Club “Dëshira”

by Arta Pllana

Within PTK a newly opened Training and Development Department has entered into partnership with Club/Klubi “Deshira”. The department provides an environment of Transitional Employment for mentally handicapped people. For the last 7 months the Training and Department of PTK has had a new and helpful colleague-Ahmet Kika who is a remember of Club/Klubi ” Dëshira”.

Since 2002 Ahmet Kika, has traveled everyday from his village of Lupc I Poshtem, to Pristina in ‘ a day care center for mentally handicapped people.

For Ahmet, ‘Klubi Dëshira” was more then a home to him, it was his harbor.

While at the club his specialty was cooking meals for all the members. He cooked every day for 3 years. To him this seemed like a real job…

Now, 3 years later and we met Ahmet again. This time in a different environment, with a real job. Within PTK a newly opened Training and Development Department has entered into partnership with Club “Deshira,” The department provides an environment of Transitional Employment.

Ahmet was the first to undergo this transitional period of 6 months. Since September he is a full time staff of PTK. Rajmonda Lepaja a coordinator of this new department explains about this initiative:

“The Founder and Promoter of this department is Eva Andrews. With her special touch and knowing the taboos of Kosovo society she did not hesitate to engage handicapped people, which is now the case of Ahmet Kika in our department”

For westerners like Eva coming into a society like Kosovo it is quite natural to look and make a comparison between here and her home.

“When you look for standards within a company, one of the sad things in a society like Kosovo, that has been through a lot of problems, is that the priorities have been on getting a job, building a family and not necessarily on people who are considered at the lower level, I don’t mean it in any rude way, but people are considered the lower level of society.

Klubi Deshira is part of an international organization which I have had experience in the past and that’s how I came up with the idea “

Getting a job is a basic need for everybody and so for Ahmet, being disabled, it is especially important for him to be able to enter into normal society. His duties are to assist the training and Development team with operational duties such as photocopying, preparing Training rooms and Organizing refreshments and breakfast for training participants.

“A person…has dreams. But the aim should be that a dream becomes reality. Mine certainly became a reality. I want to say: good things don’t come fast, come slowly…”

Club Deshira is part of the 400 clubhouses programs in 30 countries whose aim is to help handicapped people enter into a real life-working environment

This project helps people with physical and mental problems, mostly referred by doctors or by institutions

Through “Club Deshira” PTK was able to access the lessons learnt by other institutions in other countries, and they are implementing these lessons fully.

Eva Andrews again:

“PTK will continue with this kind of sponsorship and we do want to help as many disabled people within Kosovo as we can. It is not a charity program. These people earn their living they work hard and they develop themselves with our help”.

PTK is the first public sector partner in the Balkans to embrace the program-setting standards for companies and for Kosovo.