The Anniversary of the Community Centre of Fushë-Kruja

On 28^th of October 2014, ADRA Albania had successfully celebrated the anniversary of the Community Centre of Fushë-Kruja. The ceremony was opened with a small show performed by the Roma children who also expressed their appreciation to the guests who could came on this day.

The ceremony continued with the speeches of Mrs. Beatrice C. Kastrati, ADRA Albania Country Director, who welcomed distinguished officials including Mrs. Enkeleda Lopari, Consulate of Vice Minister of Social Welfare and Youth, Mr. Met Delia, representative of Fushë-Kruja Municipality, Mrs. Majlinda Xhafa, Director of the Public school “Migjeni”, Mr. Skënder Veliu Leader of AMARODROM – Union of Roma in Albania (NGO) and Mr. Florenc Qosja from ADA-Austrian Development Cooperation.

During her speech Mrs. Kastrati mentioned the cooperation that ADRA had with other important stakeholders during these two years of projects’ implementation. Such stakeholders are UNDP, YWCA, ACA, UNCEF, Municipality, Education Department, and Institute of Public Health. During her speech she emphasized that this is the day of the Roma people thus the community will present itself with the products that have been prepared by the Roma women and children.

In her address Mrs. Enkeleda Lopari (Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth) expressed words of appreciation for the project that ADRA Albania is implementing by saying “I am happy that the Roma have the opportunity to access in these programs that will help them in the process of integration.” Mr. Delia from Fushë-Kruja Municipality estimated the collaboration with ADRA Albania as a story of success. Mrs. Majlinda Xhafa, Director of the Public school thanked ADRA Albania for the hard work made with the Roma parents in order to raise their awareness about the importance of education. In her speech she said that only with ADRA collaboration the Public school had achieved to register and integrate the Roma children in the formal education. Whereas, Mr. Florenc Qosja form ADA pointed out that REFLECT project sets a good example for the process of integration of the Roma in the mainstream society.

Before the closure of the ceremony Mrs. Kastrati assessed with certificates of gratitude all the project beneficiaries and invited the guests inside the community centre where were exposed some of the bests handicrafts and pictures made by the Roma women and children. 

 

Anniversary of the community center of Fushë-Kruja

  INVITATION

ADRA Albania (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) with the kind support of ADA (Austrian Development Agency), ADRA Austria and ADRA Germany, has the great pleasure to invite you to the anniversary of the Community Centre of Fushë-Kruja.

 On Tuesday, 28 October 2014,

Time: 09.00-14.00,

Street “Kastrioti”

Fushë-Krujë/Albania

Through “REFLECT – Literacy and Social Skills Training for Roma Women, Men and Children” project ADRA Albania has provided a space for the Roma community where participants learn about issues related to early marriages, health, nutrition, and education, social and economical problems. So far the project achieved:

1.    The integration of Roma children from the segregated school to the public one;

2.    Development of literacy, social and professional skills among the Roma parents;

3.    Decreased the number of early marriages;

4.    Roma boys and girls enrolled and registered in professional courses;

On 28 October 2014 you will have the opportunity to celebrate with us at the community centre. Different partners of the project and representatives of local and central institutions are also invited to take part in this event.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for any further information and to confirm your participation at either by e-mail through info@adra.al or by mobile phone 066 20 92 841.

Sincerely,

Beatrice C. Kastrati, Country Director

Wedding in the Roma Community

Gatali and Altini

Marriages are great and joyous events for the Roma, signifying the extension of a family. Marriages mark a change in the position of the couple by providing fully rights and obligations. For this reason they are accompanied with great celebrations.

In Roma culture children are used to get married in a young age. The appropriate age to get married in the Roma culture for girls is 9 to 12 and for the boys is 13 to 15 years old. Another Roma interesting fact is that the Roma girls are promised as brides since they are 4 or 5 years old, for a different amount of money. The legal minimum age for marriage in Albania is 16, but ADRA have noticed that the practice of school-age marriages remains common in the Roma community, and the authorities normally turn a blind eye.

