On March 4, 2010 with funding from the Kosovo Minority Media Fund, the Kosova Association of Blind and Partially Sighted launched the magazine, Syri Ynë (Our Eyes), the first ever Albanian language news magazine in Braille.
In 2008, the Kosovo Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) established the Minority Media Fund (MMF) to ensure that minority media throughout Kosovo would have access to support funds. Because their audiences are relatively small and advertisers are not generally enthusiastic about buying airtime or space for outlets that have such small coverage, the minority companies have a difficult time achieving self-sustainability.
Fifty-three organizations applied for funding from the Minority Media Fund (MMF) and of the 15 that were accepted, one of the awards went to the Kosova Association of Blind and Partially Sighted to create Syri Ynë. The magazine, which comes out every two months and is distributed free of charge, contains stories about visually impaired people and their lives in Kosovo, short essays, poems, and news. Syri Ynë even comes with a CD that narrates the magazine for those who cannot read Braille. The association has distributed close to 200 copies to visually impaired people in both Kosovo and Albania since the magazine’s launch.
IREX staff assisted the Kosova Association of Blind and Partially Sighted with its application paperwork and advocated for it before the MMF council.
The MMF’s purpose is to support “media of minorities, multi-ethnic and other special groups“ (article 1 of the Regulation on the Minority Media Fund, 2008). Staff from the IREX administered Strengthening Independent Minority Media program in Kosovo assisted the OPM with drafting the regulation on the MMF and preparing project application criteria documents. The Strengthening Independent Minority Media [5]program is a US Agency for International Development-funded program providing assistance to minority language media in Kosovo.