Sidebar: His Family Plans Return to Kosovo, But This Teen Stays to Finish School
Episcopal News Service. November 18, 1999 [99-179A (sidebar)]
Jim De La
Flamur Statovci has seen more pain and trauma than most 18-year-olds. The day after NATO began its bombing campaign in Kosovo, armed Serbian soldiers entered his family's home in Pristina and forced them to leave. After five weeks in a refugee camp, they found themselves in America, living in an apartment in Clearwater, Florida.
The family was to return to Kosovo by the end of November. Flamur wants to stay -- but his reasons are anything but selfish, according to Carolyn Monroe, coordinator for Episcopal Migration Ministries in Southwest Florida. "He told me, 'If I go back now, I'll be a nobody,'" she said. Flamur told her he wants to finish high school and attend college in the U.S., so "'I can go back and help my people,'" she said.
Through his own tenacity and the generosity of a couple in the area, Flamur has gotten his wish.
Over the summer, Monroe accompanied him to nearby Pinellas Park High School to discuss enrolling. After completing necessary paperwork, but without his official transcripts, school officials were not encouraging, Monroe recalled. Even though Flamur is fluent in English and had completed his junior year of high school in Kosovo, school administrators were adamant he repeat the 11th grade.
Undaunted, Flamur later went to Clearwater High School by himself and asked to speak to administrators. By the time he left, he had convinced officials to enroll him as a senior, with the understanding that his parents will send his records to the U.S. after they return to Kosovo. He began classes this fall and is doing well -- his first-quarter report card shows As and Bs.
That left the teen with one problem. When his family returns to Kosovo, where would he live? "He told me he wouldn't need much...that he'll get a job while going to school," Monroe recalled. "He said, 'All I need is a place to stay, Miss Carolyn,'" she said.
After reading about Flamur in their diocesan newsmagazine, Susan and Bob Guise, who attend St. Anne of Grace Church in Seminole, Florida, decided to help.
Flamur's room in the Guises' Reddington Shores home is ready and waiting for him. "It's been a couple of years since we've done the teenage parenting thing," said Mrs. Guise, but "we're very excited. It's going to be a good experience.
"I feel real good about that fact he's as motivated as he is, and his grades seem to be awfully good for only five months in this county."
The Guises said their family as well as parishioners at St. Anne's are looking forward to including Flamur in their lives. "The Christian witness of living side by side may be of some good value, on a one-to-on basis," she said.