When a 15-year-old Kosovo girl wrote on Facebook that she wanted to decorate shop windows to raise cash to help her single mother, retail outlets in the cities of Gjakova/Djakovica and Pristina responded enthusiastically.
Shop windows in Gjakova/Djakovica and Kosovo’s capital Pristina are more festive than usual this year after business owners responded to a Facebook post from 15-year-old Renea Morina saying she would paint window decorations to help out with her family’s living costs.
“I live with my mum, who is a single mum, and I expressed the desire to paint, for symbolic fees, to help with expenses,” Morina, a violin student at the Prenk Jakova high school in Gjakova/Djakovica, wrote on a local Facebook page.
Renea Morina painting a Christmas tree at the window of a business. Photo: Courtesy of Renea Morina
After the post was shared by the satirical Kosovo-based Facebook page Cool n Fresh Magazine and then went viral, Morina was hired to paint the windows of businesses in Pristina as well as Gjakova/Djakovica.
In many city streets, Morina’s window decorations are some of the only joyful sights.
Renea Morina’s decorations at the windows of a business. Photo: Courtesy of Renea Morina
“I started painting when I was two years old,” Morina told BIRN, adding that she “inherited the talent from my mother”.
But she is not only a painter and professional violinist of the future, but also a writer, mainly of poetry. She explained that she enjoys writing poetry and painting “to express my feelings, because I am not that good at talking about them”.
Renea Morina’s decorations at the windows of a business. Photo: Courtesy of Renea Morina
Renea Morina’s decorations at the windows of a business. Photo: Courtesy of Renea Morina