CEL in Kosovo offers free psychological and legal services to LGBTI community

Under “take care of yourself” The Centre for Equality and Freedom in Kosovo (CEL) is providing free psychological and legal services to those in the LGBTI community.

Lend Mustafa, the CEL project co-ordinator, has told Periscopi that the idea for this initiative came from seeing cases of discrimination in this community.

The LGBTI subsons face peer pressure and harassment, and these always affect mental health. Unfortunately, we have had many cases where LGBI persons have been discriminated against or humiliated by psychologists and psychiatrists in Kosovo. This prompted us to start this co-operation with the Kosovo Health Foundation in 2015, and this project was funded by the Netherlands Royal Embassy”, Mustafa said.

Mustafa has said the aim of this initiative is to create a safer environment for this community, and has already clarified why they have decided to offer these services only to the LGBTI community.

The purpose of these services is to care for the LGBTI for a healthier lifestyle and to offer a safer environment for access to psychologists and psychiatrists. These services are offered only for LGBTIs because they find it more difficult to meet with professional psychologists and psychiatrists who have information on these issues and have no attitudes against LGBTI” communities, he added.

So far, according to him, 60 members of this community have benefited from these services.

Some of the psychologists that will provide psychological services at CEL are Forts Kadriu, Ayette Krecheli and Tringa Krasniqi, while legal services will offer human rights attorney Rina Kika.

In the meantime, on the official Facebook page, CEL has also posted numbers through which interested ones can contact for such services./Periscopi/