Together for a cleaner environment

On the 15th of April ADRA Reflect team organised a cleaning action together with the Roma children that attend ADRA centre. The propose was to clean the environment around the centre and the neighbourhood were the Roma community lives. 

Every child, who was present this day got a paper on his belly where was written “Duam Qytetin te paster”, which means “we want a clean environment”. With gloves and rubbish bags the children went into the street collecting as much rubbish as they could.

During this action the children were very proud of what they were doing and we could see in their eyes their happiness. In the way to the Roma community two Roma children became part of our group; they wanted to contribute in this action. 

Florena a non Roma girl, who is attending regularly ADRA Albania centre, was walking hand in hand with another Roma girl picking up the rubbish from the street. 

The children were not able to clean the whole street from the rubbish but after all that was not our aim. The purpose of the project was to raise the children´s awareness for their own environment and also to impart the importance and the beauty of a clean nature. 

At the end of the cleaning action we put all the full garbage bags into the container. 

It seems like the children really wrote the message of our initiative into their heart and would like to impart the idea of “loving a clean environment”.

Celebrating Roma Day

For the first time ADRA Albania had organized an event in occasion of “International Roma week“ and “ International Day of Health“ at the George Bush square in Fushë-Kruja.

This event was not only organized to celebrate the International Roma day but also to raise the awareness of Fushë-Kruja citizens toward Roma discrimination in everyday life and to inform them about the heritage and culture of the Roma community.

The event was realized through a close collaboration with Fushë-Kruja municipality, the Regional Directorate of Public Health Kruje, Red Cross and Albanian Community Association.

The citizens were closely acquainted with traditional Roma clothes which were presented by the Roma women at this event. Furthermore the Roma women that attend REFLECT project conveyed an atmosphere of celebration according to their culture and danced traditional Roma music.

A citizen of Fushë-Kruja who was present in the event said: “Today for the first time I noticed that the Roma have a beautiful and unique culture and I hope that this day becomes a tradition for the Fushë-Kruja town”.

Related to its regional project “Love Your Heart”, which is funded by the IPA Adriatic Cross Border Program, ADRA Albania gave some medical advises for a healthy lifestyle.

Some Roma citizens also followed the Red Cross motto “Donate blood, save a life” and they felt really happy that their gesture could save the life of another person.

The event was concluded by a peaceful march from the centre of Fushë-Kruja till to the Roma community, in which participated Roma and non Roma citizens. 

ADRA organized a meeting with the Roma parents and the teachers of the public school

After the Roma children of Fushe Kruja overcame the Hepatitis A infection in the end of January 2014, they were able to attend the school again. Still many  Rom children did not  attend the public school regularly during the last weeks. This has acquired because of a misunderstanding between the parents of the Roma children and the teachers. In order to solve this issue, ADRA Albania  has organised a meeting with the Roma parents and the teachers of the public school on February 2014.

In this meeting, we had the participation of eight Roma women. In the beginning the Roma women were very shy because of their low self-esteem and they are not used to share and protect their own point of view in public. Yet before the meeting ADRA staff was talking to the women and  ADRA team explained to them the importance of being present at the meeting and to clarify the problems with the staff of the public school.

The Roma women had the feeling that their children are treated in a different way by the teachers of the public school then the Albanian children. Also they shared with the staff that there were some problems with the transportation of the children from the Roma community to the public school.

ADRA staff were presented during the whole meeting and act as a facilitator between the Roma parents and the teachers of the public school.

During the discussion the deputy director of the public school took Fatime, a Roma children who is attending the public school, in front of the class and compliment her for attending the school. She said:“ Even if Fatime is living in poverty, she is attending the  regularly the school.“ Her mother who was present at the meeting was very proud of her daughter.

In the end, most of the Roma women attending this meeting considered this kind of activities very important as they understood that it was not the faulted of the teachers that their children do not learn in school but it was their fault as they neglect them in daily life.