Rebuilding war-torn Kosovo
Kosovo (2002)
The Art of Living Foundation has been working in Kosovo since 2000, helping war victims recollect their lives. A Harvard Medical Group assessing the war effects found that 80% of Kosovo’s population suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In addition to conducting trauma relief programmessmemes for war veterans, women, children as well as inmates of prisons and refugee camps, The Art of Living Foundation has also carried out major relief work after the war. Its programmessmemes have helped equip the trauma victims with tools of reconciliation and acceptance, helping them to live peacefully in a multi-ethnic society.
How it Began
In 2000, The Art of Living Foundation sent its volunteers to bring relief in Drenice, the area hardest hit by civilian massacres and violence.
Kosovo Ministry of Health requested the Art of Living courses to be conducted for more than 100 nurses, doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, psycho-social advisors and social workers in 7 Mental Health centers. Seeing the positive experiences, the Ministry of Health asked all the Mental Health and hospital workers throughout Kosovo to take the workshop, .as a means of preventing burnout.
Special Art of Living workshops have also been offered to torture victims, witnesses and disabled KLA veterans. More than 700 veterans and 600 UN police officers stationed in Kosovo have also undergone the Art of Living workshops.
