Valdete Idrizi

Valdete Idrizi is the executive director of the NGO Community-Building Mitrovica, which she founded, and which works for peace and builds community in the Mitrovica region in northern Kosovo.^[1][2] For six years prior to 2008, Community-Building Mitrovica was the only organization in Mitrovica which encouraged reconciliation and rebuilding of relationships between ethnic Albanians and Serbs. ^[3] Idrizi herself is an ethnic Albanian from Kosovo in North Mitrovica who lost her home in 1999 when the Serbs invaded. ^{[1][3] [2]} As of 2008 her home is still occupied by Serbs. ^[1] Community-Building Mitrovica has managed to arrange the return of some Serbs to their homes in Kosovo, for which Idrizi received death threats from Kosovar Albanian militants. ^[1] She was chosen as CiviKos Platform Executive Director in December 2011; CiviKos is an initiative of civil society organizations in Kosovo "aimed at creating an enabling environment for [the] cooperation of [the] formal civil society sector and the Government." ^{[4] [5]}

Idrizi received a 2008 International Women of Courage Award and the 2009 Soroptimist International Peace Award. ^{[3] [6] [2]}

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