With half of Kosovo's 1.1 million fertile hectares under plough and 41% covered with lush forest, the Kosovar people have reason to hope and celebrate.

Yet in the wake of the 1999 NATO intervention, more than 47% of the population still lives in poverty, surviving on US$2 a day.

Deep ethnic divides still scar the face of the province's centuries-old Albanian Muslim and Serb Orthodox cultures.

Thirteen percent of the people live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than 2,100 calories a day per adult, lacking access to safe water and health services and living the prospect of not seeing their 40th birthday.

Six out of 10 people don't have a job - 63% of 15 to 24 year olds are unemployed.

Half the population is under 25 with 40% under 18. Kosovo's future is inextricably linked to its young people - the future leaders and decision-makers.
Kosovo's potential also hinges on peace. Without it, no amount of education, investment or opportunity can revive the ailing economy or improve the quality of life for children and future generations.
Two prospects loom; European integration and membership in the global community or the stifling continued predominance of ancient hatreds and a culture of retribution.

Area:	10,908 square kilometres (one third the size of Belgium and smaller than the state of Connecticut).
Population:	Estimated total resident population is 1, 900,000 60% urban & 40% rural Between 350,000 & 400,000 Kosovans live abroad
Age of population:	50% under 25 with 40% under 18
Form of governance:	Kosovo is governed by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), in cooperation with local institutions
Human Development Index:	At 0.734- Kosovo stands at lower end of the medium level on the human development spectrum.
GNP per capita:	1,021 Euros
Poverty levels:	Just over 47% of the population lives in poverty, while 13% live in extreme poverty
Life expectancy at birth:	68.8 (67.8 male & 69.9 female)
Under-five mortality rate:	Between 35 and 40.5 per 1000 live births (1999 estimate)
Illiteracy rate:	6% (3% male & 9% female)
Unemployment:	44% (39% male & 58% female)
Labour force:	52% (75% male & 31% female).
Source:	2004 UNDP Human Development Report for Kosovo & 2003 UNICEF Report

"I don't want to see the things of the past repeated. I have experienced things. In the spring of 1999 I saw a man butchered. He was beaten in front of his family and then put up against a wall and shot. The adults in my family didn't want us to see this. They stood in front of us, blocked our view but I heard those shots," says 14-year-old Egzon Kurti.

This teenaged boy was speaking only months after March 2004 when the worst clashes between Albanians and Serbs happened since NATO and the UN assumed control in 1999. In more than a dozen locations, from Mitrovica in the north to Urosevac in the south and Pec in the west, alarming violence resulted in the deaths of more than 20 people and 400 to 500 others were wounded. Hope for sustained peace and calm was dealt a severe blow, as was any progress towards reconciliation.

The Kosovo Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims questioned the reasons for the escalation of violence. While many point to localised feuds and intimidation, the Centre highlights the prevalence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which it believes affects up to 25% of people yet goes undiagnosed and untreated.

They stood in front of us, blocked our view but I heard those shots

The pain of seeing loved ones kidnapped or shot, of seeing homes and places of worship burnt are buried in places in the heart and mind where it festers until it bursts like a lanced boil.

Today, minority families constituting about 10.5% of the population remain confined to enclaves with limited freedom of movement and access to services. Fear, pain and mistrust breed.

Kosovo is a powder keg of conflicting emotions-fear and anger, joy and sadness

During the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo, half of Kosovo's housing was burnt or demolished and half of the country's livestock destroyed.

World Vision staffers saw children seeking refuge in cow shelters and in the woods for weeks "away from the shooting". They saw backyard wells 'contaminated' by bodies. Dehydration, diarrhea and disease were rife and crippling and death by landmines were daily occurrences.

World Vision joined the Red Cross and local UN agencies in providing thousands of homeless, jobless Kosovars with emergency relief items; food, clothing, blankets, plastic sheeting and wood burning stoves.

For the families returning to Kosovo during and after the conflict with little more than the clothes on their back, World Vision's transit centres and community transit shelters provided safe, short- and long-term accommodation as well as psychosocial assistance to the displaced, especially children.

