Qendresa Sahiti has a bright smile that warms up an entire room, bright enough to make her patients feel well cared for. She is currently a resident physician in the Department of Psychiatry at Dalhousie University. With her curls intact and behind her bright smile is one inspiring story of a young woman beating all odds.

Sahiti’s story begins in Kosovo. Sahiti says her family went through a challenging time in Kosovo even before the war began. Albanian Kosovars lived in a quasi-state, where many professionals were dismissed from their jobs because of their ethnic background, and Albanian education was not allowed under Serbian oppression. “My father completed his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine in Croatia in the years before the war but could not find work on his return to Kosova because of his ethnicity. It was a very economically and socially challenging time”

During the war in 1999 Saiti was a baby. As the situation in the country became critical, access to food and medicine became very scarce where at times her family ran out of milk to feed Sahiti, something many other mothers with young children report having faced at the time. “We fled to my mother’s village in the countryside, thinking we would be safer there. Unfortunately, this did not last very long. Their house was at the top of a hill in the village, which the Serbians wanted to use as a military vantage point. They shot warning shots and eventually advanced on the house with armed tanks. “ Sahiti says her parents have shared their difficulty journey where they ran for their lives; down the hill with Sahiti in their arms and bottles of milk in their backpacks as Serbian tanks climbed up their driveway. ”They fled to another village but eventually had to leave and go back to Prishtina when the surrounding villages were burned. Two weeks before NATO troops entered Kosovo.

Sahiti’s family spent two weeks at Macedonia’s refugee camp in Stankovec. The country was faced with a shocking number of refugees outgrowing their resources, even with international humanitarian workers such as UNICEF and Red Cross on the ground, it was overwhelming. Sahiti’s family was on standby for days before they’d be able to pass the border, sleeping on the ground before they were given entry “Our extended family was cramped into small tents. There were many aid organizations working to provide food, water, and medical attention. Still, the conditions were not comfortable.” Sahiti was only a baby at the time but she says her parents recall difficult conditions at the refugee camp “filling black garbage bags with water and setting them outside to heat in the sun so they could have water for bathing. When it rained, the mud would soak through everything”.

Before immigrating to Canada, Sahiti and her family flew across the world to Australia as refugees to escape the difficult conditions they faced at the refugee camp where she says Aussies gave them a warm welcome “my father volunteered as an interpreter at the camp and also taught taekwondo classes”. Similar to Canada, her family was offered permanent residency or the opportunity to repatriate back to Kosovo and her family chose to return home in the hopes of an improved new beginning in peace following the ending of the Kosovo war that claimed the lives of over 10,000 people and damaged infrastructure, homes and national historic sites and left a nation in trauma. But the future was grim in post-war Kosovo, the country feeling the deep losses and damages from the war. Sahiti’s family lived in Kosovo until 2004 who then immigrated to Canada due to the ongoing difficult social and economic conditions in Kosovo.

Shani Pnishi is a passionate writer, journalist and activist. Throughout his career, he’s seen it all. From covering the stories of war in Kosovo to interviewing high-level politicians, activists and celebrities. When the war in Kosovo broke out in 1998 amid ethnic tensions between Kosovo and Belgrade, Shani Pnishi was studying Albanian Literature at the University of Pristina in Kosovo’s capital while his family was living in his native hometown in Demjan, Gjakova. He was a passionate writer actively involved in student journalism such as contributing to the student newspaper "Bota e re", and was the editor of the magazine ‘Fryma’ at the Faculty of Philology. This year, as Kosovo’s liberation marked 25 years, Pnishi’s work has been recognized by the ‘Association of Journalists of Kosovo’ among many other journalists who worked on the frontlines and from the newsrooms during the crisis telling the horrific stories of war.

