Bringing Communities Together

Residents of Mitrovica North now have a place to gather, talk, hold workshops and obtain information about support programs available to them from the U.S. Government. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) opened a Regional Community Resource Center on December 7, 2011 in downtown Mitrovica North. Mercy Corps, a USAID partner, will use the center as the base of operations for assistance to the communities of northern Kosovo under the USAID Community Action Initiative Program. The goal of the three-year program is to improve the lives of people in non-majority areas in order to increase peaceful interaction and integration with the rest of Kosovo. USAID Acting Mission Director Azza El-Abd inaugurated the new facility, which also houses the Kosovo Policy Action Network, a group of some 70 civil society organizations representing the interests of non-majority communities. The inauguration of the center marks an important step forward in USAID outreach to a region where ethnic tensions remain high.