Health and environmental week in Fushe-Kruja: Raising awareness for health and environmental protection

From 19 to 22 of May 2014, ADRA education team in collaboration with ADRA health team organised a health and environmental week for the Roma women and children in Fushe-Kruja.

Our main focus this week were the young Roma girls and women because they play a key role in the future on their children education.  The topics that ADRA team discussed were malnutrition, healthy food, prevention of diseases and environmental protection.

As you already know, the Roma people in Albania and also in Fushe-Kruja are struggling with many issues and problems in their daily life. The main challenges are poverty, racism and the lack of education. The low level of education also leads to bad nutrition, problems in prevention of different diseases and environmental pollution.

The aim of this week was not only to raise awareness of the Roma for health issues but also to reflect on environment issues. Therefore ADRA education and health team had prepared many materials and activities to make the problems more visible to participants. In the same time our aim was to find solutions together to these issues.

On Monday, ADRA health team was discussing with the Roma women and girls about malnutrition. To distinguish healthy food from non-healthy food, ADRA health team showed the Roma women how much packages of sugar are in a can of coca cola or energy drinks and how much sugar normally you should consume during one day. ADRA health team also used a picture of the human body to explain the digestion process and how too much sugar and fat harm our body and our organs. In the end of this activity, ADRA health team gave examples for healthy food and what we should eat in our daily life in order to take care of our body.

On Wednesday, our focus was to talk about the problems of environmental pollution but also about environmental protection. Therefore, we showed the Roma women different pictures of a clean environment but also pictures of a polluted and dirty environment. All Roma women agreed that they preferred the clean environment and that they want to see their children growing up in a peaceful, clean and natural environment.

To demonstrate the problem of environmental pollution and their relation with our health, we made an activity with the Roma women where we pointed out how plastic garbage will find the way back from the rivers on our plate and how dangerous this is for our organism. We showed to them the risks and consequences of polluted water and food.

The Roma women were very concerned about this information and also about the fact that they and their families are living in a very polluted environment.

In the end, we showed them some possible ways how they can prevent and decrease environmental pollution. For example, ADRA team raised awareness that they should use as less plastic bags as possible and that they should use a bin. Lubjana, one of the Roma women of the Roma Community in Fushe-Kruja said: “We want to live in a clean environment but nobody of us has a bin at home and the big trash bin in the street is every time full with garbage because the municipality does not empty it regularly.“

We explained the Roma women how they can easy use plastic bags from the shops as trash bags and that they should no throw their garbage into the river and into the street.

We completed the environmental day with a cleaning activity of the Roma community in Fushe-Kruja, were the Roma children as well as the Roma women participated. This day everybody was active to make our environment in Fushe-Kruja a little bit cleaner, more beautiful and to set an example for a better and healthier tomorrow.

Raising awareness among the children about the disasters in Bosnia

In this week the Roma children that attend the REFLECT project where they were informed about the situation that the children from Bosnia are facing from the devastating floods. To raise awareness about this situation, the children of the REFLECT project with help of ADRA staff prepared a banner where they wrote an encouraging message where every child wrote one letter of the message and in the end , the children wrote the following phrase “WE ARE WITH YOU”.  In form of support in the end, all the children put their hands in this banner.  This was a remarkable activity as it helps to see how children were supporting other children despite they are living in another country.  Please have a look at our activity. 

Global Week of Education

Today, on 7 May 2014, the Roma children that attend REFLECT project have participated in the activity organized by the Albanian Coalition for Child Education. This activity took place in “Parku Rinia” (Tirana) where children from different schools and communities were invited. This activity was organized in the frame of Global Week of Education, from 4^th to 10^th of May 2014.  ADRA Albania was represented in this initiate by 12 Roma children of different ages from the city of Fushë -Kruja.

During the program, every child had his/her own white sheet and colours where he/she could express freely their idea about the following topic “Equal Rights for Every Child”. Many of the Roma children (Mandi Dajlani, Adelina Gatali, Santiana Gatali, Orgito Rakipi, Alesio Dajlani) painted a home because for them home is the place where the children can find peace.

Every painting produced by the children of this activity was added to a big poster which will be sent to the Ministry of Education and Sport.  

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.