While Kosovo was under Serbia’s seige, Pnishi’s family fled to neighbouring Albania seeking safety. Pnishi would lose a cousin during the war who would succumb to his injuries. Pnishi not knowing the whereabouts of his family or the fatal fate of his cousin, he continued reporting from Pristina and would then leave the city for Macedonia’s refugee camp for nearly two months. Pnishi would end up on a flight to Canada alone arriving in Winnipeg and unaware whether his family was among the survivors only locating them months upon his arrival in Canada. Prior to the war, Pnishi’s family had a good and normal life and were living in a newly built home, a home that would be shattered to pieces. When his family returned to their hometown in June of 1999 after the NATO bombing campaign brought the war to a halt, there was nothing to find. The family discovered that Serbian forces had used their home as their barracks, they found only debris and dust, a home only existing in their memories.

Today, Pnishi is a dad of three, a loving husband to his wife Albana who came to Canada after marrying Pnishi in 2008. She’s from Drenica, the part of Kosovo that was hit the hardest during the war. But living through war in Kosovo wouldn’t be the end of difficulties journeys for Pnishi. The new life in Canada would not be an easy transition for Pnishi who was part of ‘Operation Parasol’ Canada’s airlift response in the crisis in response to UNHCR’s call to assist with the refugee crisis overwhelming Albania and Macedonia, countries already facing their own economic despairs. Pnishi would need to learn English in his twenties and find work unrelated to his journalism studies to make ends meet in this new foreign land and help reignite hope for his family and help in rebuilding the family home Serbia destroyed during the war, all of that combined with the traumas that war left in refugees as they began a new difficult road ahead.

Starting over a new life in Canada was anything but easy for Pnishi “when I came it was hard to find a job, or at least for me, no English and bored. I think that the sponsors that we had for integration in Canada should have been replaced with employment counselors, because the first step of integration in a country is employment, not buying things at Walmart, which is important as well” he says, recalling a difficult new beginning in Canada as he began a new life away from the family he left behind and a field he was passionate in “we were upset for our families, for our burnt land, for our killed people, for our destroyed lives, and these people, as if to comfort us, said: "Don't worry, you are Canadian now!". How did I become Canadian in three days? I was a war refugee, missing what I left behind!”

Pnishi would slowly but surely find his voice in Canada and his audience. Pnishi moved to Ontario that has a larger Albanian community making it feel closer to home. He studied Political Science at McMaster University in Hamilton. Ontario is home to over 30,000 Albanians from different regions many who’ve immigrated to Canada for various of reasons. Pnishi is now a freelance Journalist and editor-in-chief of the newspaper and portal ‘Albanian News’ which he launched in 2023 in Toronto. He’s written for various Albanian newspapers and news blogs and portals such as the Albanian-American newspaper ‘Illyria’, ‘Dielli’, ‘Diaspora Shqiptare’, and in Canada for two years the editor-in-chief of the newspaper ‘Flas Shqip’.

‘Albanian News’ issued its first paper copy last month. For a short period, the newspaper has managed to cooperate with the relevant institutions such as the Embassy of Albania and Kosovo, with the Consulate General of Kosovo in Toronto, and with the largest and most active associations from most provinces in Canada coast to coast whose activities have often been a source of information, and a proper address for communication. The paper documents community activities and individual achievements profiling successful Albanians in Canada 'Profile of the week'.

Besides his work in journalism, Pnishi has been actively involved with the Albanian community in Ontario, and formed ‘The Albanian Association of Hamilton’ with friends where he served as the Association’s President for four years. The Association is the first Albanian Association in Canada to have its own Albanian Community Centre where the building is now mortgage free. He was on the board of ‘The Albanian Home Buying Council’ in Hamilton.

Pnishi stands out for his outstanding community service in Canada and outstanding contributions in journalism but he is also the author of two poetry books called ‘99’ and ‘Here and There’ both published by well-known publishing houses in Kosovo’s capital Pristina and is currently working on an English title in Canada. He’s also the recipient of the Nation’s Ambassador Award by the government of Albania in 2019 for his community service toward the Albanian diaspora at the second ‘Summit of the Albanian Diaspora’ in the country’s capital Tirana.

