Monthly Archives: March 2015

Flokart Smajli: Trained To Become a General Practitioner in Germany

Flokart Smajli (26) has been working in St. Georg Hospital in Eisenach, Germany for over a year now. He finished his studies at the University of Prishtina and afterwards was offered the job in Eisenach. It took him only two months to get to his first job interview in a modern hospital-environment in Eisenach.

24-hour shifts, during which he is responsible for all 26 patients during the night, are part of his job. Flokart treats patients with epilepsy, strokes, and circulatory disorders. He is not only dedicated to diagnose them, but also to approach with care his patients, to talk to them and get to know them.

His German skills are very good when it comes to technical terms of his job, but he still needs to practice expressions of daily life. This is a skill he specially needs to build up relationships with his patients. Therefore, the head of his department organizes German classes twice a week, for which Flokart is very thankful.

Flokart Smajli’s experience in Germany started with a good cause and he expects it to be really rewarding in professional terms in the future.

Emin Syla Sings with Lana Del Rey in the Heart of New York

Emini is a young boy from Prishtina, Kosovo, who recently is staying in New York, USA, reports KOHA net. Emin’s uniqueness is that every song he hears, he reproduces it in a completely original style with his guitar.

Emin Syla was a participant in the Voice of Albania in the 2012 edition. During his stay in the US, he has had the chance to meet the internationally famous singer, Lana Del Rey.  This meeting was of special importance for his career, as Lana is his favorite singer. We invite you to enjoy his performance with Lana of her own song Yayo:

Diaspora Minster Murati visits Kosovo’s Cultural Center in Istanbul

Kosovo’s Cultural Center in Istanbul hosted  Minister of Diaspora, Valon Murati, for a meeting with the Albanian associations in Turkey. Minister Murati spoke of Kosovo’s progress and Government’s ties with its Diaspora.  Furthermore, the meeting consisted of talks over the Ministry’s programs and future involvements, learning of the Albanian language, cultural activities, providing support for investment, as well as the Diaspora registration process.

The meeting was attended by Mr. Rahim Morina, Consul General of the Republic of Kosovo in Istanbul; Agron Tare, Consul General of the Republic of Albania in Istanbul; Mentor Borovci, General Secretary of the MOD, and Qamil Bytyqi, Acting Director of Kosovo’s Cultural Centre in Istanbul.

HERE you can read the full article on this activity published in Albanian by Ministry of Diaspora.

Diaspora Business Network to Reach Australia

Strengthening the diaspora community through its businesses is a set priority for the Kosovar Diaspora Ministry. Recently, the Ministry of Diaspora and the Union of Diaspora Global Businesses have held fruitful meetings with the business community in Australia. With key figures such as Mr. Naim Dedushaj, the meetings have resulted with the creation of the Australian Central Branch, located in Melbourne, where the largest Albanian community is located.

Kosovo’s Ambassador Mr. Sabri Kiçmari spoke on the importance of establishing such business networks in Australia, inviting all Albanian businessmen to join. Mr. Naim Dedushaj also spoke of the importance and benefits of this network. At the end of the meeting, he emphasized the goals achieved by the already established networks of diaspora businesses throughout the 16 countries.

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If you are a Diaspora member from Australia, we invite you to support the Diaspora Registry process*. If you would like to register, please click HERE.

*The Diaspora Registry process is developed by the Ministry of Diaspora with the aim of strengthening Diaspora’s ties and participation in policy development processes in Kosovo. The Kosovodiaspora.org platform has partnered with the MoD and Diaspora Engagement for Economic Development (DEED) to promote the registry among our widespread diaspora communities across five continents.

Harvard Diaspora Project Wants Your Say!

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The CID shows that “at least one third of Albanians live outside the borders of their home countries in the Balkans. In the countries where they currently live and work many of them have achieved levels of professional and economic success that would not have been possible at home. We are driven by the image of what the impact of connecting this wealth of knowledge, connections and economic capital with the home countries would be on the Balkans.”

The objectives of CID’s Diaspora Program include:

  • It ensures that the diaspora relations have proper place on the political agenda of the countries in the Balkans.
  • It facilitates the relations between the home governments and the diaspora community organizations abroad.
  • It supports the home governments with building capacities to engage with the diaspora and develop strategies for leveraging its potential to promote economic and social development in the Balkans.

CID’s Diaspora Program starts with reinforcing the relations with the Albanians in the USA, but has the ambition to include all countries with significant Albanian population. Their action plan has three stages:

The first stage involves a series of meetings in the USA between the diaspora on the one hand, and government officials and private sector representatives on the other. The first three meetings will take place in Washington D.C., New York City and Boston in spring of 2015. In June or September of 2015, a joint delegation of Harvard and Diaspora leaders will visit the Balkans and work on establishing the foundations of a strategy for engaging the diaspora in the country’s development. The diaspora strategy should be the main outcome of the visit. The third stage involves implementation of this strategy.

