Fazile Bungu, 58, from village Balaj, currently living in Ferizaj, Shaban Gashi Street PN . She is married and has three children, two daughters and one bow. She is the director of the organization Hendifer in Ferizaj, working with disabled people.
When asked to tell something about herself and which words describe best her character and work and what symbolizes her, she responded by saying that she is simple, dedicated, powerful, she has high morality, she is brave, visionary, determined and humane. She implies that anything she has sought to achieve; she has done so with great humane virtues. She symbolizes herself with humanism and socialism.
When she mentioned childhood and youth, she states that her childhood is something holy. It is the innocent phase of humanity. All that she can remember from her childhood is that she wanted to be seen as special in the eyes of her parents. Her objective was to be the centre of her parents’ attention. Growing up, however she sates that she understood that life can be very unjust and unfair for some people. She mentioned that a tragedy that happened to her life didn’t give her the chance to enjoy her youth like other people. The barriers of her life sunk her very deep, but nevertheless she managed to collect all pieces of her life like a puzzle and gain new strengths to challenge life once again and be here where she is today, stronger than ever, more determined than ever, loving life more than ever before. She states that her character doesn’t allow her to be pessimistic. What remains in my memories is the tragedy that I experienced and her university booklet being burnt.
When asked why she started to fight for women’s rights and how did her friends and relatives respond to her cause, she said that since we faced many issues of women through the visits with our association, we felt that we had to fight this negative phenomenon in our society. Our relatives are inexplicable towards this phenomenon, since there are some who are part of the problem. We face this issue the mostly in rural areas. We believe that women in rural areas are not informed about their rights, thus many of their rights are denied by their families and society.
In our fight to enable every woman to enjoy their rights we face different problems that are related to their families and society, which furthers the mentality that women must be servants to men, and that they should be silent when men speak. They are denied the right to express themselves.
When asked which activity/project she will remember forever and what was special about it, she says that the social services project is special as through it they offered all people aid in different ways, so that they can all enjoy the right to live.
When asked to describe equal rights of women in Kosovo and how would she describe this sentence, considering the current situation and what are the three main challenges of being a woman in Kosovo, she maintained that although there are legal remedies that guarantee women’s rights, the reality is much more different. The main challenge is education, the second is that they are denied the right to express themselves, and the third is employment.
The happiest moment in her life when she manages to fulfil her objectives to serve our people, and the most disappointing moment is when she is lied to by decision-makers.
When asked to describe what it means the empowerment of women and the empowerment of men and what we can we do as a society so that young girls and boys are raised in the spirit of social equality, she stated that the empowerment of women means women enjoying their right to life, being duly informed about their rights and not allowing their rights to be violated. Men’s rights must also be respected the same.
First, we must inform the youth about the legal amendments that guarantee human rights. This way we can make society aware and achieve social equality.
Her motto in life is to be just in this unjust world.
In the end she mentioned a few projects/activities that were implemented by her organization and which had a social impact, such as providing social services and food aid, as well as hygienic products and clothes every month; motivating, training and activating youth groups in voluntary work, advocacy and lobbying for human rights and advising our members and their relatives, integrating people with disabilities through sport, organizing multi-ethnic campaigns, organizing tailor courses etc.