While many people living in Kosovo view Canada as a land of opportunity, Pnishi urges people to use caution when seeking life in a new country as the journey is not the fairytale it’s made out to appear on social media “For those who choose Canada as their new home, the journey is often filled with a mix of opportunities and obstacles. The main obstacle has been finding a job. For a simple job, they required a detailed long resume, and there was always a meaningless limitation- the lacked of Canadian experience required in every possible job that you applied. Without Canadian experience, companies wouldn't even invite you for an interview, let alone hire you” says Pnishi.

The first paper edition of 'Albanian News' was published this November.

Today, Dr. Ryve Loshaj is a mother of two and a family physician working at urgent and primary care centres in British Columbia. She also is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia's Family Medicine Department, where she teaches the next generation of physicians. Dr. Loshaj’s family settled in British Columbia in 1999, after fleeing Serbia’s brutal war in Kosovo.

While many women were fleeing the war or seeking shelter from the outbreak of violence in Kosovo, Dr. Loshaj showed extraordinary courage, facing the frontlines of the conflict. Wearing a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) uniform, she worked in the heart of the war zone, assisting refugees during Serbia’s violent military campaign, which killed and injured thousands. Dr. Loshaj volunteered at Mother Teresa Clinics and collaborated with international NGOs, such as Care International, the Red Cross, and HandiKos, to serve vulnerable populations as a primary care physician.

As the war intensified in her hometown of Deçan in Western Kosovo, Dr. Loshaj joined a team of healthcare providers offering medical care to displaced populations, sick children, pregnant women, and wounded civilians in makeshift hospitals. She was appointed acting director and coordinator for health services in her municipality, where her efforts and bravery left a lasting impact. Dr. Loshaj has been widely recognized for her remarkable service during this difficult period.

Her family, like many others, was forced to flee their home, leaving everything behind. They sought refuge in Albania, where they were hosted by an Albanian family in the capital city, Tirana. Albania’s humanitarian efforts during the Kosovo war were nothing short of extraordinary. At the time, Albania was a country also facing its own economic struggles; still feeling the effects a communist government left in the country that ended in early nineties which isolated Albania from the rest of Europe. Communism left Albania in a state of poverty that lasted for decades. Still, families in Albania opened the doors to their own homes, their hearts to everything they had to share such as eating together in overcrowded rooms hosting multiple refugee families under the same roof including Dr. Loshaj. This generosity was nothing new for Albania who also played a pivotal role in sheltering Jews during World War II, which is also internationally acknowledged and praised.

Although Dr. Loshaj had planned to continue her postgraduate studies in pediatrics, she stayed in Kosovo, volunteering in field hospitals and along the border with Albania as the fighting persisted. She remained there until the war came to a halt in June of 1999, after which she joined her family in Canada. “Our family like many war survivors have lost our homes and all our belongings, my brother was severely wounded during the Serb offensive in my hometown. We have lost many friends and dear neighbors, as well our loving pet, our dog Shari.” Dr. Loshaj recalls the horrors of the war that she has witnessed in her personal life and on the field while serving.

Today, Dardan Kelmeni is a successful entrepreneur, a co-founder and a COO of the delivery management platform application ‘Eva’ worth over nine million. Eva is also now Canada’s largest legal cannabis delivery service. The company has several Albanian- Americans among its investors, and for a time, the company operated a remote software development team in Kosovo. Kelmeni comes with an impressive resume. He combines his passion for humanitarianism, his family’s military roots blending with opportunities Canada has been able to offer to him. He is also a TD scholar and served on various board of directors, including Amnesty International and held TED Talks. He also took part in the Diaspora School of Kosovo with the orientation and funding of the Germin organization, led back then by now Kosova's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Liza Gashi.

