A large number of citizens of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities have not been immunized against COVID-19, due to misinformation about the vaccine. This was said in today's training, where about 20 school teachers in Prizren were trained on media education.

Misinformation, disinformation and malicious information were the topic of today's training in the framework of the project "Media education for teachers of students from the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities".

For 17 years now, Linda Biçaku, who is a teacher in the fifth grade of the "Mati Logoreci" primary school, teaches many children from the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities.

The teacher from Prizren says that besides other challenges, these students are being attacked with a lot of information.

"Since 2006, half of students in my class are from the Roma, Ashkali, Egyptian communities. I am very satisfied. I have also had challenges, but with this training that we are having today, I believe that students will understand better about the media, also about news and disinformation... It is important for me because I believe that with this, the students will have a good understanding of the media. Since everyone has phones in their homes and I believe that it will have an effect", she says.

Urma Menekshe is a Romani language teacher in four schools in Prizren. She belongs to the Roma community and says that it is important to provide accurate and verified information to students and parents.

"The importance is very great to be involved in this type of training because we are in a time when we are receiving incorrect information, due to propaganda on social networks... We as teachers, but also the students who are connected to social networks, as well as to televisions and radios, who are being misinformed and do not have the right information on a certain topic... We should also be more aware of this type of training and to focus more on distributing correct information to the students and parents” Menekshe emphasizes.

The tendency to spread fake news has existed historically in the human era, says history teacher, Albilon Gallapeni.

"History also deals with communities, but in the contemporary times we live in today, this topic is very spread out, especially in fake news. Therefore, it would have been good if there were future activities in this area that would protect communities from these news or misinformation due to technological development", says the history teacher.

The director of the non-governmental organization YCLC (Young Community Leaders Center), Gazmend Qyqalla, states that many members of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities have not been vaccinated because of fake information.

"Seeing that 'fake news' has spread a lot at this time even in communities, these contribute immensely so that communities are informed about 'fake news' and about media education, which is important because media is a means that is being used immensely by children and adults... During the pandemic we have seen that there was a lot of 'fake news' about the vaccine and about the pandemic. Thus, some communities have not been vaccinated because of these 'fake news', and have damaged their health", he says for KosovaPress.

With the financial support of the American Embassy in Prishtina, KosovaPress News Agency together with the non-governmental organization "Young Community Leaders Center" (YCLC), within the project "Media education for teachers, students and young people of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities", is organizing these trainings within the seven-month project, which aims to raise the awareness of the communities against disinformation, as well as to strengthen the role of civil society activists of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities.

The activities of the project "Media education for teachers, students and young people of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities” are divided into two phases. The first phase focuses on primary school teachers from grades six to nine and the second phase of project activities focuses on professors and secondary school students from grades ten to twelve.

Today's training is the third in a row after the one in Fushe Kosova and Mitrovica, which will continue to be held in the city of Gjakova.

The project "Media education for teachers, students, and civil society activists of the Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities” is supported by the United States Embassy in Prishtina.