 | This biography of a living person includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(December 2023) |
Elizabeth Gowing is a British-Kosovan educator, story-teller and activist.
| This biography of a living person includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(December 2023) |
Elizabeth Gowing is a British-Kosovan educator, story-teller and activist.
She studied at Malvern Girls’ College and Magdalen College, Oxford, where she was quickly active in the environmental movement and voluntary teaching. She describes how, at a university event to explore career options, she found herself uninterested or repelled by the range of high status, high salary careers traditional among graduates, but intrigued by a table in the corner attracting no attention – advertising the Department for Education and Skills. She gained her teaching qualification at the Institute of Education in London. She taught in inner-city state sector primary schools in the London boroughs of Hackney and Islington for several years, eventually working as a Deputy Headteacher. She went on to work in education policy and consultancy.
In 2006 she went to live in Kosovo, where her partner Robert Wilton had been invited as an advisor to the Prime Minister Agim Çeku. Inspired by a hive of bees she was given for her first birthday in the country, Gowing produced her first book. Travels In Blood and Honey: Becoming a Beekeeper in Kosovo was well-received among foreign readers as well as Kosovars because it explores the country through its culture, traditions and people rather than the typical focus on conflict. The Times described it as ‘A sheer delight; a beguiling, bittersweet story of a lively love affair with a traditional world, as ancient as apiculture, in transition to new nationhood.'
She followed this with Edith and I, which uses an exploration of the life and character of the early-20th century anthropologist and Balkan traveller Edith Durham as a way of clarifying her own identity and role moving between Britain and the Balkans.
She also published The Little Book of Honey, a Gourmand World Cookbook award-winning collection of honey-based recipes described by Sophie Grigson as 'enthralling', and The Silver Thread: A journey through Balkan craftsmanship, which explores the role of silver in the region’s history, and in particular the tradition of filigree silver craftwork distinctive to Kosovo and its neighbourhood. Her 2015 book, The Rubbish-Picker's Wife: An Unlikely Friendship in Kosovo, is a more personal account of the human stories behind her efforts to found and develop a charity working among the most marginalized people in Europe (see below).
In 2019 she published Unlikely Positions in Unlikely Places: a Yoga Journey Around Britain, which recounts her experiences trying different yoga styles in different settings, and uses this as a way to explore the meaning of community. This was followed by No Man's Lands: eight extraordinary women in Balkan history, a set of essays written with her partner drawing attention to under-told lives and showing how their diverse experiences and struggles in different countries of the region have resonance in the ongoing battle for equality.
She translated from Albanian to English the biography of Yugoslavia's longest-held political prisoner, Adem Demaçi, as well as the memoirs of the Ottoman and Albanian politician Hasan Prishtina. She won the Independent on Sunday and Bradt Travel Writing Competition in 2014.
In her early years in Kosovo, Elizabeth Gowing was quickly immersed in a range of voluntary and charitable work. In 2009, together with her partner Robert Wilton and a Kosovan friend of theirs, Ardian Arifaj, she founded The Ideas Partnership as an NGO to give some framework for such activities. While its remit formally encompassed not just education but sustainable development and cultural heritage, The Ideas Partnership began to focus more on ethnic minority education and empowerment after Gowing got talking to an Ashkali child in the street who should have been in school but was excluded by a combination of disadvantage and discrimination. The Rubbish-Picker’s Wife recounts her labours to develop the charity, her evolving friendship with one particular Ashkali woman, and her growing awareness of the challenges that Kosovo’s seriously marginalized Ashkali, Egyptians and Roma face in trying to access education and basic healthcare, and more generally in sustaining community identity, representing themselves politically, and simply feeding their families. [1]
While working to train and empower Kosovan managers and volunteers, Gowing has continued to drive much of the fund-raising herself, and to do a great deal of ground-level work as a volunteer. Her experiences developing and fund-raising for The Ideas Partnership, and speaking publicly about her work around the world, sharpened her interest in how effective story-telling is at the heart of a charity’s appeal, as well as of wider communication. She has advised diverse small charities around the world in this direction.
In late 2021, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti asked Gowing to become his advisor on minority communities. She was able accordingly to apply at national level, and in the context of enduring international sensitivity around Kosovo’s integration of all of its minority communities, her experiences of communication, trust-building, integration and sustainable empowerment.
In recognition of her inspirational role, promotion of volunteerism and enduring hands-on engagement with charitable work, Gowing was given the ‘Mother Teresa Award’ for humanitarianism by Republic of Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga in 2016, a ‘Points of Light’ award by UK Prime Minister Theresa May in 2017, [2] and the Voice of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians NGO’s ‘Joans of Kosovo Award for Social Inclusion and Justice’ in 2023.
