The visit was particularly timely as it coincides with preparations being well underway for the trip five girls and three members of staff will take to Kosovo in the first week of the summer holidays.
Elizabeth spoke to girls and staff about Kosovo, giving us an insight into what it is like to live and work in Europe’s newest nation. She shared a selection of photographs of the country, revealing a dramatic landscape, picturesque villages and diverse architecture from the Ottoman to Yugoslav periods. Elizabeth then showed us another image. This image was a far cry from the rolling hills and imposing mountains and was the one that sparked a quite incredible charitable project, one with which Heathfield is excited to be involved. This image showed a small girl wearing a pair of oversized shoes. We found out that the reason her shoes are so large is because, in the neighbourhood in which she lives, one of the poorest in Europe, each family only has one pair of shoes to share between them.
Elizabeth told us the story of getting this little girl to school and how, at most, they expected to help a dozen or so of her friends from the Roma community, just outside Prishtina, Kosovo’s modern, cosmopolitan capital. Just a couple of years later, Elizabeth and her team have helped hundreds of disadvantaged children access education…and keep them there. The charity has also diversified, helping not only children into school but also their parents; people who have been denied an education for a lifetime who have been so inspired by their children’s progress that they too want their high school diploma. Elizabeth brought some of the beautiful handmade jewellery, soaps and bags made by women from the community and sold across Prishtina, and increasingly online, bringing a sense of ownership to women who have spent their lives disenfranchised. The girls and staff took the opportunity to browse these, and Elizabeth’s latest books, after the insightful question and answer session.
Tea and cakes in the Library followed the presentation of a donation from Heathfield to the work of The Ideas Partnership, money we know is already helping fund trips to hospital for people who could not otherwise afford it.
We thank Elizabeth for her time and very much look forward to telling you all about our adventures in Kosovo this July.