World Vision's workers are now family for us

Riza Binaku, father of three said during this period, "World Vision's workers are now family for us. They feed us, care for us, provide education for our children and take care for our health. This is not housing, this is family."

The war left many families 'at zero'. World Vision helped rebuild thousands of homes and helped families 'to stand'.

Six years on, World Vision is helping Kosovo's poor and disenfranchised put their potential into practice.

• Find out how

"It is difficult to explain to a man whose mother, father, wife, and four children have been shot dead by Serb police that to be healed, it is necessary to forgive. He says he is just 'waiting for the chance' to get even. A large percentage of this population have no intention of forgiving the Serbs, and history has shown the Balkans finds it difficult to forget". (Communications officer, Rod Curtis, 1999)

To be healed, it is necessary to forgive...

Islamic and Orthodox leaders have engaged World Vision to be present and mediate talks of peace and reconciliation. These leaders acknowledge and trust the credibility of World Vision's peace building work that seeks to change negative attitudes, outlooks and stereotypes one people group harbors towards another.

World Vision's peace building team is involved in mediation projects between the Orthodox Church and local communities in an effort to facilitate the return of internally displaced persons from the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Targeting civil society leaders, including lawyers, school directors and religious leaders from various ethnic groups, World Vision works with communities to diffuse tension and encourage the development of a peaceful environment. Coming together to talk and exchange information, they combat the spread of false and baseless rumors that cultivate fear and often lead to violence.

The active participation of young people within the family, in political life and as actors in civil society is one of the guiding principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and a child-centred approach to development is a valuable indicator of how democratic development is progressing" UNDP 2004 report

With the help and facilitation of World Vision, 19 members from the Council for Peace and Tolerance (CPT) meet regularly in the divided city of Mitrovica to discuss issues of common concern to their respective people groups. In 2002, a CTP representative was invited to speak at a UN conference in New York on the mission, goals and challenges of the council in Mitrovica. Another council is currently being established in Rahovec.

The CTP initiates advocacy projects promoting mutual respect, security and tolerant coexistence to the general public. It models wise governance and encourages the peaceful participation in public life by all citizens of this multi-ethnic province.

Kosovo's youth are the future of the province. If they choose the ways of the past, Kosovo will remain embroiled in blood and conflict. If they choose to learn to live together this fertile region can prosper.

There is only one negative in the new vocabulary of 'kids for peace'; they do NOT tolerate intolerance.

Fourteen-year-old Fatmire Feka knows this in a way most adults cannot, even though she has as much right to grief and perhaps revenge as any person. Fatmire's older brother and sister were taken away by Serb police during the war and never seen again. Still, she said no to revenge.

Fatmire's idea for places where children could learn an alternative to violence and retribution caused World Vision to establish Kosovo's first 'Kids for Peace' club.

Now 14 clubs with 350 elementary and middle school youth constitute a vanguard for peace in Kosovo where ethnic conflict diversity and ethnic conflict go hand in hand.

"Kids for Peace helps the children to forget what happened during the war. It helps us focus on the future of Kosovo and ways to make it better," says Fatmire.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) recognises adolescence (age 10-19) as "that period in a child's life in which there is a unique window of opportunity to break a range of vicious cycles that perpetuate structural problems that undermine child rights, and that are passed down from one generation to the next, like poverty, gender (and ethnic) discrimination, violence, and poor health and nutrition." (UNDP 2004)

The March 2004 clashes foiled plans by 300 children from Albanian and Serbs Kids for Peace to gather in one location but several of the children, led by Kids for Peace leader Fatmire Feka, united to march against the violence. Their rally sent a clear message to adults and leaders that the renewed conflict made Kids for Peace even more resolved to meet with children of different ethnic groups and discover their similarities, instead of their differences.

In theoretical and hands-on forums youth are challenged with an alternative vision for the future and then given the opportunity to test it face-to-face with children of other ethnic groups.

Clubs help children make sense of messages that blame the "other". Children understand they have a role in changing the world around them and acquire the belief and faith that they can make a difference.

"Kids for Peace has changed me a lot. It has given me hope and energy to work for peace with the children of Kosovo, to help them understand the meaning of peace," says Fatmire.