Kelmeni studied Political Science at McGill University and was an Infantry Officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, based at the Royal Montreal Regiment, following in the footsteps of his father and maternal grandfather “this experience offered valuable insights into military conflicts and geopolitics'” His family all offering inspiration to other newcomers. His sister Donika is completing her master's degree in teaching, and his brother Veton is working toward his undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering. Kelmeni’s parents were role models for him in giving back to the community from being interpreters to other Kosovar refugees in 1999 to being activists in Kosovo and abroad.

The success of Kelmeni and his family is nothing short from extraordinary but before he reached the height of his success and giving back; being a community leader which earned him a full $70,000 TD scholarship, his family was living in the midst of the Balkan wars, affected from both sides of his family in Kosovo and Bosnia. Kelmeni was born in Switzerland, “My parents stayed in a residential complex for asylum seekers in Zurich, Switzerland, alongside others seeking refuge. When they immigrated in Canada, they settled in the city of Granby”

Kelmeni’s mother Amela Kelmeni, grew up in Bosnia-Herzegovina with a Kosovar father and a Bosnian mother. She met Kelmeni’s father in 1992 during the ethnic cleansing that was taking place in Bosnia. Kelmeni says the war shaped the foundation of their relationship. As Serbian militias advanced with ethnic cleansing, genocide, and other war crimes, Kelmeni’s maternal grandparents remained in Goražde, Bosnia-Herzegovina, while his uncle from his mother’s side fought in the Bosnian resistance. At the same time, conditions in Kosovo were deteriorating under escalating Serbian authoritarianism. Kelmeni says while his family was very lucky as they didn’t lose any family member on neither war [Kosovo and Bosnia] his paternal grandfather was jailed and tortured on credible suspicion of possessing firearms, as he actively participated in peaceful protests in Kamenica, Kosovo which left him deaf from on ear.

“My parents’ youth was profoundly marked by the war, as they spent most of the years in Switzerland, working to fund the resistance and help family” says Isufi. By 1998, as violence in Kosovo intensified, they sought asylum in Canada and immigrated as refugees with Kelmeni and his siblings who were all very young at the time. By 1999, Kelmeni’s family would apply for family reunification and help other family members who were stuck in the middle of the Kosovo war during Canada’s emergency response program ‘Operation Parasol’.

Venesa Sulimani is a 29- year-old living in Calgary. She has a sweet- smile and a personality that warms up an entire room but behind her glasses is a world of unimaginable trauma as a result of Serbia’s war in Kosovo. Sulimani’s family fled Kosovo during the war and came to Canada as refugees in 1999. For the first time in her life; she is sharing her story. According to records obtained by Kosovo’s agencies, during the Kosovo war, over 20,000 women and men were allegedly sexually assaulted by Serbian forces including Sulimani’s mother, in front of her two young children – including Venesa. Their allegations have not yet been proved in court. To date, trials have been held in three separate courts with jurisdiction over Kosovo including the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). In 2009, the ICTY convicted three senior Serbian political, police and military officials for crimes against humanity in Kosovo, including “sexual assault”as form of persecution

Sulimani was a preschooler at the time the horrendous crime took place against her mother; a memory that has shattered her life. “My mother was sexually tortured when I was 4 years old. Though I don’t remember the details of this specific event, the fear it instilled in me, the profound sense of vulnerability, has stayed with me—deeply, and painfully” Sulimani would begin struggling with her mental health and would struggle socially and even being part of extra-curricular activities that she enjoys like soccer and basketball. By the time she became a teenager her health severely declined where she was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. Sulimani says she worried about what others would think of her as her family was already facing stigma and isolation as a result of her mother’s bravery in going public with allegations of war rape against Serbian forces during the war.

“For many years, actually leading up to 2023 I did not tell anyone what I was going through. I hid it from the world, I built a prison for myself and threw away the key. For 14 years I stayed in and out of hospitals because I no longer cared about my own survival, I did not feel worthy to get help or to get better.” Looking at some images of Sulimani during her illness, she looks frail and her future grim, we’ve decided to withhold these images from publishing due to the severity. Looking at those soul-crushing images, it’s not hard to understand why she had to quit medical education, a passion Sulimani hopes one day she will heal enough to resume. But Sulimani would prevail and recover and for the first time since the war, she is standing up and sharing her story in hopes of helping other secondary survivors. Last month she spoke for the first time sharing her story in Bogota, Colombia to world leaders.

