Trime x Balkanism: Exploring Kosovo’s History, Culture & the Power of Memory

Earlier this year, our co-founders Leonarda Demolli and Lejla Dauti were honoured to take part in a powerful panel event hosted by Balkanism, founded by Arber Qerka-Gashi, titled:

“Exploring Kosovo’s History & Culture: An Evening of Representations”

This carefully curated event brought together an incredible panel featuring Flamur Krasniqi, Professor Aidan Hehir, and Trime’s co-founders, to reflect on the intersections of history, identity, and diaspora memory.

As two Albanian women who arrived in the UK as asylum seekers, Lejla and Leonarda spoke candidly about:

• The trauma of displacement and war

• The generational weight of memory

• What it means to carry Kosovo in your heart, while building a platform like Trime UK for women across the diaspora

• The responsibility of representation — not just in media, but in every room they enter

  
  

This wasn’t just a panel, it was a healing space. A rare evening where intellectual discourse met lived experience, and where truth was honoured without dilution.

The audience played a vital role in the experience, asking thoughtful, deeply resonant questions that challenged and moved everyone on stage.

We are deeply thankful to Balkanism and Arber Qerka-Gashi for creating such a meaningful space, and to Flamur Krasniqi and Aidan Hehir for the solidarity, honesty, and exchange of truth.

Trime is proud to represent Albanian women of the diaspora, women whose stories have too often been left out of conversations like this one.

And we will continue to speak.

Because silence was never our story.