"I am part of a life which I didn't want to live and I'd like it to be better for the children being born now, better for the next generation, for them not to have to go through the things I have."

These are the words of a 15-year-old girl whose youth and innocence were wrenched from her by ancient hatreds and modern warfare. She witnessed the war and NATO bombing of Kosovo in the late 1990s before she was yet ten years old.

But Tijana Bascarevic has chosen the road of peace. Inspired by a World Vision summer camp, Building Bridges of Peace, she wants to start a Kids for Peace club in the Serbian enclave of north Mitrovica. "...at the camp I met kids just like me...also victims...all of us deserve a better life."

I guess the most unusual thing was that we got together so quickly, that we found out so fast that we had so much in common

Her aim is clear, to work slowly towards joint activities with Albanian clubs, a shocking idea to most Serbs inside their enclave.

Tijana's mother is a member of the Council for Peace and Tolerance, a body sponsored by World Vision that includes members of all the ethnic communities in the divided city of Mitrovica.

"I was on a tractor once and one of my cousins was shot in the face... We were surrounded. I saw injured people. A lot of people were killed… I remember we picked up a girl, very young, with her grandmother. They told us her mother and father had been killed", recalls 14-year-old Egzon Kurti.

Looking at Egzon you see a healthy, smart teenager, bubbling with ideas about his future. He has a quick smile and loves to laugh, yet his serious side is there, just below the surface. His personality and character are forged by war. He has seen more pain and violence than a child should. But it doesn't end there. Egzon also has hope and wants to make a better world.

Egzon's reply to these experiences has been to grab at every chance for constructive response and this has culminated in his joining one of World Vision Kosovo's 14 Kids for Peace clubs.

…this is something I can hold onto, it's probably the best thing in my life, getting into the Kids for Peace club.

"We call our club World for Peace. We are 27 kids. We meet once a week and mainly we talk and learn. Sometimes we play sports, volleyball, and basketball. Whenever we play we make sure we include all the kids. The ball is round so you never know; sometimes even a bad player can play a good game."

The 2004 UNDP report on Kosovo said 47% of young people felt their views were rarely taken into account within their communities. But members of the 14 Kids for Peace clubs recently took their views straight to the streets, highways and schoolyards of their neighbourhoods on a two-day environmental cleanup project that captured the attention of even the province's leaders.

"We adults have so much to learn from you children and this initiative that you have taken should serve as an example for all the people of Kosovo, because only together can we protect our environment. I am very pleased to see that children from all ethnic backgrounds in Kosovo are here and together you're celebrating your initiative. You are the future of Kosovo and everyone must support you", said the representative of the Prime Minister upon receiving a letter of petition to clean up the environment in Kosovo.

The idea for 'Clean Environment' came from club leaders during a summer camp in June. The event brought about 350 children together from the municipalities of Mitrovicë/Mitrovica, Rahovec/Orahovac, Suharekë/Suhareka, Lipjan/Lipljan and Zubin Potok, yet indirectly involved 700 other participants from 14 schools, including other children, teachers, school principals, parents, municipal authorities and other community members.

You are the future of Kosovo and everyone must support you

Kids for Peace clubs enable children to have their say, providing forums where their voices can be heard and respected. Youth move beyond theory to initiatives like Clean Environment. Members engage in community development on a very practical, grassroots level.

"People here had, as we say, their legs cut off because of the war. Nothing was spared. Our fields were in a terrible state. Everything that could be taken was carried away. What couldn't be carried was destroyed", says community leader Rahim Vuga.

Agriculture is Kosovo's greatest asset and the key to building its economy. Yet it is an underachiever. The war in 1998-1999 reduced livestock by half and left farmers starting over "from scratch," according to a United Nations report.

Subsistence farming is both an indicator and a consequence of poverty

Today according to UNDP, three times more people live in extreme poverty in rural areas compared to urban areas. Eleven percent of rural citizens live on USD $1 a day or less, which will buy them a loaf of bread and a litre of milk if they are lucky. Yet these are the people who could be feeding the province.

World Vision Kosovo staff believe in the potential of the land and the people. The office has been involved in agriculture since it began helping reconstruct the province of former Yugoslavia after the war that concluded with six weeks of NATO bombing in late spring of 1999.

