Volunteering in and Around Kosovo

By Nicole Rosenleaf Ritter

The crisis in Kosovo and the surrounding countries has prompted many people to seek volunteer programs within the region. While there are programs on the ground in the area, most require (and can only effectively utilize) skilled volunteers with extensive experience in refugee settings or fluency in the local language. Other organizations prefer that potential volunteers wait until the situation has stabilized to seek placement.

Action by Churches Together International (ACT), www.act-intl.org, an ecumenical network that responds to emergencies around the globe, has asked its member organizations not to send volunteers into the area. Supplies are limited and the situation is tenuous; assuring the safety of volunteers would detract from the overall mission of providing for refugees.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), www.gbgm-umc.org, an ACT member organization, hopes to begin utilizing volunteers to create mid- to longer-term solutions once the situation has stabilized. However, UMCOR and CitiHope International  (www.citihope.org) are calling for skilled medical personnel and counselors in Macedonia to help provide basic medical care to both Kosovars and Albanian host families

International Medical Corps (IMC), www.imcworldwide.org/index.shtml, is currently seeking skilled volunteers, including finance specialists, medical professionals, and biomedical technicians, for work in refugee camps, border crossing areas, and mobile clinics.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, www.doctorswithoutborders.org/index.shtml, has limited its call for volunteers in Kosovo to those medical professionals who have already served within the organization, have significant experience in the area, or have extensive background with large refugee populations.

If you want to help people in the region without leaving home, you should go to the Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA) web site to read its "Guidelines for Effective Private Sector International Disaster Assistance" ( www.vita.org). Many well-meaning people organize spontaneous food or clothing drives in their community without checking first to see what is needed and how goods will be transported. Generally, these unsolicited relief donations cause organizations more work than they are worth. In nearly all cases, VITA emphasizes, "cash contributions" (from auctioning off locally donated goods, for example) "to established, legitimate relief organizations are always considerably more beneficial than the donation of commodities" because of the costs associated with transportation and local distribution. Such monetary donations allow professional relief organizations to purchase the supplies that are most needed and to distribute them in an efficient manner.

For now, at least, the best way to help Kosovo and the surrounding region may be to open your wallet to one of the many organizations currently working there.

NICOLE ROSENLEAF RITTER is the former Managing Editor of Transitions Abroad.