“it felt like I was speaking to family, to those open to the idea of change, the idea that we must address second generational trauma in order to create lasting change “ Sulimani acknowledges the weight her family carried with their trauma for over two decades due to the stigma that lies within the Albanian community in Kosovo and in Canada as well “In terms of support I have to sadly say that once my mother gained the strength to voice the tragedy she experienced in the war, not many people supported her decision in doing so” According to Kosovo Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims (KRTC) from over 20,000 that were raped during the Kosovo war, only 1,000 have gone forward at the centre to seek assistance and rehabilitation services. Thousands still live in similar fears or worse as have the Sulimani’s.

From the staggering number of over 20,000 only two women have come public with the story; Sulimani’s mother and Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman from United States. Despite the push and support for the victims of sexual assault in conflict from Kosovo’s President, Vjosa Osmani who has appointed Sulimani’s mother and Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman positions within her office to advocate for survivors, there are no survivors from Kosovo that have gone public with their story. “During this time my mother was still fighting for justice. Remembering the culture back home in Kosovo I was consumed with anxiety. I feared the judgment of others back home due to cultural stigma around the topic of sexual violence. I feared how our family would be perceived because my mother opened the door that thousands keep shut.”

Dr. Hylkije Ymeri is an Associate Physician working at the QEII Department of Radiation Oncology in Halifax. She comes from a large family of eight sisters from a small country situated in Europe; Kosovo. At the time, while many women were getting married, she was studying medicine in Albania. She says coming from a large family of women, it meant having more opportunities in pursuing her passions. Dr. Ymeri graduated at the University of Medicine of Tirana, Albania in 1997 in what she thought would be an easy transition into her career as she returned to her hometown in Northern Mitrovica to practice. But little did she know that she would be caught up in the conflict of war right from the beginning of the breakout. Before she was attending to the care of Canadians, she was giving medical aid to refugees in Kosovo following the eruption of violence as ethnic tensions led to armed conflict between the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) now called Serbia and (KLA)

'The Prekaz massacre, killing nearly 60 prompting outrage

Within months of Dr. Ymeri’s return to Kosovo, the war broke out following a raid known as the Prekaz massacre, led by Serbia’s special forces. During the raid, the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) leader Adem Jashari, his brother Hamëz and nearly 60 of his family members were killed. During the raid there was only a sole survivor of the immediate Jashari family, Besarta Jashari, Hamëz Jashari's daughter. The deaths of Jashari and his family prompted outrage and international backlash against Serbia leading to the Kosovo war, where nearly half of the country’s population was driven out of their homes and over 10,000 killed.

The Jashari raid lasted for a few days and other Jashari relatives would flee Prekaz located in central Kosovo to neighboring cities and towns. Dr. Ymeri’s sister in-law is married to a Jashari where she would end up hosting forty of them escaping the terror that was unfolding. Dr. Ymeri would be in attendance giving medical aid to those injured from the Jashari extended family and along with other doctors working on the ground to help refugees in dire need. As a new doctor who had just entered the field Dr. Ymeri recalls the experience as “traumatic”. She would spend the next two years giving aid to refugees in northern Mitrovica until nearly the end of war. Northern Mitrovica is a Serb majority region in Kosovo that has been involved in ongoing conflict and tension throughout the years – most recently last week after an explosion toward critical water infrastructure, prompting terrorist attack allegations against neighboring Serbia from Pristina.

