Success Stories from Our Members in the field

Healing Ethnic Wounds through education and partnership, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

When the United States and its allies forced the Serbian military to withdraw from Kosovo in 1999, many displaced people who had fled returned quickly to their homes. Unfortunately, what they found were the ashes of war.

International organizations quickly moved into Kosovo to help the returning refugees, mostly ethnic Albanian Kosovars, and restore devastated infrastructure.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, at the request of UNICEF, rebuilt or repaired 37 primary schools.

While the schools are not generally associated with politics, the AJJDC took steps in the revamped schools to promote reconciliation among the Albanians, Serbs and Roma that inhabit Kosovo.

The first step was to open the schools to all ethnic groups, and to design a curriculum that took into account ethnic and cultural sensitivities.

AJJDC and UNICEF also began a "youth journal," written by a multi-ethnic staff of high school students that was circulated throughout Kosovo. And AJJDC, on behalf of the Jewish community, brought together Muslims and Catholics in Kosovo to rebuild a mosque, which helped engender religious tolerance in the strife-ridden region of Kosovo.

As of 2002, more than 31,000 children were attending these rebuilt schools. And ethnic Albanian children, whose schools had been shuttered by Serbian authorities, now have a chance to prepare for a future in which they have the tools to be full partners in society.

This program by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and UNICEF is an example of the effective, high-impact overseas partnership Americans support because it is the right thing and the smart thing to do.