Giving seed and fertilizer, helping repair tractors and then giving micro finance loans to buy cows and repair barns, World Vision has worked with farmers at their level of most basic need.

People here had, as we say, their legs cut off because of the war. Nothing was spared. Our fields were in a terrible state. Everything that could be taken was carried away. What couldn't be carried was destroyed

Since the end of the conflict World Vision: Provided spare parts for more than 1,700 tractors and repairs for 200 combines. Re-equipped 43 mechanical and 23 tire repair shops. Distributed 2,700 tons of wheat seed, more than 4,400 tons of fertilizers and maize Provided materials to help construct 3,600 green houses.

The agriculture program partnered with micro finance in 2001. Now World Vision Kosovo's KosInvest (micro finance group) has 705 active clients and 85% are farmers.

"World Vision has helped restore those legs," says Vuga.

"People here will never forget World Vision. I'm not just saying this. Even people who didn't get help are thankful. They know the aid went to the neediest".

Now World Vision is helping establish milk collection points so farmers can get their product to dairies and turn the tide for an agriculturally based economy that currently imports the bulk of what it consumes.

"World Vision helped me to stand. Without World Vision I would not be where I am now," says 37-year-old Skender Xhaka, father of four.

"Even if I had weeks I couldn't show you what World Vision did here. We were about to give up. World Vision helped resurrect an area that was practically dead. It was like taking a bird, cutting its wings and then asking it to fly. World Vision was the one who gave us back our wings," (Community leader Rahim Vuga).

Launched in March 2004, Milk Collection Points (MCPs) are small steps towards food self-sufficiency for Kosovo. Ironically, in this province of Serbia where more than 90% of the economy is based on small-scale agriculture, about the same percentage of food consumed is imported, including milk.

Currently 70 farmers, including women-headed households have formed two associations. They have received training and are utilising two collection points in Podujevë and Rahovec serving 12 communities.

Two Kosovar dairies collect the milk from the MCPs, each of which has a capacity of 1,000 litres of milk per day. Though farmers are not reaching maximum capacity, World Vision believes it won't be long before more MCPs are needed.

"These people are not lazy. They work hard, really hard," says Bekim Hoxha, a World Vision agricultural technician, who with his colleague, Nazmi Hasani, came up with the idea for the milk collection project.

Farmers themselves are enthusiastic. "I expect I'll have 30 litres of milk to sell a day. At 30 cents a litre that could be as much as nine Euros [$US11] a day and 270 Euros [$US330] a month," explains Skender Xhaka.

Xhaka has benefited from World Vision's agriculture programs since day one. He received seeds, fertiliser, a grant of a cow and then a microfinance loan to buy another animal. Now he has six cattle, three adults and three calves. No one else in his family ever owned more than two cows.

Forty-seven-year-old Malina Dukiq, school teacher and mother of four, has known only pain, fear, poverty and bitterness since the disappearance of her husband shortly after the end of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. He is presumed murdered.

Twice someone has stolen cows with which she feeds her family. Her tractor was also stolen and her barn was set afire

Her fear is the result of persistent thefts and vandalism.

World Vision Kosovo received funds for 46 cows from the 2002 World Vision United States Gift Catalogue. Staff spoke with locals, both ethnic Albanians and ethnic Serbs, and everyone agreed; Malina should receive a cow.

The gift has given Malina a reason to smile and hope again, for it was presented to her by an ethnic Albanian who has chosen peace despite a traumatic event in his own life.

She has been quietly transformed from a creator of divisions into a builder of bridges in World Vision's work to span Kosovo's ethnic divide through Kids for Peace clubs.

"I am very grateful," Malina said simply. She has had little else to say but her deeds are speaking louder than her words. She is now allowing her own children to attend the Kids for Peace club in the Robovec village school and she cautiously and quietly supports the club concept among her students.

"Everything is hard but I don't mind as long as I can get my children to school. The best thing in life will be if I can see them go to school and become well off financially. But right now, the best thing in life is these cows. They are giving us an income. I will go as far as I can go with these cows. It is for my children," says 50-year-old Halit Halili.

