In 2024, CEL Kosova operated at an incredibly fast pace. Full of activities, partnerships, emotions, and challenges – which we were prepared for and successfully overcame, and with a lot of support from the LGBTIQ+ communities. Below, we have tried to summarize the year in some of the most important moments.
The Annual School for Comparative Gender and Sexuality Studies held its tenth edition this year. Around 35 students registered to be part of the School, while hundreds of others followed all the lectures throughout the days of this school.
Trainings with individuals from the LGBTIQ+ communities continued throughout 2024. Collaborations with creators, design and marketing companies, and other fields were fruitful, thus empowering participants with skills that they can use further in their careers.
Pride Week in Kosovo, together with our partners, exploded even more this year, showing our insistence on showing Kosovar society that LGBTIQ+ people exist and are part of this society, even a powerful part that completes the overall picture. Numerous activities gathered thousands of participants: parades, exhibitions, trainings, panel discussions, concerts, and publication of reports – all crowned a rebellious but also activist Pride Week.
All three CEL Kosova programs have been in full work! The activities of each program have helped improve the lives of individuals from the LGBTIQ+ communities in Kosovo. Queer Talks, Drag Bingo, exhibitions, lectures, meetings with decision-makers, participation in protests and other activist interventions – all of these have helped and continue to help improve the well-being of individuals from the LGBTIQ+ communities. The support program, the capacity building program, and the advocacy program always harmonize in a way that our audience and our target benefit as much as possible from our programs and partnerships and donors.
Our campaigns mainly cover special days marked throughout the year: Transgender Awareness Week, Lesbian Day, Human Rights Day, Coming Out Day – these are just some of the days that we celebrate a lot, as much as we celebrate our existence, every day, with you!
From our traditional scholarship in cooperation with the European Union in Kosovo, this year we have produced very successful publications on the lives of LGBTIQ+ individuals in Kosovo. UP students have researched for months on various topics: you can find all publications by clicking on this link! Take advantage of the end of the year to read something good and enrich your mind about the wealth within our communities.
Our workshops are one of the moments when we appreciate our work the most. This year we have conducted workshops on access to justice, on activism and advocacy, on mental health and necessary care, all in order to raise awareness and intellect among individuals from the LGBTIQ+ communities in Kosovo.
There are many other successes and challenges, but we are closing 2024 with that. We wish you happy holidays and we invite you to be friends, supporters, and participants in the bustling activity of CEL Kosova.
