Fall 2011 USAID Hope Fellowship Alumnae Share their Stories

Adelina Nura

I would like to begin this letter with an appreciation for the staff in Kosovo and Washington DC who works with dedication. Through their fantastic work they produce women leaders through the Hope Fellowship Program who will work to bring positive changes in Kosovo’s society!

The Hope Fellowship Program, to me, is one of the most important and unforgettable experiences in my professional life. The possibilities that this program offers are unmatched. I experienced so much in a very short time.

As part of this program I had the opportunity to participate in training, workshops and various meetings that were very important and beneficial to me. Through trainings conducted by professionals both in Kosovo and Washington DC., presentations at NDI and CSIS in Washington DC, meetings with different organizations working in the field of health and social welfare I had chance to expand my knowledge in many areas and develop leadership skills.

Because of my experience in Kosovo, where I work to fight human trafficking, I had the opportunity during my stay in Washington DC to visit the shelters and organizations that work to combat this global phenomenon. I worked with the Polaris Project, Vital Voices, John Hopkins University, and George Washington University, all of which provided me a phenomenal experience!

I would like to emphasize the unforgettable Congress Shadow Day experience where I had the opportunity to meet congressmen and to see their work, atmosphere, meetings and the procedure of voting on Capitol Hill.

I also got to meet with Kosovo Ambassador to the U.S. Mr. Avni Spahiu and his family and with Ambassador William Walker.

Other things that impressed me were the values of American society. I learned of Americans’ work ethic, punctuality, consideration, and willingness to offer assistance, exchange of professional information, and people’s positive attitudes and communication.

My dream was realized – I had chance to visit American Psychological Association – where I was part of the working group of experts for anti – trafficking of humans!

During my time in DC I had the opportunity with the group of Hope Fellows to enjoy visits to interesting places in Washington DC and New York!

As a result of this program and through sharing this phenomenal experience with others I became a citizen who reflects the optimism and positivity that seeks changes in our society.

Now I have a group of people with whom I have established friendship and connections in Kosovo and in Washington DC who are willing to help and contribute to my professional goals!

I hope that this project lasts for a long time so other women will have the opportunity to be part of it, to become part of the positive change and to develop their leadership skills!

I would like to finish with another special thanks to USAID which has supported this project for many years. I hope that it will continue to do so in the future also!

Arbenita Pajaziti

Each day was like 100 days packed in to one. This is how I described this full learning experience to Congressman Jim McDermott on Shadow Day. The Hope Fellowships Program is already a well-known program in Kosovo. I heard about this program from colleagues and friends who had been part of it in previous years. Each of them spoke enthusiastically about their experience with Hope Fellowships. Based on what I heard, I enthusiastically applied to be part of this program.

In our meeting with USAID and the State Department, when we were asked to briefly describe our experience in Washington, I responded that “I do not know how to make my story short because my experience in Washington has been exceptional.”

As part of a group of women leaders in the field of health and social welfare, we have been able to share our personal experiences with each other as we came from different institutions and organizations dealing with health and social welfare. During our stay in Washington, each of us gained experience in various institution and we have shared that individual experience, too. Sometimes, when I hear my colleagues from the group speaking about their experience, I am not sure which one of us has had the best experience and learned the most in Washington with the Hope Fellowship program.

My project with Hope Fellowships deals with improving management of the drugs supply in public health institutions. As I was focused on the pharmaceutical system, I had the opportunity to visit the most important institutions in the field and to meet professionals and stakeholders in the pharmaceutical sector in Washington. My experience in Washington has exceeded even my area of interest because I’ve learned not only about pharmaceutical public sector, but I also learned a lot about the private sector.

After many meetings and contacts with pharmaceutical experts in DC, I expanded my initial project to a much bigger project. I am instructed to make an assessment of the whole pharmaceutical sector in Kosovo, public and private. There are guidelines and instructions to follow on how to make an effective assessment. Since the end of the war, the pharmaceutical system in Kosova has yet to make such an assessment. I consider that this experience, assessment and results arising from this assessment, will serve the pharmaceutical community and institutions in the country.

The willingness to help, the support, and the respect that Americans show for each individual who has ambitions and desire to learn and contribute, is a value that has made them the world’s leader. I encourage all women to be part of this project. I congratulate NAAC and encourage them to continue with this program because the experience gained doesn’t serve only Hope Fellows but it also impacts our colleagues and community. All that positive energy that we accumulate in Washington undoubtedly influences the people and the surrounding community in Kosovo.