For further details on eligibility and regulations to participate in the program, you can click HERE. To fill out the survey, click HERE.

London Focus Group on Diaspora Virtual Registry

London – On February 25, 2015 the new focus group on diaspora’s virtual registration (DVR) “From a Concept to Success” met in London at the Refugee Council office.

This event was part of the on-going series of focus groups meetings in several countries aiming to bring together Kosovo and Albanian business and civil society leaders to discuss and develop options for making the Diaspora Virtual Registration (DVR) platform a success. The DVR has been developed by Kosovo’s Ministry of Diaspora (MoD) with the aim of mapping out diaspora members living abroad, and strengthening diaspora’s ties and participation in the policy development process in Kosovo. The DRV can be found in the following link: http://rd.rks-gov.net.

Participants included distinguished representatives of the Albanian and Kosovo diaspora organizations, Ministry of Diaspora from Kosovo, Kosovo’s Embassy in London, Albanian Embassy in London, the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the representatives of charities of the Albanian community in the UK. Vebi Kosumi, the chair of the roundtable discussion, opened up the meeting and gave a presentation on the online registration process for professionals, students, and other members of the Kosovo diaspora.

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© 2015 Xhevat Morina. More pictures from the event can be found here.

“The event was an opportunity for the Ministry of Diaspora representatives to engage face-to-face with the Albanian community organisations and individuals to discuss the online Diaspora registration process. It also provided an open forum for the diaspora representatives to ask questions and have an interactive discussion with the government officials. The focus group meeting was successful as it brought together the Albanian community with the Kosovo government representatives. I received a lot of positive feedback from the participants afterwards regarding the useful topics covered. I would like to thank the KosovoDiaspora.org platform for giving me the opportunity to organise and chair the meeting, and my special thanks go to the representatives from Kosovo, the Ministry of Diaspora, IOM and UNDP as well as to all participating organisations and individuals from the UK who came to the meeting,” said Vebi Kosumi.

At the London meeting special guests included: Mentor Borovci, Lorik Pustina, Flaka Braha from Kosovo’s Ministry of Diaspora; Besian Bicurri from IOM; and Ardian Spahiu as the UNDP representative. During their speeches, Mentor Borovci and Lorik Pustina explained the process of the online registration for the Kosovo diaspora.

“I invite everyone who is a member of the diaspora to register. This registration is important so the Republic of Kosovo would know how many people live abroad, as well as identify the needs of diaspora professionals,” said Mentor Borovci, a representative of the Kosovo Government.

Mr. Pustina further pointed out that, “all ethnic groups who originate from Kosovo and are living abroad qualify to register. This registry does target as well, all Albanians living abroad, as for our Ministry, the Albanian diaspora is unified and undivided, regardless where they endeavor from – Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia, Presheva…”

The Embassy of Kosovo and the Embassy of Albania were present at the meeting through Mr. Mustafë Avdiu and Ms. Migena Baholli and they spoke about the help, which they provide in furthering the online registration through face-to-face meetings with members of Diaspora in the UK.

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The Q&A session followed with an open discussion by representatives of the diaspora organisations and individuals such as Luljeta Nuzi of the Shpresa Programme, Esat Braçe of the Nënë Tereza Charity, Artan Llabjani from UK Albanian Proffesionals, Indira Kartallozi from Chrysalis family Future, Beqir Shillova from the British Albanian Kosovar Council and other legal, medical and educational professionals.

Key themes of the discussion related to procedures for registration, and the eventual benefits and uses that the finalization of the database will provide. Some concerns were raised regarding the privacy of personal data shared with the MoD via the DRV. Other discussion points focused on the results of the registration process to date. It emerged that the registration process uses encryption technology to protect the data shared with the MoD, which has planned and designed the system to ensure privacy protection throughout the process of data collection, clearing and analysis.

Diaspora representatives present at the focus group provided positive feedback, and committed to promoting the DRV among their circles as well as ensuring to find ways to make it a succes.

This was the first focus group meeting held in London, preceded by others in New York, United States, and Stockholm, Sweden. Two additional focus groups will take place in Vienna, Austria and Zurich, Switzerland, where large numbers of Kosovo’s diaspora reside.

The organizer of the focus group is NGO Germin in partnership with the International Organization of Migration (IOM), the United Nations Development Office (UNDP) and the Kosovo Ministry of Diaspora (MoD).

Germin is an organization that uses technology to connect and support the Albanian Diaspora communities with their home countries. Germin has founded and manages the www.kosovodiaspora.org, a crowdsourcing digital engagement platform for Diaspora.

The IOM and UNDP are implementing partners of the Diaspora Engagement in Economic Development (DEED) in Kosovo, funded by the Finish Government – www.deed-ks.org.