“Recycling Gracica has a message for Trump: “You're a good man, help Kosovo”

Gashi's Fushe-Kosovo recycling business was transformed when it received equipment from the US international aid agency (USAID) two years ago, prompting it to draw up plans to employ more workers, Reuters reports, broadcast Klankosova.tv.

But Gashi is now concerned. More than a third of the promised equipment worth $130,000 has yet to arrive. And now President Donald Trump's administration has frozen USAID funds and sought to drastically reduce the aid agency and all US foreign aid under its “America First<x> (First America).

Last week, in a video statement to the press, Trump cited the donation of recycling in Kosovo as an example of the kind of government spending it wants to cut.

“We expect other machines to arrive and we plan to increase the workforce from five to 20 but everything is uncertain now”, Gashi said as he threw plastic parts into a U miller AID with a poster writing “Recycling matters”.

The United States has been one of Kosovo's biggest supporters since the small Balkan country's sea-free exit broke out of Serbia, providing $1.1 billion in assistance since 2001, according to US government figures.

Pristina-based Menk-antaku GAP said UAID was currently managing 17 projects worth more than $156m, but it is not clear how many of these are actually available.

Kosovo is one of the poorest countries in Europe and remains in desperate need of help, politicians and residents say.

The country has been damaged by continued ethnic tensions between the Albanian majority and the Serb minority in the north. “Reuters” found that more than a dozen aid projects worth at least 150m euros have been cancelled by the European Union as a result of Kosovo authorities' role in the dispute.

“People will not die due to USAID's frozen funds”, said Burim Ejupi from the Pristina-based Index. “Anyway..., every dollar or euro taken is important for a country that needs too much to”.

Funds are at stake that have been created to strengthen Kosovo's democratic institutions, accelerate the transition from high pollution coal to renewable energy and protect marginalised groups.

Those who have received the funds say it has a change for them and their community.

Another recycling player, Qazim Grazica, 38, controls trash bins daily through Pristina in search of plastic. USAID provided him with a small tractor and a plastic press. The aid has increased its income from five euros a day to 20 euros a day.

Before the help of the Americans, there were times when 10 other family members slept without dinner. We had nothing to eat”, Grazica said in his plastic-torn workshop ready to sell.

I will tell Trump, you are a good man, you must help people, especially those in Kosovo”