This is a true story of living and learning - being confused and comforted - with the excluded Ashkali people of Kosovo; an account of what happens when you find your community but it's a long way from home.

Hatemja, a rubbish-picker's wife, lives in the poorest community in the poorest country in Europe. When Elizabeth Gowing is befriended by her, the women learn with, from and about one another. How can you find the best rubbish pastures for scavenging? How can you free children to go to school rather than to go out begging?

Can mayonnaise deal with headlice? How would Facebook help evacuate a family from a rat-infested hovel? How do you make baklava? And through it all, how do you maintain a precious friendship that's helped you find out the best you can be?

Elizabeth is an experienced public speaker - over the last few years she has given over 300 lectures and talks in schools (as a guest in classrooms, at assemblies, or as the motivational speaker for prize giving) and universities,  on Excess Baggage, Saturday Live and 'From Our Own Correspondent' on BBC Radio 4,  ABC Radio in Australia and many more. She is also an accomplished writer with several titles to her name including "The Rubbish Pickers Wife" which is the material for today talk.

​Join us to hear about this remarkable story.

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