Oral history interview with Rina Ahmetaj

Interview: 32 minutes 37 seconds

Mother of two young children, Rina Ahmetaj is a Media Studies graduate. She was evacuated to Manchester from Kosovo in 1999. Rina was born in Pristina, the capital city of Kosovo. She was brought up in a small town in Kosovo and remembers a very happy and playful childhood. Rina’s family had to leave their home during the conflict in Kosovo: she describes the interruption to her education, a restriction of movement and a time when the family had to live in the mountains. They had to move from house to house for nearly a year and then were packed into a train and left the country for the Macedonian refugee camps. Rina remembers books being a great comfort to her as a child in the conflict. The family were evacuated to Manchester and Rina was pleased and grateful for a warm welcome in the UK. The family spent a year living in a school which had been turned into a refugee centre. Rina how looks after her young family and has recently set up a coffee shop in Manchester. She loves to read and write.

In this interview Rina talks about being a child during the Kosovar war and later being medically evacuated to UK. She describes her experiences on arrival in England.