Medica Gjakova, an NGO in Kosovo working with survivors of sexual violence, opened an artisanal food shop in Gjakova last December, with the help of the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The project is a response to the estimated 20,000 women and men who were raped and tortured by Serbian police and the Yugoslav army during the 1998-1999 Kosovo war against Serbia.
The shop sells a variety of organic products sourced from around two dozen survivors’ farms and homes in surrounding villages. Items include fresh cheese, creamy yogurt, honey, apple, apricot, raspberry and blackberry jams, bright red pepper spreads, shelled walnuts and eggs.
The shop is part of Medica Gjakova’s economic empowerment project, which helps survivors become entrepreneurs and earn an income – in some cases, for the first time in their lives.
Further reading
- Class action against chocolate giants could win damages for 50,000 child slaves
- New Yorker article: The great organic-food fraud
- Maine’s new right to food’s legal challenges
