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. 

News from Fushe Kruja - the health situation has improved

Two weeks are passed since the Roma Community in Fushe Kruja has been affected by Hepatitis A. Ten children had to be hospitalized and treated for some days at the local public hospital in Kruja. In the last two weeks, the children of the Roma community could not attend the public school because the risk of infection was too high. But after conducting the medical test and receiving the confirmation from the doctors that the risk of infection was eliminated, it is very important that the children continue going to school. Therefore, on Monday, the 27^th of January ADRA staff went to Fushe Kruja to visit the Roma Community. ADRA staff of the Reflect project spoke with the parents to convince them to sending their children to school. In the same time, ADRA staff also visited the public school, and spoke and informed the teachers, that the children of the Roma community will continue to attend the school in the upcoming days and that there is no risk of infection anymore. During the lessons with the Roma women at ADRA centre, a team of journalists from the Albanian public television (TVSH) came to make a short report of the health situation of the Roma Community in Fushe Kruja. Rezarta Prence, a member of ADRA staff and social worker of the Reflect Project gave an interview to TVSH in which she described the actual health situation and also the work of ADRA Albania in Fushe Kruja.

Emergency situation in the Roma community of Fushë- Kruja

Since the last days the Roma community in Fushë-Kruja has been affected by an unexpected disease. Some children have been infected with Hepatitis A. The people of the Roma Community use the water from the polluted river which crosses Fushë-Kruja, as well this river serves as garbage dump. Probably the bad hygienic circumstances and the consumption of this water are the reasons for the infection. Currently 10 Roma children are at the public hospital in Kruja, the others are sick but their parents are not sending them at the hospital.

After being informed about this emergency situation, the ADRA Reflect team has visited the community in order to raise awareness about the importance of not consuming the polluted water from the river.  Until now, the Roma community in Fushë Kruja has refused to pay and consume the water from the tab because they don’t want to pay their water bill. After a lively discussion with the Roma community members on Monday, ADRA Reflect Team and the chief of the public water administration has convinced the majority of the Roma people to collect money in order to pay and to consume the tab water for now on.  In the end, the Roma community in Fushë Kruja is more aware about the risks and dangers of polluted water and importance of hygiene.

 

At the same time, due to the emergency situation created in this community, a team of doctors of the public health department visited the Community to take blood analyses of the children. The infection with Hepatitis A of many of the Roma children during these days will not allow them to attend the public school for the next three weeks. This is a big problem because the children are not able to make up the lessons by themselves and their parents cannot help them. ADRA Reflect Team tried to find a solution in cooperation with the public school. Soon ADRA Albania will conduct an awareness campaign in order re-explain the importance of vaccination.

A very different Independence Day!

On 27 November 2013, our REFLECT project organized a party at the ADRA Centre in Fushe-Kruja for the Roma-Community for women, children and teenage girls.

To start, they sang the National hymn of Albania and the children sang many other songs. Then came the highlight everybody had been waiting and preparing for:

The girls had prepared a fashion show with traditional Roma clothes!

A jury proclaimed the winners of the show: 
 Miss Smiley, Miss Elegance, Miss Photogenic, Miss Public and Miss Neighborhood.

After the show we enjoyed a party with juice, cookies and music.

  To celebrate independence day, there is no better way than to celebrate the independence of women!

November in the Roma community of Fushe Kruja

On 29^th of November ADRA staff paid a friendly visit to the Roma community of Fushe Kruja, just to have a chat and visit all the families that live there.

For two months we have been going almost every day to the community to talk with the parents about their children’s progress at school, health, work and many other topics related to the Reflect project. The work in the community has been very intense and all families have been very kind and open towards us. This is why, on 29^th of November, while everybody in Albania was celebrating the Independence Day, we decided to go and spend some hours in the community. 