Halit Halili received four pregnant milk cows through the World Vision United States Gift Catalogue. World Vision gift catalogues are produced annually to give individuals and families in the United States and other countries the opportunity to purchase a gift such as a goat, a hygiene kit or school materials for a child or family in need.

"I believe any time in the future if you come back you will find us in a much better condition," adds Halit.

Despite running a farm of 11 hectares (27 acres) with one tractor and no hired help, his optimism is predicated upon the fact he turned a World Vision gift of ten chickens into more than 700 birds over a period of five years. He is projecting a monthly income of about 300 Euros ($US380).

If the milk collection points work out well, I will help a lot more families

The gift catalogue cows are not only multiplying milk for the Halili family. Halit agreed to give 20% of the milk to very poor families in the area each day. He expects to give 10 litres to his neighbours, use 5 litres in his own family and send 35 litres to the milk collection point.

Microfinance and agriculture go hand in hand at World Vision Kosovo.

Adile Blakqori, a 39-year-old widow and mother of three used a World Vision loan of 1,000 Euros to buy a milk cow more than two years ago. Adile repaid the loan in one year and today testifies to the impact the loan has had on her family.

With this cow I feed my children, almost 10 litres of milk a day and cream, butter, yoghurt and cheese. If I have some extra I sell it. It adds up to a lot. I save about 50 Euros a month.

World Vision's agriculture programme teamed up with its microfinance organisation KosInvest in 2001. Of 705 loan clients, 85% are farmers and 44% are women.

One-parent families make up about 10% of all families in Kosovo with 85% of those headed by women, says the UNDP. Some 80% of farms are between 0.5 and 2.0 hectare. Given these small land holdings, access to credit is limited.

World Vision's microfinance programme aims to give female-headed households and small landholders access to credit to help families move beyond subsistence to turning a profit

"What I like about MED is that you can see the results," says Ruso Kharabadze, World Vision's Microfinance programme manager. "The results are in the numbers and in the happy faces."

Based on the World Health Organisation estimate on the disabled population in developing countries, 10% of Kosovo's population- 190,000 Kosovars lives with some form of disability.
Yet, Kosovo lacks any type of infrastructure to accommodate their practical needs.
Widespread stigma, misunderstanding and a lack of coordination at all levels shut them off from the rest of society.

Children with special needs tend to be kept at home and not benefit from any sort of education. Of those few with special needs who do go to school approximately 70% are boys" (UNDP)

World Vision is establishing a network of organisations with specific areas of knowledge and expertise to advocate for children and adults with disabilities and build capacity at different levels of society to meet their physical, social and emotional needs.

World Vision wants to give mobility to the homebound who are excluded from schools, places of work and leisure because they lack access to wheelchairs.

Plans are to establish the first workshop in Kosovo where wheelchairs can be bought and repaired, where children and adults can 'walk' for the very first time.

Riots in Mitrovica captured world attention in March 2004, but for the most part Kosovo has long been off international radar. The result is it receives less financial support.

World Vision has the human resources, expertise and relationships to help Kosovars put their potential into practice, yet funding is urgently needed to sustain and expand its programmes and start new ones such as the wheelchair project.

There is a misunderstanding out there in the wider world that, since the war was four years ago and there has been international aid and because this is Europe, Kosovo has reached some kind of developed stage. It's just not the case, says former World Vision National Director.

Wheelchair workshop, capacity building & recruitment Give children & adults the chance to 'walk' for the very first time	US$60,164
Council for Peace & Tolerance Mitrovica Provide Mitrovica's leaders the opportunity to lead their community in the way of peace	US$60,200
Council for Peace & Tolerance Rahovec Give Rahovec's leaders the chance to model peace & offer a peaceful future	US$60,200 for years 2 & 3
Youth Peace Forum Help bring youth leaders together to teach other youth to deal with conflict without violence	US$97,766
Kids for Peace Help build on the breakthroughs made by youth & give them the chance to lead Kosovo towards peace	US$200,00 for years 2 & 3
Milk Collection Points Help establish 10 mini farms, create employment and develop the country's market-based economy	US$190,000

Please consider how you can assist Kosovo's children and youth and instil in them the belief they have a stake in the future growth and prosperity of Kosovo.