During the war, Dr. Ymeri recalls heightened safety concerns in the region, living among Serbian neighbors, she says her family was evacuated and she would witness her family three story home up in flames. “My father worked in Germany to provide for us, his work of 30 years gone, just like that, we packed our whole life in a backpack”. Dr. Ymeri spent six weeks in Macedonia's refugee camp. She recalls walking by foot, spending days sleeping outside with little to no food as they attempted to cross the border to make it to the refugee camp. She recalls people crying, children and seniors in distress including her mother; many people were missing family members including her fiancé who lived in Canada and her father in Germany “They had no idea about our whereabouts whether we were dead or alive”.

A NEW BEGINNING IN CANADA

Her family went to Germany to reunite with her father from Macedonia’s refugee camp. Dr. Ymeri would join her fiancé in British Columbia, part of the family reunification program. Over 2,000 came to Canada part of the reunification program in addition to the over 5,000 Canada initially airlifted from Macedonia in response to UNHCR’s call to assist the country with outpouring refugees flocking their borders. Dr. Ymeri says her family and other Kosovo refugees received sufficient support from Canada in all areas but she does recall a lengthy process in gaining her credentials where she had to learn English and start over in obtaining her Canadian medical license. She now lives in Bedford, NS with her two children and husband and calls Canada a “Save Heaven” that has been able to open many doors for not only her family but for all Kosovo refugees.

Dani Brajshori is a dad, a husband and once upon a time a young man fleeing one of Milosevic’s crimes and human rights violations in the heart of Europe; Kosovo, a small country with a population smaller than Toronto, with conflict turning heads on an international scale; war crimes severe enough seeking the attention of The Hague Tribunal and human rights advocates. Brajshori witnessed some of those violations even before the war began. “Young adults like me were denied the right to learn in Albanian and forbidden from carrying books in our mother tongue. If caught, we faced torture if lucky—or worse”

In 1997-1998 as a young University student, Brajshori protested against Serbia’s regime in Kosovo, which had shut down schools and persecuted students fighting for education in Albanian – Brajoshori's parents feared his activism was putting his life in danger so they arranged him to move to Germany for the time being until Kosovo moved into calmer waters; so they thought. The war in Kosovo only intensified. Not long after his move to Germany, his parents were forcibly displaced from their home leaving everything behind and coming to Canada as refugees part of Operation Parasol; starting over a new life. Their parents stayed at the CFB Borden military base in Ottawa along with countless of other Kosovo refugees that were airlifted to Canada from Macedonia.

According to a report from Pier21, Museum of Immigration research paper, the paper states “that in a phone call with the minister, Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s (CIC) Director General, Refugees, Gerry Van Kessel, recalls that Minister Robillard agreed that it was preferable for Canada to provide financial assistance to FYR Macedonia and Albania rather than refugee resettlement. Despite this evaluation, CIC officials learned hours later that Prime Minister Jean Chrétien spoke with U.S. President Bill Clinton and agreed to accept 5,000 Kosovar refugees.”

Canada’s Prime Minister at the time, Jean Chrétien made the call that Canada was to accept the first wave of refugees within 72 hours, airlifiting over 5,000 refugees initially but that number grew to over 7000 due to bringing others part of the family reunification process that was offered to the refugees. Brajshori was one of them that came to Canada reuniting with his family by December of 1999. Canada has given many opportunities to Brajshori. He’s completed his higher education that was put at a stall during the conflict in Kosovo and now works with the Department of National Defence “My connection to the Canadian Armed Forces runs deep—not only because of their mission and values but also because of their pivotal role in liberating Kosovo and preventing genocide” he says.

His journey within the Department of National Defence began in 2005 as a student with the Department of National Resources Canada, where he gained valuable experience across multiple disciplines, including service industries, accounting and finance, warehousing, and business intelligence. Besides this, Dani has made a commitment to give back to his community throughout his years of volunteer work with Junior Achievement, where he mentored high school students in all aspects of entrepreneurship and business management. This dedication reflects Dani's belief in the importance of paying it forward and empowering others to succeed. Currently, Dani serves as the manager of a pivotal defense project, the Modernization And Integration of Sustainment and Logistics (MISL), a critical initiative aimed at enhancing the capabilities of the Canadian Defense.