While most refugees who’ve come to Canada chose to call Canada home. Belinda Lahu did the opposite. Leaving Canada and her family here for a new life in Kosovo. Being a child of Kosovo refugees who settled in the country in 1999 following Canada’s response in airlifting over 5,000 refugees, Lahu being a first generation of Canadian born learning and creating a new identity as Albanian- Canadian.

While Lahu was born in Canada, Lahu’s older siblings and parents faced Serbia’s war in Kosovo as a young family and forced to make ultimate sacrifices. In Lahu’s words, the experience was traumatic but would also inspire Lahu’s strong desire in community leadership and also staying connected to her roots. During the war, her family lived in a small village near the capital of Pristina, Rimanish with their two daughters both under the age of two years-old. When the ethnic conflict escalated between Kosovo and Serbia, her parents were forced to separate out of fear and to keep the family safe as Lahu’s father had outdated documents.

“My father faced additional danger due to outdated and incorrect citizenship documents. While this might not seem significant under normal circumstances, in a country gripped by war, Serbian forces used even the smallest pretext to terrorize Albanians. My village is in the mountains near Prishtina, and during this time, my father made the difficult decision to take my mother to her uncle’s house for safety. He then fled to the mountains, hiding alone for long periods. Even his own family didn’t know where he was. These were the lengths they had to go to in order to survive the chaos and brutality that defined those years" says Lahu..

She recalls the traumatic experience her family and the people of Kosovo faced as the terror unfolded as the world watched horrific atrocities unfold and severe human right violations. “During the war, Serbian forces were brutally aggressive toward the Albanian population throughout Kosova. At checkpoints scattered across the country, they would often demand money or valuables when checking documents from those fleeing. If people had nothing to give, they risked severe harm, or worse, death. “My uncles experienced this firsthand—they were stopped, beaten, and left with no choice but to remain silent, unable to react out of fear for their lives. This fear wasn’t unfounded; it came from witnessing countless Albanians endure horrific treatment under similar circumstances.”

Her mother took her two daughters and left without her husband and fled to Macedonia, as he stayed behind to avoid endangering them. The war brought immense hardship to Lahu’s family. Although nobody in her immediate families died, they endured many traumatic experiences and witnessed horrific events. Lahu’s uncle was stabbed in the leg, and her family’s neighbor’s son was killed in front of his family. “When my mom first fled with my sisters, they stayed with her uncle’s family, but the Serbians eventually forced them out. She then continued her journey to Macedonia with my sisters on her shoulders, where she was finally reunited with my aunt and their family” she says.

Lahu’s mother would take on a new journey to Canada with her two daughters not knowing if her husband made it out alive. Lahu’s father went missing and was found through Red Cross and brought to Canada around six month later part of the family reunification program that was offered to the Kosovo refugees that came part of ‘Operation Parasol’ Canada’s emergency response program in relocating refugees to help with the refugee crisis flocking Macedonia in 1999.

Those experiences have not only made her family resilient but Lahu too giving her a deeper connection to contribute to her family’s homeland. Today, she works for the Government of Kosovo in the capital of Pristina. She’s one of many young people from Kosovo who’ve left their birthplace to give back to Kosovo especially since Covid-19 opened doors to remote workers, this giving her attention on the social media platform TikTok “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had a deep longing for Kosova. I would hear stories of a home away from home—of the tragedies, hardships, and resilience—but I couldn’t fully grasp our culture, history, and heritage without being here. I needed to experience it for my own personal development, to better understand my parents' journey, and in a way to live the life that was taken from them”

Lahu became part of the ‘Citizen Diplomacy Fellowship’, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora of Kosova, where diaspora professionals are invited to contribute within different institutions. Even though Lahu’s family has continued their life in Canada “Coming back to Kosova has been a very transformative experience” she says.

Lahu has a degree in Health Sciences from the University of Ottawa, with a focus on research in women's sexual and reproductive health, being one of six daughters in the family inspired her passion in the field. The 22-year-old also has around six years of experience in the medical field, working in pharmacies and medical clinics “My mother, Fatime, and father, Afrim Lahu, sought refuge in Canada in 1999, and I am incredibly thankful for everything my family has done and the opportunities they provided us. Their strength and resilience have shaped who I am today” says Lahu.

“My family’s best memory from coming to Canada is the patience and kindness we were shown from the beginning which allowed for our family to grow and create beautiful memories we will never forget.” says Lahu. She acknowledges the difficult beginning her family has shared as refugees and the difficulties she’s also faced in being a child of a first-generation newcomers.” they had nothing but the clothes on their backs when they got to Canada now, they have their house paid and kids all educated. They never gave up”