Raising the capacities of the young people of Istog and how active they are in advocacy processes was the next topic in the Salon organized in the Municipality held on March 29. Invited to discuss this topic were: Elianë Blakaj, Director of Culture, Youth, and Sports, Valbona Balaj Demaj, LDK Assemblywoman in the Municipal Assembly, and Elbasani Geci, President of the organization “Creative Youth Group”, while the moderation of this salon was led by Ermir Çitaku, Coordinator at the Youth Center in Istog.
Eliäne Blakaj, Director for Culture, Youth, and Sport, said that as a department, they are in the phase of compiling a plan to provide other spaces besides the existing ones where young people will have the opportunity to use them for their needs and activities. Also, the renovation of the current youth center will be done, where at the moment they are waiting for recommendations from the Youth Center and the young people on how this should be developed, so what are their basic requirements? In addition to the Youth Center, the reading room will also be renovated so that all students studying in other cities, such as Pristina, can use it. Blakaj also mentioned the Budget Code, which will contain a special budget only for young people.
However, according to Valbona Balaj Demaj, Assemblywoman of the LDK in the Municipal Assembly, young people have not been aware of their rights until now, so the demands were for other types of infrastructure, such as asphalting, sewerage, etc. The awareness of young people started somewhere three years ago, and we can say that it was the time of their activation and the beginning of addressing the demands. Valbona encourages young people to participate in public budget hearings and submit specific requests they may have.
Meanwhile, Elbasani Geci, President of the “Creative Youth Group” organization, emphasized that until recently there have been no activities focused on young people. Seeing this, they as an organization for two months with the funds they received from other organizations organized 17 activities with young people. In these activities, training and recreational visits have been planned, where in this way they recently held the training that had to do with advocacy issues. The young people of Istog do not have political divisions and the party aspect is never discussed, therefore the goal of the Youth Center is to create a leader who represents all young people and pushes them to follow their goals. For the participants, Geci showed that the Youth Center works with memberships where their goal was to reach around 500 members in the first year, but so far the center has over 200 members even though the number of participants in the organized activities has been bigger.
In the end, Geci encourages young people to express interest and convey the activities they can participate in.
This salon was organized with financial support from the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports