Project Report
| Oct 8, 2025
Volunteering with The Ideas Partnership - Sharing Art and Music in Kosovo
![]()
My name is Lily, and this summer I travelled from the UK to volunteer with The Ideas Partnership on a summer project bringing art and music to disadvantaged children in Kosovo. As an A-level student, I was nervous about whether I’d have much to offer, but I hoped my love of art and creativity could bring something meaningful.
Your support provides the money for teachers and transport for volunteers to work with the children. Their dedication to the organisation and the children was immediately apparent. This was holiday season and regular lessons has ceased but the centres were staffed and open, giving children a welcoming place to meet and socialise together and projects like ours were keeping them learning. Therefore we were working with a wide mix of abilities and ages, older children bringing their siblings along to participate too.
From the moment we arrived at the children’s centre in Fushe Kosove on Friday, I knew this was going to be an unforgettable experience. Children running to greet us, watching the newcomers with wide eyes. Their smiles were was infectious, and made us want to find out as much about them as they wanted to about us. Although I worried at first about the language barrier, with the help of an amazing volunteer interpreter, the children’s enthusiasm and the international language of mimes, those fears quickly disappeared.
We started with story-based activities, giving the children space to talk about themselves. Their imaginations spilled out into colourful collages, each one a patchwork of ideas, dreams, and favourite things. Then we used ribbons linking one child’s work to another, showing the things they had in common and connecting them together as a group. While we were there, another of our team, Debbie introduced music using melodicas donated by her school. It was harder than expected to teach such a large class, but the children’s laughter and determination filled the room with joy. Some children had favourite songs they’d heard played, tunes they collectively sung and know, but music making together and working as a group was different and challenging. Together we were stamping and clapping out beats, learning rhythms and overlapping them to create accompaniments to songs.
This incredible experience could not have taken place without the dedicated work space provided by the TIP learning centres that your donations keep open. A place that brings children together to learn, offering them opportunities that they would otherwise have no access to.
The classrooms were hot but TIP staff provided much needed water to keep the children hydrated. Your support enabled snacks too to be handed out and gratefully received at the end of the day.
Saturday brought a story about a pebble, which explored the themes of displacement, loneliness, fear and friendship through the eyes of a little girl. The children helped re-tell the story by acting it out before painting their own stones. Some decorated theirs with flowers, others with animals, scenes, and faces. Later, I helped lead the girls’ club, where we spoke about what it’s like to be a girl in the UK, shared personal goals, and created crafts together. The atmosphere was more reflective and supportive, giving the girls confidence to celebrate themselves.
The ‘girls group’ is an important part of what you are enabling The Ideas Partnership to achieve. For girls in this community the hurdles they face getting into education are only the first part of the puzzle. The second is keeping them there. They face the problem of dealing with menstruation, often escalated by a lack of hygiene products in the home. Then there are the cultural expectations about taking on nurturing roles in the family or marrying young to provide a dowry.
The girls group provides them with a safe space to discuss such issues. It promotes friendship bonds with other females, who can give support and a sense of solidarity.
“I liked the hand activity, we had a chance to express ourselves.” - a quote from Jeta, age 16.
By the end of the trip, I realised that our art and music activities had done more than simply entertain — they gave the children a voice, a way to share their identities and be recognised. I came to Kosovo hoping to teach but anxious about my ability to communicate in a foreign language. As I left, I was reminded of something simple and powerful: creativity is a language of its own which everyone deserves to have access to.
![Share on Twitter]()
![Share on Facebook]()
