Optimism in a world of division

By Dave van Twuijver

On Tuesday 17 June we had our meeting with Community Building Mitrovica (CBM), a peacebuilding organisation located in the tense northern part of Kosovo. CBM is mainly involved in facilitating contact and dialogue between the citizens of the whole of the Mitrovica municipality. The NGO was established by Valdete Idrizi, who was forced out of her home in North Mitrovica during the Serb invasion of 1999. Its staff is made up of both Albanians and Serbs, which enables the NGO to be attractive to both ethnicities.

I was excited for the meeting, but also didn’t quite know what to expect. We had one other meeting with a different NGO from Mitrovica, which wasn’t as positive as many of us had expected. It seemed like they nearly had lost hope in their cause and were questioning if what they did even mattered anymore. This was an eye opener for us, as it showed us that peacebuilding is not always successful and can be very difficult. Because of this, I was excited about our meeting. On the one hand I was nervous as I feared that the meeting would have a similar tone. However, when our meeting had started, I quickly realised that this would not be the case.

The meeting we had was very inspirational. CBM was very excited to talk about what they have achieved over the years and were eager to explain and answer all of our questions. They explained to us how they measure success through different methods. However, what stuck with me the most is what they described as success. We were told that as an NGO, or any other individual or company, you have to appreciate the little successes. CBM would already deem their whole NGO a success if they influenced one single mind into being more open and accepting towards the other.

I think that the main lesson that I learned from this meeting is that people with a similar goal and in a very similar environment can have very different stances on their success. Whereas New Social Initiative was very pessimistic about a lot of things, CBM was very positive and happy with the progress that they were making. Like CBM, I think that it's not all about the big victories won in front of a large crowd. These big victories are all built upon smaller ones won throughout time, which we must celebrate as well.