On Wednesday 21^st of March, in the Municipal Hall of Rahovec/Orahovac Municipality, a ceremony was organized for announcing the winners of the competition which was opened to all municipal schools in early February this year. This event was organized jointly by UN-Habitat's Municipal Spatial Planning Support Programme funded by the Swedish government and by the Municipality of Rahovec/Orahovac. Present in this event was the Mayor of Rahovec/Orahovac Mr. Smajl Latifi, representatives of the Directorate of Urbanism and Education, representatives from UN-Habitat's MuSPP from Rahovec and Prishtina, and the schools' representatives.

The event started with the welcoming remarks of the Mayor, Mr. Latifi, who expressed his gratitude towards the MuSP Programme, for the professional support given to the document of the MDP which is now on its finalization stage. The document has been drafted by an outsourced company, and MuSPP staff has given comments which added value to this document. MuSPP representative, Mrs. Catarina Camarinhas, described the whole process and the concept of sustainable schoolyards, as well as the role of the MuSPP programme in this competition and the general professional support given to the municipality of Rahovec.

There were 17 applications received and two schools were announced as winners, one from the city center of Rahovec/Orahovac, secondary school "Xhelal Hajda-Toni", and the other one from one of the biggest villages of Rahovec "Hamez Thaçi" in Xerxe. All elementary and all high schools in the Municipality of Rahovec/Orhovac were eligible to apply to this competition, which in total are 29.

The structure of the school "Xhelal Hajda-Toni" is very suitable to accommodate summer classes as one of the innovations in the concept paper. The project proposed an amphitheater for open classrooms, sports fields and a park which would be open for pupils and community. The project also proposed public lighting, an open cinema and a parking area for cars and bicycles.

"Hamez Thaçi" school in Xerxe has considerable space in its schoolyard, and its concept paper has been prepared very well. The consultation process on the preparation of the concept paper was very transparent and it involved different stakeholders such as: as pupils, teachers and community members.

The project proposed to organize different spaces for different age groups, a greenhouse, an amphitheater, sports fields and a fountain, and also proposed to organize environmental education activities.

The improvement of schoolyards has been selected as a priority identified by the municipality through the municipal participatory planning process. A first workshop to explore the concept of sustainable schoolyards in Rahovec/Orahovac and how it would adhere to local development goals was held in December 2012. The workshop was jointly organized by the municipality of Rahovec/Orahovac, Directorate of Urbanism, together with UN-Habitat's MuSPP.