Roma children in traditional Albanian costumes

ADRA Albania through “REFLECT’ project is working to raise the awareness of the Roma parents about the phenomenon of young marriages. It has been more than 3 years that ADRA is working with the Roma community in Fushe Kruja and now we can see a light of change. The Roma are more aware of the problems that bring young marriages for their children’s. A Roma a parent expresses in this way for this phenomenon “As a father I know what is good for my kids. There are some laws that have to be respected. We Roma have a tradition to marry our children when minors".

Through ADRA trainings about early marriages and pregnancies the Roma girls and parents are reacting about this issue. This is a great success that the “REFLECT” project has achieved. A story of success is the Roma weeding that was organized on 21th of September in the Roma community of Fushe Kruja. The bride and the groom are two beneficiaries of REFLECT project. Adelina Gatali is 17 years old and she has been attending “REFLECT’ project since its beginning. Even the groom Altini (18 years old) has been a regular attendee of this project.

They invited ADRA’s staff on this special day. All the Roma present in the wedding expressed their happiness that ADRA staff took part in this event because for them it was the first time that non Roma people were present to celebrate with them. The bride and the groom were the only ones that were not laughing and enjoying because according to Roma culture they have to give the perception of someone who have left the childhood behind and is matured.

ADRA staff with the bridal couple

The customs and rituals of the marriage vary from one Roma community to another. The special thing in this weeding was that all the Roma children wore traditional Albanian clothes, very unusual for the Roma culture.

Music was the most important part of the celebration. The Roma are talented to dance beautify under the music and for them music signify “Life”.

It was very impressive for ADRA staff to see personally this beautiful part of the Roma culture.

Uniting voluntarily the Roma boys to reconstruct their Community Centre in Fushe Kruja

For more than one year the roof of ADRA Community centre in Fushe Kruja has been damaged as a result it was impossible to proceed with a normal implementation of ADRA’ s projects.

This centre has an important role in the integration of Roma community as it creates a place where Roma and non Roma people can interact in social activities, trainings and meetings.

For the reconstruction of this building some Roma boys, regular beneficiaries of REFLECT project were asked to give their help. Volunteering work is important as it contributes to the process of community development; it’s why ADRA team involved these beneficiaries in this process.

Since the Roma boys are not professionals for the roof repair, ADRA negotiated with the municipality of Fushe Kruja in order to have their professional support to guide the boys.

On the 10^th of September 2014 these Roma boys and two specialists from the Municipality collaborated together for the reconstruction of the roof.

Through this action ADRA aims to develop the spirit of commitment and volunteering among the Roma boys which reflects the impact of “REFLECT” project. 

 

Two amamzing weeks of summer camp with the Roma children and girls from Fushe Kruja at ADRA’s compound

This year ADRA Albania in collaboration with the Volunteers from the Mission Trip decided to organize a summer camp in order to motivate and prepare the Roma children for the upcoming school year. This summer camp gave to the Roma children an opportunity to learn on their own terms and to normalize the school behavior while adressing all the deficits that had trubeled until now the children in school.  

Despite the academic topic ADRA staff decided that children learn and explore more about the country where they live in. Thus the topic of this summer camp was “Exploring Albania”.

In this summer camp were present 59 Roma children and girls and 2 non-Roma children from Fushe Kruja, 21 volunteers from United Kingdom, USA and Finland who provided a great deal of support to ADRA´s team and together they successfully implemented this summer camp. 

The goal of the summer camp was to invite, teach and entertain two separate groups of children and girls in two different weeks. The first group was composed by children and girls who have attended ADRA´s community Centre in Fushe Kruja and the second group was composed of children and girls who are attending and have dropped out from the public school. Beside the educational purpose of this camp, ADRA team organized different recreational activities for developing children’s and girl’s social and motor skills such as gym, social games, colouring and crafting activities, and visiting different places close to Tirana.

During the first week, the summer camp was attended by children aged 4-8 years old and girls aged 13-16 years old. They participated in different games and activities such as painting, drawing, playing football, singing, dancing, performing in role play etc. A family of artists from Germany visited the summer camp for two days. They explained and showed to the children how to paint beautiful pictures with acrylic colours on little wooden boards and how to create their own necklaces out of soapstone. The children had a lot of fun and were very creative. At the end, every child had a finished artwork which they proudly showed to their families once they were backing home. 