Mira and Marsela are waiting for us at the ADRA center, and together we walk towards the community. We are pretty lucky today, even though it is very cold, there is an amazingly warm sun. As soon as we arrive at the entrance of the neighborhood, two girls, Kristina 6 and Sonja 7, come running towards us totally barefoot and only with one blouse on. When we ask them if they are cold they answer smiling “No teacher, we are not cold because we are working”. We continue our journey entering in the first house of one of our women, Nila (31). Nila has 4 children, the oldest one 13 years old. Nila is washing the clothes outside in her yard and stops a little while to talk with us. She is happy to see us because she wants to express how happy she is that her son, Orgito, is going to school regularly and doing his homework without anybody’s help. Orgito is one of the youngest pupils registered at the public school in the first grade and he is an example for the other children. We ask Nila if the water she is using is warm and she replies "Yes, the water is warm but only because I am lucky to have a stove and some pieces of wood."

After Nila’s house we stop at Kristina’s house. Kristina is a 12 year old girl that was obliged to get engaged to a young boy, Berti, aged 14. Kristina has decided to break the engagement after 4 months because she didn’t like her new family. As soon as she entered their house, which is situated in the same community, her future mother in law started to treat her badly and to make her work all day long. Kristina went away after four months and went back to her parents’ house. Kristina’s parents tell us that they feel very sad and embarrassed because their daughter’s reputation is ruined and they don’t know if any other Roma boy will choose her as a bride. In most of the Roma communities, also in Fushe Kruja, girls get married at a very young age, and if they don’t get married until they are 16, this represents a problem for the girl’s family.  We ask to see Kristina, and she comes out of the house, ashamed and keeping her eyes at the ground. We hug her, tell we miss her at the school and that it would be wonderful to start school  again after four months of absence. Her eyes look at her mother who has nothing to say but she accepts to let Kristina come to school again. 

We continue our walk in the community, meeting all the children who come out of their houses, smiling and asking us “Are you coming again tomorrow?”

We stop and play with them, spending time with each of them because they need to tell us about school and holidays. It is so amazing to see how the same timid children that two years ago couldn’t even say a word in Albanian have become so alive, speaking Albanian language, hugging and expressing so many feelings without any fear or shyness.
We stop at Suela’s house, one of our best students at the ADRA centre. Suela is 16 and she got engaged last week. After getting engaged, Suela’s new family decided not to let her attend our centre anymore; according to the Roma tradition, young brides should stay home and work as much as they can to earn the respect of the new family. Suela got engaged to a boy of her age who lives in the same community, so we have big hopes to work with her husband too and invite them both to attend ADRA’s activities.

We continue to visit many other houses asking families what their planes are for the winter but, as always, they tell us that their plans change whenever there is need for money. If they have to go and buy second hand clothes or shoes, they travel to Tirana, Durres, Shkoder or even Kosovo or Greece. Anyway, in general, at least during winter, women and children stay home, in the community.

In November we see how the community awakes and we are so happy to see women, men and children we haven’t seen for months, to re-open their houses and adapt themselves again to the community life.

A sunny day at the beach with our project participants

As our readers already know, Reflect project in Fushe Kruja started in October 2011 opening a centre for roma women and children where they could gather, discuss, learn and participate in many psycho- social games. During the first year of the project many roma men and boys came around and asked us “why don’t you open a program for us too?”; “women don’t understand a thing, we can learn faster”.

Roma women who came at the project and enjoyed the program started saying “you can open our eyes and sensitize us about our rights and possibilities, but how can we fight for our rights if our men don’t support us? They don’t understand the importance of women’s education so please do something so they can change their way of thinking and support us”.

ADRA staff felt responsible to continue its mission by reinforcing the project and prolong it for other three years with the financial support of ADRA Austria and Austrian Development Agency in Albania.

“Literacy and social skills for roma men, women and children in Fushe Kruja city” started in October 2012 involving not only women and children but also all roma men and boys who want to be part of the Reflect program: get together, discuss daily issues and possible solutions, create group cohesion, learn how to read and write by using practical tools and participate to many social activities. Since the project started roma young boys were enthusiast to start learning; we could feel their wish to be part of something bigger than their reality limited to the roma neighborhood at the peripheral area of Fushe Kruja city.

They finally had the chance to come out from the ghetto for another reason different from work. We have organized many activities and they enjoyed very much being in group and play with each other. Even though some of them are already married, fathers at 17- 18 years old, they like to play, have fun with each other and live their age because they haven’t had a normal adolescence.

