The status of Kosovo, a Southern province of Serbia, has been in limbo for almost a decade.  After Serbia began committing crimes against humanity in Kosovo against ethnic Albanians, a brief war in 1999, led by NATO, knocked Serb forces out of Kosovo for good.  Since then, the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has overseen the governance and security of the province. 

In July, as a volunteer with the Lutheran World Federation Department of World Service Program in the Balkans, I had the opportunity to visit Kosovo and see firsthand what is happening there.  The LWF has been working with both Serbs (who make up 10% of Kosovo’s population) and ethnic Albanians (who make up roughly 90% of the population).  Their focus has been to help rebuild houses for people who are living in ‘enclaves’ inside Kosovo, where they are ethnic minorities.  They also provide different agricultural resources, like greenhouses, livestock, seeds, and education, in order to help former refugees make a living.

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