Escape from Kosovo - the Ahmetaj Family Story

3rd-5th Grade Learning Specialist, Nicole Taylor’s 3rd grade reading group were reading a book called Drita, My Homegirl, about a young girl who escapes from war-torn Kosovo and comes to America as a refugee. A long-serving member of Cathedral’s Operations Team, Nafija Ahmetaj happened to notice the story sitting on a desk and told Ms. Taylor—a close colleague for many years—that she had a very similar family story. Ms. Ahmetaj and members of her family also escaped Kosovo and migrated to America after many very difficult years. 

The reading group, along with Ms. Taylor, Ms. Gaus, Ms. Higgins, and Ms. Ahmetaj convened in the library Thursday to hear Ms. Ahmetaj’s story and the many parallels with the book. Ms. Ahmetaj related that, “From 1981 and until 1998, we as Albanians, were continuously oppressed by the ruling regime of the Republic of Serbia, and Slobodan Milosevic. Our son Mim might have been taken away from us and forced to serve in the military—as was done with many Albanian young men. We had to come up with a plan to have Mim relocated as far away as possible, and to be successful, it had to be done secretly!”

In April of 1998, Mim was able to escape the regime and come to the United States. The rest of the family were finally able to escape to various neighboring countries and eventually join Mim in the US where Ms. Ahmetaj and her husband began work at The Cathedral School. She has worked at the School ever since. “I could never leave Cathedral because I fell in love with the community and they are like a family to me. These students are like my family,” she told the reading group. What an amazing story and fantastic opportunity for these students to learn this history first-hand.