30.01.2020
Dijamant Pajazitaj is 24 years old mediator for social care at Help. When the war broke out in Kosovo in 1999, his parents, he said, found refuge here in Montenegro and they decided to stay. In Montenegro, Dijamant finished elementary and high school, after which he dropped out of further education to start working. Early on he became a volunteer in the NGO Forum.mne and was later engaded in some other civil society organizations, dealing with Roma and Egyptian issues.
After a while he applied to a public call from Help for Mediators, as he had a very good opinion on the involvement of Help in Montenegro and their assistance to the RE population. He has been working as a mediator for social care for three years.
“On the paper, of course, I am a social care mediator, but in reality I do everything from going to the employment bureau to the hospital, health centers, schools and all kinds of other services where our help is needed. That being said, we can conclude that I am a universal mediator. ”
The most important thing for his job is to gain people’s trust.
“We earned their trust, it is the most important and the hardest thing to gain at the same time because people have to make sure that you are a person of trust, there are people with different problems. But we ensured their trust by helping everyone and everyone, and by going through all the institutions. ”
Dijamant notes that in the beginning of his engagement as mediators, the institution’s reactions were rude, mostly because they didn’t understand mediator’s role, but now they have very good cooperation.
“I have excellent communication with them now, and they, as well as the citizens themselves, contact me whenever they need me. From institutions such as the Center for Social Work, I have learned, or rather “acquired” some of their skills through this work. ”
On average Dijamant has to provide some kind help for about five to six people per week.
“We strive to help to whoever calls us, both the RE population and others. There have been different situations when people have approached us for help. And we helped everyone. I feel good about helping someone. And I see that somehow this job is taking hold of me and it feels natural, I manage to help so many people. ”
Dijamant Pajazitaj wants to move forward and learn as much as possible about this profession, because “one always can and must strive to do better.”
He believes that it would be very good if the authorities recognized the need for mediators as a way to secure appropriate help for RE population and started employing mediators, as this has indeed proved necessary.
“Representatives of institutions always appreciates and praise our work, and that was pointed out on every meeting. We have regular meetings with them so that we can elevate our cooperation”.
The Roma and Egyptian mediators’ programme is part of Help’s regional project “Support to socio-economic stability in the Western Balkans region 2019-2020” that is funded by the German Foreign Ministry.
Biljana Jovićević
