“I have something to cook at home”, inflation fills popular cuisines in Kosovo

Dozens of other citizens, including women, men, elders, young ones, and children, arrived next.

This kitchen serves warm, free soup for about 300 people a day. He who wishes is fed there; others can take food with them.

While waiting in line to pick up the dish that the kitchen staff, R. Lajci indicated that her six-member family, for years, lives solely on social aid.

The value of this aid, which the state shares, is 140 euros.

“I don't have anything to cook at home. Here [in popular cuisine] they cook well. Every day there's food... and I get bread for the other family members of”, she confessed to Radio Free Europe.

The morning morning morning we save the morning morning, until 12: 00 p.m. [other meal time]”, said the mother of four children, who have been serving in this kitchen for years.

Her husband doesn't work. He has health problems, just like a boy and girl. The increase in food prices has made it even more difficult for them to do so.

For me being husband and wife, there's nowhere else to go... One liter of oil has become 2 euros. If you look at the flour, 16-17 euros in sacks. Where do I get it? The current costs me 30-40 euros [ per month]”, the mother of four said, even unemployed herself.

Inflation in Kosovo, as found in the world, has begun to rise in 2021 due to market disorders that have caused the pandemic and the coronary. Hov has also given Russia's war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

Last year, Kosovo has closed it at the average inflation rate of over 12 per cent.

Products With Continued Price

Early in 2022, the expensive food products began in Kosovo. Corn, meat, eggs, sugar, and beans suffered the highest price increase. We compare the price of seven products in February 2023 with the price the same products had on March of the year before.

Last December in Pec, according to the Kosovo Statistics Agency, there have been over a thousand families that have received the sole source of income, with social assistance. The municipality in the western part of Kosovo has over 96,000 inhabitants.

In all of Kosovo, according to the AKS, there are 22,980 families with over 90,000 members benefiting from social schemes.

The largest number of them is concentrated in South Mitrovica, totaling 2,186 families.

Some 23,000 families rely on social assistance

The South Mitrovica town has the largest number of social assistance beneficiaries. According to the latest data, published in December 2022 by the Kosovo Statistics Agency, this municipality in northern Kosovo has a total of 2,186 families receiving state aid.

The monetary value for social aid beneficiaries differs from the size of the family ʹ starts from 60 euros and goes by increasing depending on the number of members. The condition for obtaining help is that the family does not have an employee.

The number of people fed in popular cuisine increases
One of the leaders of the charity association “Berex1> in Pec, Ermir Gega, said that, in recent months, the number of families seeking assistance in his association is increasing.

He said inflation has particularly affected families living out of social aid and that the kitchen is increasingly populated.

It's adding the number [of people who get food in the kitchen]. People who didn't ask for help earlier, now I see they're looking. I'm seeing some new names, some new people”, Gega said.

It's those families that may have been trying before with the possibilities of not coming here, but now I'm noticing that every day they're called, they're calling, they're looking to meet...”, he added.

In addition to food, his association also helps the needy with clothing and hygienic products.

Gega said that in the town of Peja there are over 800 families who need constant aid, but that his association, currently, can only help 50 Sosh per month.

That's not enough social assistance. They have a lot of problems. A package when we send them... so much welcome and constantly ask: when will you come next time, Gega said.

At the doors of his kitchen that day in February, N.P.

Popular kitchen “Bereqeti” in Pec.

After having lunch there, he told her REL that his 5-member family lives with only 170 euros a month, which he takes as a former member of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

He said that he had left home early in the morning to find some manual labor, since the money he receives from the state does not come up with.

I have to pay for my electricity, water, shit... Three kids at school. A little help [neighbs] from the diaspora when they arrive, 5 euros, 10 euros... Whoever gives it to me, I'm taking it all home”, the N.P. said.

There are about 20 popular cuisines in Kosovo. On February 13th, the Kosovo government allocated 1.2m euros for them.

“Popular cuisines, in addition to offering shots to the most needy, are also a symbol of our common humanity and evidence of community power to positively influence the lives of those who most need”, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said on the day of the distribution of funds.

The Kosovo government has supported popular cuisine in the past two years. During this period, it claims, they have distributed over 300 thousand shots to needy citizens.

In order to facilitate the confronting of inflation, the Government, over the past year, has several times shared additions to different social categories. Advertisement

The Need for Employment Planning

But, University of Pristina social science professor Behxhet Ghaxhiqi says a greater institutional commitment is needed to employ those who receive social assistance.

Kosovo's “Agency for Employment must make policy drafting and make extensions to regional levels. Consider employment approach, especially in the private sector, and through employment in the private sector, to be affected by the reduction of the category receiving social assistance”, Ghaxhiqi said.

According to the Kosovo Statistics Agency, the unemployment rate in the country is more than 20 per cent.

Lately, the Government of Kosovo set up a platform called “uperpuna”, which is primarily aimed at youth employment.

Within this platform, the government subsidies the employer by paying the worker's salary for six months, worth 264 euros. But, according to economic experts, this is not a long-term solution. Advertisement

The latest data from Kosovo's Statistics Agency for the labour market, published in 2021, estimate that over 1.2 million citizens are in working age. Of them, more than 380 thousand work, over 100,000 are registered as unemployed, while 740 thousand are economically inactive, which means they are not employed, are not registered as unemployed or as job seekers.

The latest poverty data in Kosovo was published six years ago. These data compiled by Kosovo's Statistics Agency and the World Bank have revealed that the poverty rate in Kosovo is 18 percent, while extreme poverty 5.1 percent. / REL