[Prishtina-E] [Kcc-News] Teen refugee sending books to homeland [Kosova]

[Kosova Crisis Center News and Information]

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http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/living/community/9770085.htm
Posted on Wed, Sep. 29, 2004

Teen refugee sending books to homeland
Now a U.S. citizen, she raises money to help libraries in Kosovo

By Cathy Gilkey
HERALD-LEADER CORRESPONDENT

Ardena Gojani remembers when Serbian soldiers stormed her apartment complex
and gave her family five minutes to leave the building or be killed.

She remembers spending days in a 10-mile line of fleeing refugees, watching
old men die and hearing hungry children crying for food and water.

And she remembers moving to the United States and leaving her friends and
family behind.

But perhaps her most moving memories are of her trip back to Kosovo to see
her war-torn country again.

Those memories have-driven Ardena, now 17 and a junior at Lexington Catholic
High School, to lead a drive to raise $5,000 to buy books and ship them to
her hometown of Gjakova to help refill the shelves of a library burned down
during the war.

"We want to do what we can," Ardena said. "It hurts to see how much they
don't have."

She and her family returned to Gjakova, now Gjakovica, in 2000 to visit
their family, almost all whom remained in Kosovo despite the wars. Seeing
her country for the first time after living in the United States for more
than a year opened Ardena's eyes to just how much she has and how much her
homeland does not.

"There were four kids to a desk made for two, and they all shared one
textbook," she said of a school her friends attend.

Since then, Ardena and her family have been working to send books to Kosovo
with the help of the International Book Project, a Lexington group that
sends donated books to poor countries.

In 2002, Ardena's cousin, Rubik Rudi, carried dozens of books to Kosovo.
Because he could not afford to ship the books, he left his clothes and
personal belongings behind and packed two large suitcases full of books from
the International Book Project office.

In March, Ardena's father also packed two suitcases with books. Every one
was checked out in the first few days he was in Kosovo, she said.

Cathy Anderson, president of the International Book Project, encouraged
Ardena to write a letter in the organization's quarterly newsletter to raise
awareness of libraries like the one in Gjakovica. Formed in 1966, the
International Book Project receives encyclopedias, technical books and
journals from donors, then distributes them to more than 100 countries.

Sponsors like Ardena pay the shipping costs.

"The demand for materials in English is high as Kosovars strive to modernize
their communities," Anderson said in the newsletter.

Ardena's experiences in her homeland and Lexington have influenced and
matured her beyond her 17 years. Like many of her peers, she has a job, a
cell phone and loves instant messaging her friends, but she is more aware of
the fragilities of life.

Ardena was 11 when she was forced to leave her home at gunpoint.

"My mother held my hand so tight, pulling me out of the house as fast as she
could, without taking any belongings with us," Ardena said.

They fled to Macedonia, an independent republic south of Kosovo, and stood
in line with other refugees with no food and very little water.

"I saw a baby being born and old men die," she said. "Children were hungry
and crying for food."

Serbian soldiers robbed people of what belongings they did have and
kidnapped some people from the line, she said.

The Red Cross brought food a few days after they arrived, and after four
days of waiting, they were allowed to enter Macedonia. Ardena's cousin Rudi
sponsored the Gojanis, which allowed them to immigrate to the United States.

Ardena, her brother, her sister and her parents recently became U.S.
citizens, she said.

Ardena keeps in contact with friends in Kosovo through infrequent phone
calls and, more often, e-mails and instant messaging.

"It's hard to talk about what it's like here," she said. "Here, if we need
something, we buy it or it's donated. There, there is no one to help."

So Ardena is doing her best to help any way she can. The money she raises
will help buy books and ship them to Kosovo.

She hopes the books will be shipped next spring, and she plans to travel
back to Gjakovica to help unpack and present the books to the library.

Ardena's classmates and teachers at Lexington Catholic have been very
supportive, she said.

They pray for her fund-drive in class, and classmates routinely donate what
they can. She said she raised $100 in a week at school.

"It just felt so good to have them support me like that," she said. "It
feels good to be doing something."
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