25-year-old Kosovo bus driver in Switzerland

Annie, why in the state of Kosovo, driving buses from a female continues to be unusual, in European states this is more than normal, separately in Switzerland.

Erolina (Malqaj) Gashi is only 25 years old, and at the same age she managed to become the first bus driver in the Ticino canton, this dream since her youth, Albinfo.ch writes away.

She was born in a Kosovo village, Polish, of the Prizren municipality. As she was five years old, she migrated to Switzerland to join her family.

When I was only five years old, I migrated to Switzerland and joined my family, my father, Misin, along with my mother, Jethmiren, and my sister Mirinda. My father has lived and worked in Switzerland since 1989, and the family reunion was a priority and a new initiative for my family and me in realising my”, Erolina relates.

It also shares its history of not easy housing in Switzerland, society, schooling, and so on.

“In the beginning was very difficult for me, I was accustomed to another culture in Kosovo, despite my being very young. Then, experiencing war as children, trauma, things that we had experienced like all of Kosovo's people at the time have affected me. But over time, both we and our family and myself gradually became very well integrated into both the educational environment and the Swiss society”, she says.

It is noteworthy that Erolina's lessons have been completed at the school “Media” in Giantlo, where she later continued another 3 years at a professional level “Artier Mestier SAMS Viganello, Lugano”.

The desire to become a bus driver someday

Eroline, who was young, expressed a desire for driving, and much more so when she watched the bus drive.

When I was very young, I dreamed I'd be a driver and I kept asking my father if the day will come for us women to drive, describing the bus that passed by us”, she relates.

Missin, Erolina's father, was one of the main motivations for his daughter to follow every dream of hers and accomplish it, with work and sacrifice.

Dad told me that any good work is possible and feasible in life. And from that point on, I had this desire that one day I would be the driver of the giant bus that we were watching in front of us at that time, say she.

Erolina has learned and been passionate about driving buses, ending all her theoretical and practical driving exams in record terms.

At the age of 25 she became the first Albanian driver in the Ticino canton, in the municipality of Lugano, where she lives and continues working even more today.

On the other hand, Missin Maliqaj, Erolina's father, is proud of his daughter's achievements, much more in the profession she had dreamed of since she was a little girl.

I, along with my family, are very proud of Erolina's successes that succeeded in making her dream come to Switzerland in the first days, to become a decent driver and in service to citizens”, Missini concludes.