By Rinë Fetahu (YES 2013-2014, Kosovo, hosted by American Councils PO in Baton Rouge, LA)

On January 21, 2017, my teammates Erris Boshnjaku (YES ’16), Visar Zeka (YES ‘15), Anita Maloku and I held the first meeting of the Women United for Independence (WUFI) program with 16 young women from all over Kosovo.

The WUFI program aims to empower young women by supporting their personal and professional development, with an emphasis on entrepreneurial skills. This kick-off event included an introduction to the project team and a review of the project goals. The event also included talks on the importance of social entrepreneurship and related opportunities, featuring guest speakers Laurat Raca, Youth-led Project Officer at UNICEF Innovations Lab, and Monika Rodiqi (YES ’14), a student of business administration at Babson College in Wellesley, MA.

We started this initiative with the support of grants from the UPSHIFT: Social Impact program organized by UNICEF Innovations Lab in Kosovo and UN Women, and the StartQube Social Entrepreneurship Workshop for FLEX and YES alumni in Southeast Europe organized by American Councils.

A highlight from the first meeting was playing teambuilding games in which everyone got to share interesting facts about themselves. This helped us get to know each other better and created a team spirit for future activities. The WUFI program currently has funding through April 2017, and we have already met with organizations that have shown interest in supporting the continuation of the program.