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World ORT, the JDC, and the AJC Cooperate in Kosovo:
Deprived Communities Benefit From Education and Training in Unique Show
of Unity |
(London, 10th July 2003) World ORT, the American Joint Distribution Committee, and the
American Jewish Committee have completed an important educational project for deprived ethnic
Albanian communities in Kosovo. Started in 1999, over 6,000 adults and children have studied
computing, English and vocational subjects in laboratories and classrooms maintained by the
three organisations. The project affirms the necessity for ORT to continue educating and
training disadvantaged people all over the world.
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A group of ORT's graduating students at the ceremony in Kosovo
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In 1999 Eli Eliezri, World ORT, and the JDC representative in Kosovo, discovered a severe lack
of educational establishments in Kosovo. After meeting with government representatives, two
disused schools were reopened and former teachers reappointed. Using the schools as models for
an education system in Kosovo, the government requested that ORT take over Pristina's 14
schools. Each was equipped with computer laboratories and staffed with teachers who were given
appropriate training. Courses offered included English, computer studies, welding, sewing and
mechanics, at the end of which students were examined and presented with an ORT diploma.
Despite 85% unemployment in Kosovo, many of ORT's graduates have now found employment, and
some have opened successful businesses.
In addition to the schools ORT, the JDC and the AJC have established a state of the art
computer lab in the Mitrovica cultural centre under the supervision of Eli Eliezri. In a city
divided by the River Ibar into separate sections for the Serbs and the Albanians, Eliezri has
successfully convinced both Serbians and Albanians to use the computer lab together, in a
unique show of unity.
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Asher Levi, member of World ORT's Board of Directors and Dr. Gideon Meyer, Deputy Director General of World ORT at one of ORT's workshops in Podjevo, Kosovo
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At the final school graduation ceremony, attended by over 200 students of English, Dr. Gideon
Meyer, Deputy Director General of World ORT said, "Over my long career with ORT I have visited
many schools, laboratories, and graduation ceremonies. In Kosovo, however, I saw firsthand the
hope of those underprivileged Muslim and Serb graduates as a result of the special assistance
they have received from the Jewish people. Something I feel to be unique."
Source: Lisa Oren, Public Relations and Communications
Officer, World ORT
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