share their concerns and needs on public services. Residents listed several concerns starting from the lack of safety on the roads, especially around school areas and the lack of sidewalks, the troubles with bills on water and electricity, the lack of a proper sanitation system, and the lack of kindergartens that enroll children younger than 3 years old.
Moreover, Darko Dimitrijevic, the executive director of Radio Gorazdevac raised the problem about being the only media in the area and the difficulties to access the information from local or central institutions regarding open calls for subsidies or grants for citizens of Kosovo in agriculture, economy or other social aids as well as other important announcements from the Kosovo institutions. In addition, residents raised concerns about the exclusion of Serbian language in most of the announcements and official documents from Kosovo institutions.
This activity was implemented as part of the “Addressing the situation with public services in war-affected community of Gorazdevac” project implemented by BIRN Kosovo and Radio Gorazdevac supported by Community Building Mitrovica and the American people through USAID in Kosovo.