Elementor #804

The Kosovo Mountain Search and Rescue Service, since its establishment, operates within the framework of the head organization of mountaineers and alpinists of Kosovo and is a humanitarian, professional, non-profit service, with the aim of helping and rescuing people in the mountains and other difficult-to-reach places. Early period and individual initiatives In the period before 1952-1953, search and rescue operations in the mountains and coming to the aid of residents of remote villages in cases of disaster were carried out mainly by individuals or small groups of mountaineers and volunteers, who had basic knowledge in mountaineering and/or in providing first aid. Formation of the first organizations Before the Liberation War (1998-1999) within the main organization of mountaineers and alpinists of Kosovo, the Mountaineering and Skiing League of Kosovo - LBSK (after the independence of the skiers it adapted the name to the Mountaineering League of Kosovo LBK), the Mountain Search and Rescue Service of Kosovo also operated. Since the beginning of the 1950s, Kosovo mountaineers have been engaged in providing assistance in the mountains, both to mountaineers in need and to residents in cases of natural disasters. The first interventions of LBSK members and the first attempts to create mountain search and rescue date back to 1952, when the initiative council for the creation of mountain search and rescue was formed within the framework of the "Gjeravica" Mountaineering and Skiing Association. Therefore, this year is also considered the year of the establishment of the Kosovo Mountain Search and Rescue Service. In 1953, four mountaineers of the "Gjeravica" Mountain Rescue Service completed the mountain search and rescue course in the Julian Alps, which was organized by the Slovenian Mountain Search and Rescue Service. That same year, in 1953, the "Gjeravica" Mountain Search and Rescue Section was established, the first in Kosovo, consisting of a total of four rescuers. In 1956, the number of rescuers of the "Gjeravica" Mountain Rescue Service increased to a total of 10 rescuers. While by the end of the 1960s, their number continued to grow to 39 rescuers qualified in local courses and seminars, within Kosovo and the former Yugoslavia. The first trainings of Kosovo mountaineers in the field of mountain search and rescue were held in Bjeshkët e Nemuna in 1954. Later, in 1956, the Mountain Search and Rescue Station was established in Peja, as part of the Mountain Search and Rescue Section at the "Gjeravica" Mountain Rescue Service. This station included a network of reporting points in the field, in Bjeshkët e Nemuna (in the mountain houses of Bjelluhë, Plloçicë, Kuçishtë and Bogë; in Kozhnjer, Istog, Radafc, Deçan, etc.). The station in Peja was the first in Kosovo and at the same time in the then Republic of Serbia.