Small things really can do big things

12 June 2020

By Hanna Jaspers

Today was the final day of the first week of virtual meetings with the organizations. We met with The Ideas Partnership, an organization that aims to help minority groups in Kosovo. Their slogan is “helping others, helping others help themselves, helping others help others.” TIP’s main focus lies with Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian people because they are the most marginalized group in Kosovo. 

Anita from The Ideas Partnership said something that stuck with me. She told us that small things can do big things. Change often starts small, it builds up. It starts with someone who speaks and someone who listens. It begins with a connection, a moment. Elizabeth Gowing, the founder of The Ideas Partnership, shared that moment. She told us how she was in Fushe Kosova to visit children who had been to a summer camp to follow up on their projects. In the village, she saw the poverty and she decided to return to deliver some  cutlery and sleeping bags to the poorest families in the neighborhood. They could then either use these products or sell them for a bit of money. However, once there she ran into a mom whose son had severe burns on his legs and he needed medical support. The doctors said that he needed a cream for his burns and in the following weeks, Elizabeth returned to the village to hand over this cream when the tube had gone empty. 

This is where they connected, where the family started to speak and she started to listen. This is the moment where change happened. If you see how much TIP has grown, you can really see how change builds up. Now, they are really able to help others help others. They support Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian students through university or they give people small funds so that they can start a business. These people are then able to give back to the community, to cause change there. TIP really focuses on the individual, making changes in the lives of the individual. And you see how that pays off. In the end, it does not just improve the life of the individual, but also of their family, their friends, their community. 

We also met with the International Organization of Migration, which sounds like a scary big institution that works on a very institutional level. However, they were also so focused on the lives of individuals. They are helping people return to Kosovo, they are helping people to reintegrate into their communities. A story was shared about a man who returned to Kosovo and was offered land where he could grow raspberries. Now, that area is one of the biggest suppliers of raspberries in Kosovo. People work on the land, people distribute the raspberries, store owners sell the raspberries, people might make raspberry jam and sell that. And yet again, this shows that helping individuals to make change in their lives in the end also changes communities. Small things really can do big things.