To celebrate the International Day of Volunteering, Democracy for Development Institute (D4D) through the Incubator for Volunteerism and Civic Activism (V4D) on Wednesday organized the Awards Ceremony to give away the Volunteer of the year 2018 and Active Citizen of the Year 2018. This modest ceremony was held at the NANA Fashion food and drinks in Prishtina, starting from 10:00am.

This is the 3rd year that D4D gives these awards, with the purpose of encouraging the citizens to get active within their communities for their general goodness. This year the awards were given for two categories, the one for the volunteer of the year and for the active citizen of the year. The evaluation commission has selected 4 nominees out of 109 that were nominated in total.

This year winners were from the areas of education, environment protection, as well as from the promotion of youth policies. Their contribution in the community have had great impact, especially by helping the youth of their city through various campaigns. This shows the commitment and will power of the citizens to help in developing their community and the state in general.

Awards given this year by D4D are as follows:

VOLUTNEER OF THE YEAR – Festa Sh. Shabani

For her contribution in creating the Story Book Reading Club for the children of Gilan. Festa also was the initiator of a campaign to collect school materials to give away to the children, whose families have no financial means to secure them.

VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR – Ensar S. Shaqiri

For his volunteer engagement in empowering the youth of the Municipality of Gilan. Through his constant engagement, it was possible to open an office within the Department of Education at the Municipality of Gilan, which serves for all students that want to address their issues, demands, and their needs. This office’s purpose is to empower youth and to give a chance for their voice to be heard by the governing institutions of Gilan. Aside from this, Ensar has organized various events, starting from charity campaigns for children with Down-syndrome, and up to collecting funds to buy school materials for students in need.

ACTIVE CITIZEN OF THE YEAR – Egnesa V. Vitia

The initiator of the bicycle riding in the capital city Prishtina with the moto “No to smoke, Yes to bicycles”, with the purpose of raising awareness to citizens and decision-making institutions about air pollution that is being caused by cars, but also to raise awareness about the need of bicycle trails in the city roads. Together with over 2000 other citizens that are part of the “Critical Mass Prishtina” group, she organizes bicycle raids through the city every Wednesday at 8:00pm, as well as on the last Friday of each month. During weekends this group of citizens raid their bikes in long distances, outside the city of Prishtina.

ACTIVE CITIZENRY CONTRIBUTION – Community Association “17 shkurti”

For the contribution of this community association in the Doberqan Village, Gilan, and for the mobilization of the residents of this village to contribute in developing and maintaining the infrastructure of the village. Through this association, the Doberqan village is one of the cleanest villages, best developed, and best maintained in the Municipality of Gilan, maybe in the whole Kosovo. The residents ensure that the garbage is not placed in the ground but in special containers as per their labels, which contributes in garbage recycling. The developed parks with the help of the association donations are being maintained with care and hard work by the residents. Encouraging the residents of this village to contribute in their community is worthy of recognition and valuation of their efforts.

These success stories should serve as examples to encourage all citizens of Kosovo to give their contribution to our society, and to promote the values of volunteerism and civic activism to everyone, with no exclusion to age, gender or ethnicity.