Endless thanks to USAID that financially supports the Hope Fellowship program, hoping that this support should continue.

At the end, I will recall Martin Luther King’s sayings that I learned while in Washington:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that,

Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that”.

This is what the Hope Fellowship has taught us and this is what we will be practicing and preaching in Kosovo.

Blerta Sulhasi

I would like to begin by expressing how much of an honor it was being selected to be a part of the Hope Fellowships Program. It is a wonderful program that has taught me so much! I am particularly privileged for having been a member of the Health and Social Welfare Group. I was surrounded by intelligent, enthusiastic, kind and friendly women. I feel enriched for having had an opportunity to get to know each of them.

The NAAC staff in Washington DC and in Prishtina made us feel very special. Avni, David, Laura, Amelda, Shqipe, Jarrettt, Mesi and Ardiana, were always ready to help us at anytime. I am grateful for their tireless patience and generosity towards us.

My experience in Washington DC was comprised of three elements:

Research Sites: My development research sites during the study tour in Washington DC were: George Washington University (Center for Health and Health Care in Schools), DC Department of Mental Health (School Mental Health Program) and American Psychological Association (APA).  It was fascinating to work closely with them.

I was lucky to have my specific mentors: Olga Acosta Price, PhD, Charneta Scott, PhD, and Shari Miles-Cohen, PhD. The three of them helped me, supported, and guided my needs in regards to my project. They willingly shared their skills, knowledge, and expertise. I was amazed by their enthusiasm for their work. This has inspired me within my work too.

Presentations: I was invited to give a presentation at George Washington University by the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools. My presentation covered “Health/Mental Health and Education in Kosovo,” through which I shared my experience working with adolescents and children. I had an opportunity after the presentation to get constructive feedback from the participating professors and students. Their insights and comments were very helpful to me. In addition to my individual presentation at GWU, myself and three other fellows gave a presentation at National Democratic Institute (NDI).

Meetings: I visited many important institutions and organizations in Washington, DC, and received a lot of useful and important information. I was at the State Department, USAID, World Bank, the Embassy of Kosovo, NDI, Pan American Health Organization Society for Public Health Education, German Marshall Fund, Global Health Council, International Republican Institute, Family Research Council, DC Government, Center for American Progress and AIHA.

In addition to my research sites, presentations and meetings, I also spent an entire day within the halls of the US Congress – The Congressional Shadow Day was very interesting and informative to me.

In addition to the professional scope of the program, I had time to meet different people, talk with them and listen to their life stories. As a psychologist I really enjoyed this opportunity to get to know people at a more individual level. I particularly liked the positive attitude of American people; I liked their readiness to help you at anytime; I liked their respect towards others.

Another favorite part of this experience were the many, many museums. They were very exciting, glorious, rich and fascinating.

This whole experience has had a great impact on me. I feel more enriched as a person after I returned to my country.  I learned that Change is possible, and I am feeling this deeply within myself. The Hope Fellowship Program has motivated me to make my project a reality and help make others feel that change is possible too.

Merita Emini-Sadiku

“Each day was an adventure” …this was my experience with the Hope fellowship Program organized by the marvelous people of National Albanian American Council in Prishtina and in Washington. This program is famous in our country for supporting woman leaders to strengthen their capacities in different fields. And I am convinced when I say that I was privileged to be part of this program in the Health and Social Welfare group.

Based on the components that this program offers such as information about political and health system in Kosova and USA, professional development sites, different meetings and trainings in health management and policies, meetings with political leaders such as American Congressmen, development of our own project proposals, we had the opportunity to learn a lot of different things. We also engaged with the American culture, having the chance to visit different museums, including the Smithsonian Museum of Art which I will remember forever. And of course the famous presidential memorials, which I have to mention Roosevelt and Lincoln Memorial which gave me a special spiritual, feeling!

Certainly for us, as visitors in Washington, DC for the first time everything seemed different compared to other European countries, starting with fantastic urban planning of the city which gives the impression that the whole town was built at the same time not having started in 1790 and continues today to be constructed without destroying even a millimeter of its beauty.

Another thing that impressed me, which has to do with my project, was the importance that  the state was given to fight obesity in the country  which now totals a somewhat alarming 33% of the population. United States Department of Agriculture issued a decision that any restaurant in the country must inform clients about food calories served on the menu and healthy food promotion through key institutions doing mostly organic food services with limited amounts of saturated fats and soda.