In 2018, by Presidential decree, she was made a citizen of the Republic of Kosovo, where she continues to live and work.
Gjilan is the third largest city in Kosovo and the seat of Gjilan Municipality and Gjilan District.
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The politics of Kosovo takes place in a framework of a multi-party parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the President (Presidenti) is the head of state and the Prime Minister (Kryeministri) the head of government. Parliamentary elections are held every four years, the most recent in 2021.
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Kosovo was officially recognized as a country by the United States on February 18, 2008, one day after Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia.
Albania–Kosovo relations refer to the current, cultural and historical relations of Albania and Kosovo. Albania has an embassy in Pristina and Kosovo has an embassy in Tirana. There are 1.8 million Albanians living in Kosovo – officially 92.93% of Kosovo's entire population – and Albanian is an official language and the national language of Kosovo. Likewise, the peoples of the two countries have practically identical traditions and folklore. Kosovo is the birthplace of Albanian nationalism such as the League of Prizren. In addition, the strong relations are highlighted in successive polls showing majority of ethnic Albanians in both states wanting unification. Both countries and their citizens refer to the relationship as "one nation, two states" as highlighted in the popular pan-Albanian slogan "Jemi një".
Japan–Kosovo relations are foreign relations between Japan and Kosovo. Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008, and Japan recognized it on March 18, 2008. According to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan and Kosovo established diplomatic relations on February 25, 2009.
Tzedek is a UK-based registered charity organisation which aims to provide a Jewish response to the problem of extreme global poverty. Registered as a charity in 1993, Tzedek has a number of overseas development programmes, working closely with local NGOs to alleviate extreme poverty in Northern Ghana and Northeast & Southeast India. As well as supporting local NGOs within these regions, Tzedek aims to develop the leadership skills of young Jewish leaders within the community to provide a long-term, sustainable solution to global poverty.
Parliamentary elections were held in Kosovo on 12 December 2010, following a vote of no-confidence in the government that brought forward the election. Those were the first elections after the country declared independence.
Shote Galica, born as Qerime Radisheva, was a Kachak Albanian insurgent. She has been declared a People's Heroine of Albania.
Edita Tahiri is a leader of the independence of Kosovo, the former deputy prime minister, minister of foreign affairs and peace negotiator. She was also minister for dialogue, minister of public administration and member of parliament in five terms. She was the chief negotiator of the Republic of Kosovo for seven years (2011-2017) in the EU facilitated dialogue, with US support, on normalization of neighborly relations with Serbia. | She was the Deputy Prime minister responsible for foreign policy and national security (2011–2014). She was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo for ten years in difficult time of liberation and independence of Kosovo (1991–2000). She is a signer of the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Kosovo, on 17 February 2008. She is the President of reformist party, the Democratic Alternative of Kosovo (ADK) and Chair of the Regional Women's Lobby in Southeastern Europe (RWLSEE). She is member of the Women Waging Peace Network. and member of the Mediterranean Women's Mediators Network.
Atifete Jahjaga is a Kosovar Albanian politician who served as the third President of Kosovo. She was the first female President of the Republic of Kosovo, the first non-partisan candidate and the youngest female head of state to be elected to the top office. She served as Deputy Director of the Kosovo Police, holding the rank of General Lieutenant Colonel, the most senior among women officers in Southeastern Europe.
A substantial emigration from Kosovo has taken place in various phases during the second half of the 20th century. It is estimated that about a third of people born in Kosovo currently live outside Kosovo. Emigration has taken place in separate waves motivated mainly by economic reasons, but also as a result of the Kosovo War. The Kosovo diaspora is usually included in the wider Albanian diaspora with Albanians from Albania and North Macedonia.
Mirlinda Kusari Purrini is the founder and executive director of SHE-ERA in Kosovo, a post she has held since September, 1999. She is an economist by occupation with a degree in Economics and Finance at the University of Pristina. Mrs. Kusari is active in both business and humanitarian circles with experience in international research and projects.
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. As a writer he is known for his Comptrollerate-General series of historical novels, for the first of which he 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.
Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu is a Kosovan jurist and politician serving as the 5th and current President of Kosovo since 4 April 2021.
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%.
Donika Gërvalla-Schwarz is a Kosovan politician. A member of the Guxo political list of the Vetëvendosje political party, she has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Second Deputy Prime Minister in the Second Kurti cabinet since 2021. Gërvalla-Schwarz is the daughter of assassinated Albanian activist Jusuf Gërvalla. She is the president of the centre-right political party Guxo!.