Last activity that we organized was a beach day together with 15 boys from the roma community, our two facilitators Mira and Marsela and their teacher Redjan.

The boys prepared the lunch, collected 300 lek each (2.50 euro) and bought food for all of us. Marsela and Mira cooked with the help of two of the boys Visi and Bledi, so everything was ready. They cooked stuffed pepperoni, byrek, tomatos, olives and cheese. ADRA staff was invited to their prepared lunch so we brought only something to drink.

We met at Gjiri I Lalzit, a nice place where the sea is clean and there is a lot of space to play. The boys were so happy; they were dancing, singing while we were searching for a nice place where to put our umbrella.

 As soon as we settled, they took the ball and started playing football. This is their favorite game, even though they have some problems managing their emotions. They get easily angry, yell at each other like they are going to fight, show a little bit of violence, but at the end, they always finish the game in peace. This is so strange, but also interesting and admirable. They look after each other and feel part of a group even though they have conflicts and sometimes they instantly become violent.

They day at the beach is a great opportunity to talk a little bit about their daily life in summer season. Ibrahim, 18 years old, father of a 1 year old boy, tells us about his working experience in summer: “summer is a very hard working period because of the good weather. You know what we do? We create a group of 5 or more boys and we put 5000 lek each (35 euro), we got to the shoes factories which are located in Kruja and Lezha and we buy as much shoes as we can. There are two kinds of shoes, the good ones that cost 700 lek per pair (5 euro) and the bad ones which cost 300 lek (2.50 euro). They look like the original ones because they have famous logos on them, adidas, nike, so we don’t find it hard to sell them, especially at the beach. We go usually to Durres or Saranda, where there are a lot of tourists from Kosovo and Macedonia. Every morning I wake up at 6 o’clock and I get ready to go to Durres with a big bag full of shoes. I sell them for 15 euro or 20 euro each if I am lucky. I have to shout at the beach walking long kilometers until someone asks me about the shoes. I don’t want to bother people so I try to stay at the edge of the beach just shouting out loud the price of the shoes.

There are days that I am really lucky and I sell even 5 pairs of shoes, but in general I sell 2 pairs. After I have sold them, I stop and I don’t work for the rest of the day. I take a bath and then I come home. We spend 1.500 lek (13 euro) to buy food and the rest I put it aside so we have some money left. It is hard to save money as I am the only one working at home and I have to maintain my parents, my bride and my son. Anyway I don’t complain.”

After Ibrahim has told his story we also have to ask him what about his work during winter time, how does he earn his living during cold days? He smiles bitterly and says that winter is a difficult period of the year. He has to work by collecting metal scrub. I work by collecting different kinds of metals because if I find some good metals I can sell them and earn good money to feed my family. I travel around north of Albania, in the villages near Burrel, Dibra and go from house to house to ask if they have metals to sell or give away. Sometimes I find myself in these lost places where I have to sleep because I don’t have the money to go back home everyday. I also have to sleep outside the car because police doesn't let you sleep inside. So imagine how cold it is in December or January up in the mountain areas. The good side of this work is that once you have found a big amount of metal you can go and sell it earning a lot of money. The best metals to sell are: aluminum (which I can sell for 5 euro per kilo) and cooper (3 euro per kilo). The rest of the metals I collect are very cheap (30 cent per kilo) so, I always try to find the precious two.”

Ibrahim has a great sense of business, he knows how to buy and sell, he has self confidence and all he cares about is his family. He wants to come to REFLECT classes to learn how a budget functions and how he can improve his work by getting some practical tools.

We are touched by his story and by his will to improve his life and his way of working. Ibrahim is only 18 years old but he already has a clear objective and knows he has to work hard to realize it. He is a really good example for the other young boys who listen to him carefully, looking at him with astonishment and curiosity. Ibrahim will be with ADRA staff on September and we will have a long way together to assist him while he is finding his own way to improve his life.

The day at the beach continued with games, activities and discussions. After a long day under the sun, we found a shaded area and we had lunch.

Everything was delicious and very well cooked. The day finished with some roma songs and dances during our way back home.