During the second week, children aged from 8 to 12 attended the summer camp. They also participated in various activities as the previous group. During their stay at ADRA’s compound, the children and girls learned to sing a song in English language titled “Head and shoulders, knees and toes“. The children were really excited at the end. 

This summer camp was concluded with small show that the Roma children and girls organized in collaboration with ADRA team in order to say “Thank you” to all the foreign volunteers who worked hard during these two weeks. In the opening three little Roma girls and one little non-Roma girl performed in a ballet show.  After the ballet performance, the grown up Roma girls danced some traditional Roma music. Afterward, two young Roma boys sang traditional Roma music. In the last part of this all the children danced together in a traditional Roma dance. This amazing show was applauded by the volunteers.

Happy and satisfied the children drove back to their Roma community where they shared their beautiful experiences with their families.

A beautiful day in the Kruja Mountain with the Roma boys

On the 4th of June ADRA education team organized an activity with the young Roma boys that are attending REFLECT project. Together we hiked for two hours the mountain of Kruja until we reached the top of it. The maximum altitude of Kruja Mountain is 1134 m but this altitude didn’t scare us at all. Our team and the young boys took this trip as challenge and began to compete with each other who will reach firstly the top. To encourage this race, our team started to use fanny sentences like “Hey boys I am the solder with a bottle” or “Go Losheee because we are in the end“. 

The time flew as we were involved in interesting conversations and we were having a lot of fun with each other. The path that we passed throw was very difficult but all our challenges were forgotten when we saw the beautiful view at the top of the mountain. From the top of this mountain we sow the whole city of Kruja and her beautiful nature. All the boys were very surprised from this beautiful view; they started to make questions about the sea, the lakes and the mountains that they could see. When we reach the top, we made a picnic with boy where we had fruit juices and sandwiches. 

While ADRA education team was a little bit exhausted, the Roma boys were still full of energy and started to play football. We visited a holy place and rested a little bit to enjoy the beautiful view from the top of the mountain.  After this visit, one of Roma boys named Mario started to sing some traditional Roma songs, he had a very beautiful voice.  While he was singing the other Roma boys clapped their hands and were dancing. Mario told us that he works as a singer in a live club.  

The Roma boys made a lot of fun and jokes and everybody of us noticed how much they enjoyed this day. Already in the age of 16 or 17 the Roma boys are married and they have children. At such young age, they have to struggle with these kinds of responsibilities and to struggle for a normal and decent life due to poverty and poor living conditions. For this reason, ADRA education team wanted to offer a special day to the young Roma men and boys; a day where they can just relax and enjoy the beautiful nature. 

In the end, the Roma boys took the van and went back in their community. All the boys enjoyed the trip to the mountain and it is really important for them that once in a while they can have a day off from their daily problems. In this day they can be and feel what they really are - CHILDREN

               

Celebrating "Festen e Abetares"with the Roma and Albanian children in Fushe Kruja

On the 28th of May 2014, the public school of Fushe-Kruja had organised a celebration event for the children of the first grade who have learned all the 36 letters of the Albanian alphabet. Six Roma children from the Roma Community of Fushe-Kruja and their parents were invited in this activity. Also ADRA education staff was presented during the event. The children had memorised and recited a poem about the alphabet and signed different songs and danced with each other. 

The Roma children performed a poem which they had learned at ADRA centre and also danced the traditional Roma music. The audience were really impressed and applauded and the Roma mothers were very proud of their children.

Unfortunately, the Roma children did not attend the public school regularly during the last year. The hepatitis A incident and the difficulties with the Roma mentality let them miss a lot of classes and so now they are not on the same educational level like the other students.

ADRA education team spoke with the Roma mothers about that and stressed the importance of a regular school attendance. All the Roma mothers agreed with that and understand that it is their responsibility that their children should go to school. Only in this way, they will have the possibility to have better future.

Traditional Roma dances

One Roma girl which attended ADRA centre last year and is now
attending the public school 

Also D. was attending ADRA centre and was yesterday celebrating
with the other Roma and Albanian children at the public school