Kostandin from Elbasan inspired the youth group to take action to protect children
A young man from Elbasan is finding simple and effective ways of improving relationships and the ‘kindness’ factor in his local community. “Where I lived, Konstandin tells us, I would hear many people, including children, belittling one another over and over again. I was deeply worried and just couldn’t just turn a blind eye to it. My idea was to bring together (it took a little persuading!) a group of both bullies and bullied peers, with the idea that if we spent time together watching interesting and educational movies or mini dramas with children that we could help create a more sensitive, respectful language between each other. And we could avoid both strong language and offensive behaviour”. It worked and it made life better for everyone.
Kosta has joined Child Protection ''IMPACT'' Group established by World Vision Albania and Kosovo back in 2016 with a strong commitment to help his community. Kosta and his friends started guiding their peers to understand what child rights are. More importantly, Kosta the group continuously raise their voices about the problems their community has calling both governmental and non-governmental institutions for certain action.
The 16-year-old boy is known in the community for his initiatives and group leadership skills. His latest initiative with the “IMPACT” youth group has been very challenging, and the implementation was not easy too. During the COVID-19 pandemic and compulsory quarantine, Kosta (this is how friends like calling him shortly) instructed the group on how to identify and report cases of violence against children in the community, especially during emergencies.
‘‘My small contribution included sharing helpful and awareness-raising information on social media on how to protect ourselves from COVID-19, how to seek assistance in the event of an infection, how to report a case of violence, a case of corruption, and other useful information. During this period we conducted online discussions on the importance of community participation and referred several cases of families in need to the Child Protection Unit," - said Kosta.
Furthermore, during the pandemic, he identified seven vulnerable families, who were unable to meet their basic needs as they had less than a few days of savings. Their main source of income used to be immigration or sales of agricultural produce. As a result of lockdown when everything closed down, they lost their monthly income and could not meet the children’s needs. Kosta and other youth from the community referred such cases to the Orthodox Church and World Vision Albania and Kososvo. As a result these families received so much needed support; they got food and hygiene packages.
"I recall that during our first meetings held by the “IMPACT” youth group I was enjoying not only talking about child protection, child rights, the roles and responsibilities of institutions, but also we were learning how to deal with different situations, how to uphold our rights, and how to specifically report a case of violence. I felt like a member of a big family," - says Kosta.
Recently, Kostandin and youth group members, together with their teacher, undertook the initiative to fight against bullying and misbehaviour within the school and the community. Instead of practicing wrong behaviour, they were suggesting youth to read books and get involved in useful activities.
"It gives me a great satisfaction to see such an active, motivated and energetic youth, willing to make changes within the school or the community. Thanks to the work implemented by World Vision as well as our teachers, I believe there will be more and more youth like Kosta who have enough courage and optimism to influence and change worrying social norms," - said Kriselda, Kostandin's teacher.