There is nothing more incredible than seeing Albanians join together, inspiring one another to reach their fullest potential. The 2024 ALSA Youth Empowerment Summit showed us just that! The Albanian community have faced stereotypical identifications associated with violence and crime for decades. With the media and the current dialogue surrounding the Albanian community, our good work as a community is shadowed. It is time to shift the narrative.
I had the absolute pleasure to be on the panel with the amazing Arber Gashi and Anisa Morina - such inspiring founders that place importance to our community. Arber Gashi, his set up of Balkanism and his findings and work with that is admirable. Educating others on our community. Anisa Morina spoke about her incredible work with in2law and her dedication to time management in pursuing law. I had the pleasure to speak on the Balkan Youth Parliament and educate people on issues that the Balkans are currently facing due to the lack of intergenerational dialogue. The youth in the Balkan region face several issues such as high youth unemployment, regional stereotypes and lack of awareness, the concept of "brain drain", lack of trust in politics, a limiting education system etc. Essentially, promoting youth recognition and youth driven policies is the way forward and that is BYP!
Beginning the day with the amazing Luljeta Nuzi and SHPRESA program and their work to the community starting from nothing, was super inspiring. Placing importance on finding your purpose and staying dedicated to it. Such an inspiring individual - her dedication and devotion is so admirable. Alesio Dervishi with UKAP Foundation talking about their amazing work with the Albanian community! Promoting the importance of networking regarding professional development through facilitating cultural exchange among its members in UKAP. Then we moved onto the rise of Albanian societies within universities. Our lovely panel consisted of Roni Dragusha and Driana Syla (Queen Mary University of London), Kleon Minja (University of Portsmouth) and Angela G (LSE University), whom established how to run an Albanian society and how to better engage with students at your university!
Thank you to Arisa Reka, Denisa Lasku and all the lovely & amazing people behind this amazing event. Thank you to ALSA for giving us this amazing platform to demonstrate our voices.
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