Pandemia doubled women's work in Kosovo

As a result of the spread of the coronary, the company she works for decided that everyone would leave the office and work in their homes.

This 30-year-old, who lives in Pristina along with her husband and two children, has created a work office in the waiting room.

It shows how difficult it has been to deal with this situation for about a year.

At first we thought we were going out for a very short time (to work from home), nobody thought it would be this long. There's been a lot of situations that we've been through with a lot of stress, and there's been situations that really came to you to cry because you didn't know what to do beyond that. We had become a huge burden, we didn't know what it is to face COVID-19”, she says.

Besides fatigue and stress from isolation, fear of coronary infection was present within the four - member family.

In July 2020, when the number of people affected by COVID-19 in Kosovo had increased, the Coronavirus did not escape from being infected with Coronavirus or Blerta and her husband.

And he's got a job from his home, he's out of time, he's got a job more of this creative part, he's got an animationr and he's got a long-term job, and I had to be very supportive in this case and I understand too much, than whenever he wasn't, I had to be the other one who took care of children and all along and take care of my”, she says.

Family violence increased during pandemic

Many women in Kosovo have faced domestic violence, unemployment and unpaid jobs. Vlora Tuzi Nushi, from the UN Women organisation in Kosovo, says the pandemic has deepened gender divisions in Kosovo.

According to her, from the beginning of the pandemic in March last year, 650 cases of domestic violence have been reported in Kosovo, mainly in urban areas.

Compared with 2019, there has been an increase of 22 percent. She says such a crime has become more invisible during the pandemic.

We had a rapid increase in domestic violence reporting, because already most women and girls who were abused earlier were closed to the abuser, without access to opportunities, or information tools to ask for help”, she says.

Pandemia has also affected women in business, although their number is very small, as only 11 percent of Kosovo's businesses are owned by women.

The number of women who lost their jobs has also increased during the pandemic year.

The first score was 5 percent, loss or loss of jobs, while in the second grade after a few months, it rose to 12 percent and will certainly (situate) be even more serious now in the third” assessment, she says.

Another consequence that has hit women most is increasing unpaid work. According to Vlora Tuzi Nusshi, the negative effects of COVID-19 for women and families, especially in mental health, will likely last for years.

Therefore, we have also offered free housing psychologists who have dealt with rehabilitation of these cases so that they can get through this”, says Tuzi Nushi.

Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, over 1,000 and 600 patients in Kosovo have lost their battle with coronary.