Elizabeth Gowing | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Occupation | Charity work |
| Nationality | British |
| Genre | Travel, non-fiction |
| Partner | Robert Wilton |
Elizabeth Gowing is a British-Kosovan teacher, writer, and activist.
Elizabeth Gowing | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Occupation | Charity work |
| Nationality | British |
| Genre | Travel, non-fiction |
| Partner | Robert Wilton |
Elizabeth Gowing is a British-Kosovan teacher, writer, and activist.
She was educated at and Magdalen College, Oxford. [1] She gained her teaching qualification at the Institute of Education in London. [1] She then taught in inner-city state sector primary schools in the London boroughs of Hackney, Islington, and Lambeth. [1]
In 2006 she went to live in Kosovo, [1] where her partner Robert Wilton had been invited as an advisor to the Prime Minister Agim Çeku. [2]
She translated from Albanian to English the biography of Yugoslavia's longest-held political prisoner, Adem Demaçi, [3] as well as the memoirs of the Ottoman and Albanian politician Hasan Prishtina. [4] She won the Independent on Sunday and Bradt Travel Writing Competition in 2014. [5]
In her early years in Kosovo, Gowing carried out voluntary and charitable work. In 2009, together with Wilton, she founded The Ideas Partnership as an NGO to give some framework for such activities. [1] [6] While its remit encompassed sustainable development and cultural heritage as well as education, the charity came to focus on ethnic minority education and empowerment. Her book The Rubbish-Picker’s Wife recounts how she developed the charity, her friendship with an Ashkali woman, and her awareness of the challenges that Kosovo's marginalized Ashkali, Egyptians and Roma face in trying to access services and sustain community identity. [7]
In recognition of her inspirational role, promotion of volunteering and engagement with charitable work, Gowing was given the 'Mother Teresa Award' for humanitarianism by the Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga in 2016. [1] She was given a 'Points of Light' award by UK Prime Minister Theresa May in 2017. [1] [8]
In 2018, by Presidential decree, she was made a citizen of the Republic of Kosovo, [1] where she continues to live and work. In 2021, the Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti Kurti gave her a cabinet position as his government's adviser on community affairs. [1]
Vetëvendosje is a left-leaning social democratic political party in Kosovo. It is a member of the Progressive Alliance, and an observer in the Party of European Socialists, and the Socialist International.
Obiliq is a town and municipality in Kosovo. According to the Kosovo Agency of Statistics (KAS) estimate from the 2011 census, there were 21,549 people residing in Obiliq Municipality, with Kosovo Albanians constituting the majority of the population.
Albin Kurti is a Kosovar Albanian politician who has been serving as Prime Minister of Kosovo since 2021, having previously held the office from February to June 2020. He came to prominence in 1997 as the vice-president of the University of Pristina student union, and a main organizer of non-violent student demonstrations of 1997 and 1998. Kurti then worked in Adem Demaçi's office when the latter became the political representative of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Kurti has been a member of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo since 2010 in three consecutive legislatures.
Mary Edith Durham, was a British artist, anthropologist and writer who is best known for her anthropological accounts of life in Albania in the early 20th century. Her advocacy on behalf of the Albanian cause and her Albanophilia gained her the devotion of many Albanians who consider her a national heroine.
Pristina or Prishtina is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the eponymous municipality and district.
Kosovo–Montenegro relations are foreign relations between Kosovo and Montenegro. Montenegro has a 78.6 km (48.8 mi)-long border with Kosovo. It was the 49th state to recognise Kosovo's independence.
Kosovo does not recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions. On 25 April 2024, Prime Minister Albin Kurti announced the government's intention to legalize civil unions as part of a new civil code.
Shote Galica was a Kachak Albanian insurgent. She has been declared a People's Heroine of Albania.
The literature of Kosovo is composed of literary texts written in Albanian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Turkish, specifically by authors of Kosovo. Kosovo produced several prominent writers in the Ottoman era. However, Ottoman authorities banned the written use of the Albanian language until 1912. This policy continued during Serb rule until the outbreak of World War II.
Historical monuments in Pristina are made up of 21 monuments out of a total of 426 protected monuments all over Kosovo. A large number of these monuments date back to the Byzantine and Ottoman periods. Since 1945, the Yugoslav authorities followed the idea of constructing a modern Pristina by relying in the urban development motto “destroy the old, build the new” and this resulted with major changes in the structure of the buildings, their function and their surrounding environment. However, numerous types of monuments have been preserved, including four mosques, a restored orthodox church, an Ottoman bath, a public fountain, a clock tower, several traditional houses as well as European-influenced architecture buildings such as the Museum of Kosovo. These symbolize the historical and cultural character of Pristina as it was developed throughout centuries in the spirit of conquering empires.