Similarly conversation with American people is quite impressive, the ones that you meet in your daily work and those with very high state functions. In general, they are very open and direct in communication, they inspire you with the optimism and motivate you to bring forward your goals. I will never forget the Mrs. Charlotte Ponticelli from International and Governmental Affairs. The story of her journey toward a brilliant career as woman leader remains an inspiration.

Also I will remember with pleasure the lecture held by our Hope Fellowship–NAAC founder, Mr. Ilir Zherka an open minded man who gave us the perfect example of his enthusiasm for the Albanian cause and at the same time for his commitment to American politics.

I also fondly treasure meeting Deputy Secretary of State Philip Gordon, an impressive professional. We had the chance to present during his hearing about the current situation in Kosovo, Bosnia and Serbia in front of the panel of congressmen of Capitol Hill who were involved in Balkan issues. Also in the framework of the Congressional Shadow Day, the day when we got to follow the work of a congressman or congresswoman on the Capitol Hill, I was in the cabinet of Congressman Eliot Engel, a wise man who is very well known and highly respected in Kosovo. Congressman Engel, offered me the opportunity to be part of all the meetings he had that day. This was one of the most special days in my life. I will never forget the simplicity of communication he had with all the people he met and the reflection of his beliefs to them concerning Kosovo. I left his office convinced that Kosovo has a very important friend in America which supports the Albanian issue in the best possible way!

Professional Development Sites were the most important part of the program where I had the opportunity to set up my project details associated with obesity, healthy food, and physical activity. During this period of time I visited three institutions: Institute of Medicine of American Academy of Science, Department of Exercise of George Washington University and the American Society for Nutrition. I must thank my three mentors in the following institutions: Dr. Clyde Behney, Prof. Loretta DiPietro, and Dr. John Courtney who took care that I would feel at home and gain as much as is possible from these institutions.

The Institute of Medicine as the highest academic medical institution in US had a very structured organization of scientific activities. The main part where various scientific committees which work to finalize their publications as various books, reports, studies, etc. on raised issues from the Congress and other state Institutions.  In this institution, in addition to leading the institute’s staff meetings I met with many other professionals among the most important were meetings with board members for obesity and healthy food. In these meetings I received very exciting recommendations for the implementation of my project and many other contacts with persons dealing with clinical nutrition.

One of the important parts of the information from the American Society for Nutrition was the publication of three scientific journals with high impact factor. Here I had the opportunity to discuss the studies that are undertaken in the framework of my project and which may be published later in any of these three scientific journals.

From the Department for Exercise at George Washington University the most interesting part was working with two clinical dieticians who showed me their own experiences with patients and the importance of vegetarian diet and those with high amounts of protein how they work. A very special day was a journey with Prof.diPietro to Maryland to the Laboratory for Human Beings at the Department of State for Agricultures. It was my first time to see the work done by scientists in regards to consumption of food and calories measures of the rest of the metabolism by very sophisticated equipments. I learned how patients’ bodies, who are exposed to different foods, reacted by measuring the values ​​of various metabolic parameters.

After all this experience and professional meetings with many people I finally met with my mentor at the Institute of Medicine, Dr. Behney suggested that I act as the external consultant of the Institute of Medicine with the mandate of an independent agent to advise the Institute of Medicine’s Office of Reports and Communications on strategies for the global Communication of their reports. This proposal was exciting and a motivation for my work in the future.

This was a brief description of my experience in this program. I wish every success to NAAC and to continue leading the country forward to reinforce the impact of women in decision making, while we as fellows seek to implement our projects and to provide the best potential for development of our society.

Nezahat Ramadani-Salihu

When I applied to this program I said, “Ok let it be just one of the programs that I have done in the past.” I had a lot of training about leadership. When we had the first part of the training in Prishtina about leadership, I questioned what else I could learn. But through the Hope Fellowship I grew to understand that learning is never enough.

I come from social field, but I had a chance to learn also about the health system in Kosova. During the Hope Fellowship I spent time meeting very important people from different institutions and organizations, participating in a lot of their presentations, shadowing a Congressman for a day, meeting other Congressmen and a few Senators, spending four weeks at research sites, and participating in different trainings. This was more than I expected.

I had two research sites. The first one was CCAI (Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute), were I was informed about their role, their programs, the role of NGO’s and their impact in making laws and changing laws in cooperation with Senate and Congress. I also learned about different forms of alternative care for children without parental care, their financial sustainability, and statistics for children out of family care (education, abuse, siblings, foster care, adoption).

