Besarta & Shkëlqimi

Besarta from Lipjan and Shkëlqim from Kumanovo are now happily married in Switzerland. dua.com brought together two Albanian hearts once separated by distance.

Besarta (34) is an accomplished woman from Lipjan. Educated and deeply rooted in Kosovo, she carefully built a career in marketing and politics.

Shkëlqim (34) is originally from Kumanovo but was raised and educated in Switzerland. He is a successful young entrepreneur with his own business and a settled professional life.

For Besarta, leaving behind the life she had built in Kosovo and starting again in Switzerland was not an easy prospect. Shkëlqim, meanwhile, doubted he would find someone willing to begin a new chapter for love. When dua.com brought them together, their connection proved stronger than distance and doubt.

They are happily married today, but Besarta never imagined that she would find love through a dating app.

“There was a real stigma around dating apps in our society. I assumed most people used them for something casual, like a one-night stand, rather than a serious relationship,” she says honestly.

Still, in March 2021, exactly one day before her 30th birthday, she decided to download dua.com.

She still remembers March 16, 2021 clearly. Just three or four days after joining dua.com, and one day before turning 30, she matched with Shkëlqim.

It was a reflective and difficult period in her life. After struggling with anxiety, Besarta felt increasingly alone. Turning 30 was not the problem; what weighed on her was the sense that someone was missing.

“I wanted someone who understood me and truly listened. Sometimes you can miss a person even before you have met or seen them.” Meeting Shkëlqim changed that feeling.

The distance between Kosovo and Switzerland was considerable, and the Covid-19 pandemic made travel even harder. As if to connect Albanian lands symbolically, fate chose Tirana as the place for their first meeting.

Besarta travelled from Kosovo to Tirana Airport to meet a man arriving from Switzerland whom she had never seen in person. Alone and full of emotion, one thought kept circling in her mind: “What if he does not come? What if I travel all the way to Tirana and he leaves me waiting at the airport?” Her instinct told her it would be all right. It was—he came.

“I took a taxi from Lipjan to Tirana Airport and waited for him there. We had never met in person. Only my mother, sister and brother knew about the meeting—not my father,” Besarta remembers.

She is especially close to her father, which made it even harder to tell him that she was travelling to meet a man from Switzerland she did not know. It is a hesitation many Albanian women recognise when speaking to their fathers about a possible life partner.

Besarta calls their connection “love at first voice.” Before they ever saw each other in person, they got to know one another through long conversations and the sound of each other’s voices.

After their first meeting, the conversation never stopped. For months, they spoke about their beliefs, their values and the future they hoped to build.

Later, Besarta visited Shkëlqim in Switzerland. She began to hear his voice not only over the phone, but in the rhythm of everyday life—in the kitchen, on walks and in the quiet moments between them.

“Once I had received my Covid vaccinations, I went to Switzerland for the first time and stayed with him for ten days. I saw his life up close and realised I could build a future there,” Besarta says.

They made their relationship official in August 2021, became engaged in August 2022 and married in August 2023. Their daughter was born in November 2024—the most beautiful expression of everything that grew from their first match.

Besarta is lively, energetic and expressive. Shkëlqim is calm, measured and gentle. “We found the balance we were both missing,” she says. For them, that is the beauty of real love: not being identical, but making each other whole.

Their story is more than a love story. It shows how, even in a dark season of loneliness, one small decision can bring a powerful light into your life.

For Besarta and Shkëlqim, dua.com was never just an app. It was a door that opened precisely when they needed it most.