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YOUTH OFFICES IN PRESEVO, BUJANOVAC AND MEDVEDJA

11. March 2013.

Bujanovac, Medvedja - A common problem of young people from Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja is the inability to find jobs in their towns and that is why most of them are thinking about leaving their birthplaces.

This was said, a few days ago, at a panel in Bujanovac, where representatives of the youth offices in Bujanovac and Presevo, Jusuf Hasani and Agon Ajeti, spoke,  as well as Dejan Simic, the Head of the Local Economic Development Office in Medvedja , within which a youth office had begun operating.

Youth Offices can’t create jobs, but they can, by their initiatives and ideas, as well as through their projects, contribute to the solving of the problem, agreed the participants in the panel, which the Centre for Democracy and Development in South Serbia organized within the project "Dialogue against Stereotypes that We are All the Same," funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). 

“Such efforts have already been made in Bujanovac", said Jusuf Hasani, adding that the local authorities were trying, in different ways and with the help of donors, to provide jobs for young people. Mr. Hasani stressed the importance of joint engagement of young people from all three communities in suggesting the ways in which their problems and needs could be solved. He added that the Youth Office actively participated in it, and that it had two coordinators from the Albanian community and one from the Serbian and Roma communities each.

"Sixty-one percent of young people from Presevo see themselves outside of the municipality, 36 percent in some of the western European countries and 25 percent in some of the larger cities in the region", the head of the Youth Office in Presevo conveyed the results of a research. 

He added that, according to the research conducted by the office, 71 percent of young people in Presevo had said that the main reasons for their leaving Presevo were political and security situation and economic backwardness of the municipality.

"One of the biggest problems of young Albanians that were educated in Kosovo, which is recognition of their university certificates, had been resolved through the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina," Mr. Ajeti said, adding that the municipality of Presevo had launched the youth employment project, which comprised one hundred persons. He added that the Youth Office had several projects in the areas that were of interest to the young.  

“The Youth Office was established in Medvedja a few days ago. However, a series of projects aimed at the young had been implemented through the Office for Local Economic Development "said Dejan Simic.

He urged the youth offices in Bujanovac and Presevo to cooperate and participate in joint projects, adding that their cooperation could increase and become as the one existing among the Local Economic Development Offices in the three municipalities.  

Mr. Simic pointed out that the municipality of Medvedja had launched the  internship program for secondary school graduates to facilitate their employment subsequently. He explained that a number of young people had the opportunity for employment in the new factory for the production of pellets, which would begin operating in the municipality.

Source: Southern News