This last July I had the incredible opportunity to go back to Kosovo and do another project in a school for Kids For Kosovo–a non-profit started by my dad. Before going we did lots of planning like what school needed help, what supplies they needed, etc. We eventually found a school in Ferizaj called Imri Halili which lacked several key resources including something many of us may take for granted: a library. So we started fundraising. 

When I arrived in Kosovo my friends and I headed straight to the school to get to work. The room that would become the library needed a lot of cleaning and organizing before we could begin setting up. Some friends of mine from Kosovo had already built the bookshelves so the first step was to polish them up. Then came the exciting part which was unpacking and organizing hundreds of donated books. We also decorated the space to make it more welcoming for the students by adding colorful paintings, a map of the world, some fun games, carpet, and bean bags to make reading more enjoyable. It was so fun to see how much the room had transformed by the end of the day.

Because school was not in session I was not able to talk with as many students as my previous visit. Still, there were some kids who came up to play on the school grounds while we were working. We explained to them what we were doing and they were over the moon. They had never been to a library before let alone had one in their school. It made me so happy and seeing their reactions made everything 10 times more worth it. Although from the outside it looked like a room filled with books, I knew it would be a place for kids to come explore and let their imagination free.