Tallava or Talava is a music genre originating from Albanian-speaking Roma communities in Kosovo as well as in North Macedonia, with a presence in Albania. Having originated in the Roma community in Kosovo in the 1990s, it evokes regional Balkan musical styles and has become popular in Albania and North Macedonia. It is identified as part of the wider pop-folk genre of the Southeastern Europe, which includes Chalga from Bulgaria, Skiladiko from Greece, Manele from Romania and turbo-folk from Serbia.
Robert Wilton is a British-Kosovan writer. He has spent much of his life in the Balkans, including as an advisor to the prime minister of Kosovo and as a Deputy Ambassador for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. His writing has been diverse, though focused principally on novels. The first of his Comptrollerate-General series of historical novels was awarded the Historical Writers' Association Crown.
Avdullah Hoti is a Kosovan politician, who served as the Prime Minister of Kosovo from 3 June 2020 until 22 March 2021. He previously served as the minister of Finance of Kosovo between 2014 and 2017 in the PDK/LDK coalition government.
The PANA coalition was a ruling post-electoral Kosovan political alliance between four major Albanian and six ethnic minority parties in Kosovo. Its formation ended three months of political uncertainty following the 2017 parliamentary election. It was founded originally as PAN coalition.
The Kosovo-Montenegro border demarcation was a diplomatic agreement between the Republic of Kosovo and Montenegro which was finalized in 2015 about the eventual borders between them. Montenegro acquired its independence in 2006 and Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. As such, there was no border agreement between them. The diplomatic negotiations between the governments of Kosovo and Montenegro came under heavy criticism from both sides.
Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu is a Kosovan jurist and politician who is the current president of Kosovo since 2021. Osmani was born and raised in Titova Mitrovica, SFR Yugoslavia and studied law at the University of Pristina and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. She worked as an advisor to the president of Kosovo Fatmir Sejdiu before she was elected to the Assembly. Osmani held the position of Speaker of the Assembly of Kosovo from February 2020 to March 2021, and also served as acting president between November 2020 and March 2021 after the resignation of President Hashim Thaçi. Upon her election as president, Osmani became the second woman to hold the position, as well as the first person to have served as both acting president and president of Kosovo. Osmani successfully ran on an anti-corruption platform and has expressed a desire to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia. Since taking office, Osmani has returned the flag of Dardania as the official symbol of the presidency.
The Open Balkan is an economic and political zone of three member states in the Balkans, those being Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia. The zone has a total area of 131,935 km2 (50,940 sq mi) and an estimated total population of almost 11 million located in Central and Southern Europe. The official languages are Albanian, Macedonian and Serbian. Its administrative centres are the cities of Belgrade, Skopje and Tirana. With the establishment of the zone, all three member states aim to increase trade and cooperation as well as improve bilateral relations.
Parliamentary elections were held in Kosovo on 14 February 2021. The results were a landslide victory for Vetëvendosje led by Albin Kurti and its coalition partner, Vjosa Osmani, former speaker of the parliament of Kosovo. The alliance won more than 50% of the total votes, the highest share since the first elections held in 2001, while their nearest rivals, the Democratic Party, finished in second place, trailing by more than 33%.
Arbërie Nagavci is a Kosovo-Albanian politician, Vetëvendosje member and current Minister of Education, Science and Technology.
The 2030 Mediterranean Games, officially known as the XXI Mediterranean Games, is a forthcoming international multi-sport event that is scheduled to be held from 24 July to 4 August 2030 in Pristina, Kosovo.
Robert Wilton, our first speaker, describes his present job as a day job for the OSCE in Albania but he maintained his links with Kosovo. He was adviser to the prime minister of Kosovo in the years leading up to independence and returned as head of policy for the International Civilian Office monitoring implementation of the Artasari plan.
Elizabeth Gowing was named as the Overall Winner of the 15th annual Independent on Sunday/Bradt Travel Writing Competition at an awards ceremony hosted by Hilary Bradt on Monday at Stanfords travel bookshop in Covent Garden.
The Duchess of Cornwall's final engagement in Kosovo will be to the Ideas Partnership, which is a British charity established by Elizabeth Gowing (an award winning author) and Robert Wilton. The charity, which is the third largest volunteer organisation in Kosovo, provides support to the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities in Kosovo.