My second site was MWCOG (Metropolitan Washington Council of Government). With the best mentor that I’ve had, I successfully became more familiar with the child welfare programs in DC and US. She organized a lot of meetings for me with different NGO’s and agencies which offer services for children without parental care. I visited some Foster families from the Mockingbird Family Model Project, participating in preparation of the TV emission Wednesday’s children with Barbara Harrison. I also participated in the COG Board of Presidents meeting before meeting with the all representatives on child welfare from all jurisdictions of Washington DC. I presented the aftercare program that we have in my host organization.

I also have to mention the friendliness and readiness of the NAAC staff in both of the DC and Prishtina offices. They continue to give us the courage and motivation for future steps.

I learned that we should advocate more in our institutions (Ministry of Social Welfare, Prime Minister’s office, and members of the parliament) and inform them of our experiences and work to make them more familiar with our programs, but also be more aggressive in our requests for child welfare, for the future of children without parental care, and for government subsidies. This can help me on realizing my project.

I would like to quote from my graduation speech: “As we look back this evening on our journey—a journey that started out with hesitant, tentative steps—we see just how far we have progressed as empowered leaders. It has been an honor and a privilege to be a part of this journey; and it is one that has imbued wonderful memories always remembering to hold onto our values, ethics and most importantly, our humanity. These are the qualities that will guide us further in our future”.

I can freely say that this was one of the best programs that I have attended and benefited from, and this is the program that I would suggest to all women that have a vision and who want to be leaders.

Zarife Miftari

Being part of the Hope Fellowship Programme in Washington DC for six weeks, meeting so many great people who shared with us their time, knowledge, resources and their best practices, was a really life changing experience.

The health sector in Kosovo is still weak and requires a lot of support in terms of strengthening leadership, managerial and professional skills of its employees. The group of Hope Fellows on health and social welfare developed 8 projects which aim to contribute and strengthening health and social sectors through different interventions. I hope that we will have the support of colleagues and institutions where we work; their role is crucial in implementation of our projects and in expressing our leadership capacities that we gained during the programme. It is not always easy to be a pioneer of changes, especially if you are a female professional, working in an environment where decision making positions are dominated mainly by men.

My project was related to cervical cancer, a disease that kills high number of women all over the world, especially in developing countries. My development site was George Washington Cancer Institute and La Clinica Del Pueblo, where I had the opportunity to further develop the project through recommendations, lessons learned, and best practices of my mentors and other professionals. I really appreciate their time, dedication and wonderful ideas! I am aware that Kosovo is a new country dealing with other more urgent issues, but we should join our efforts in providing accessible, quality services for all Kosovo citizens, regardless sex, age, social status, ethnicity, or religion.

Other moments from Washington that are important to be highlighted include presentations on “Health and Democracy in Kosovo” given at different reputable institutions like CSIS and NDI, Congress Shadow Day, debate on the Balkans’ at the US Congress, many trainings and meetings at different think tank groups.

I left home my small kids, Veron 6 years old and Arena 4 years old, but it was really worth it. I do hope that, one day, they will appreciate my efforts by understanding we are all working for a better, safer and a healthy Kosova, a country where our kids will be raised!

The last but not least, I would like to thank all NAAC staff in Prishtina and Washington: Laura, Shqipe, Mesi, Ardiana, Amelda, Jarrett, David and Avni for their support, patience and dedication to the programme and USAID for making the programme possible!

HOPE FELLOWS OF ECONOMY AND ENERGY GROUP

Congratulations, Hope Fellowships Program wishes you a successful professional and personal journey.

Albina Berisha, Small and Micro Enterprise Officer, Community Development Fund

Arijeta Pajaziti-Qerimi, SCADA Developer, System Operator Department in KOSTT

Dhurata Prokshi, Head Of Regional Office, Caritas Prishtina, Kosovo

Eglantina Hoxha Kastrati, Stakeholder and event Manager, Kosovo Energy Corporation

Gentina Jusufi, Fiscal Policy Senior Analyst, Ministry of Finance

Ilire Rizvanolli, Manager/Co-founder, “Te Komiteti” Restaurant

Ilirjana Mejzini, Coordinator for urban management, Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning

Lejla Sadiku, Project Manager and Political Advisor, Royal Norwegian Embassy

Leonita Shabani, Chief of Cabinet, Ministry of Economic Development

Leonora Hysenaj, Manager of the Project Implementation Department, Kosovo Energy Corporation

Shqipe Neziri, Project Manager, the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe

Zana Sulhasi-Zherka, New Product Development Coordinator, Post Telecommunication of Kosovo