SOS Children in Albania
Albania is one of the poorest countries in Europe with an average daily income of about £3.00, compared to £46.60 in the UK. Following the collapse of communism, conditions improved slightly as economic and diplomatic ties with the rest of the world were restored. Yet the services widely available under communism have deteriorated badly. One-third of children under five have no access to pre-school. Rates of infant and maternal mortality are high and many essential primary health care services are in need of investment.
Children in Albania face risks from many directions in particular child trafficking. Various estimates place the total number of trafficked children at 5,000 to 15,000, most of them ending up in Italy or Greece, or even Western Europe. During the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, nearly 500,000 ethnic Albanians fled from Kosovo to Albania, putting great strain on Albania's already fragile economy and limited resources.
SOS Children began its work in Albania in 1995 in Sauk, a small village about 2 miles south of the capital, Tirana, when the first families moved into the thirteen family houses. The Children’s Village is home to 125 children and is situated next to a beautiful park and a lake. There are also SOS Youth Homes in central Tirana for the older children, where they live together and have the opportunity to manage their own time, budgets and school work.
Alongside the Village and Youth Homes are an SOS Nursery School and another school for 350 primary and secondary pupils which is open to children in the neighbourhood as well as children from the village. Hot meals are provided daily in the dining hall.
In 2000, SOS Children helped establish Albania’s first ever children’s library in Tirana. As well as a wide range of books, it offers leisure activities such as pottery, painting and computer technology, with the aim of giving children an alternative to being on the streets.
We also run two SOS Family Strengthening Programmes (FSPs) in Tirana. Through these programmes, disadvantaged families whose children are at risk of being abandoned are supported, and the children are provided with the education, healthcare and food they need. The programme also equips parents with vocational skills so they can obtain steady employment, which lessens the risk of child abandonment.
At present we support over 850 people in Albania through one SOS Children's Village, one SOS Youth Home, one SOS Nursery School, one SOS School and two SOS Family Strengthening Programmes.
For more information about the work we do in Albania see our page on Albanian Orphans.
13-year-old Yllka from SOS Children's Village Tirana has written about her SOS mother: "A mother is someone who loves you unconditionally. She takes care of you from the first moment you come in to this world. Many children are happy because they have a mother. While many others do not have one. I am one of those children. I came to the SOS Children's Village because I didn't have a mother. Here I found one, I have my SOS mother. I love and cherish her. She cares that I'm well, healthy and happy. She makes sure I have what I need and grow up to be strong and independent. I love my SOS mother.
Local Contact
SOS Fshati i Femijeve Shquiperi, PO Box 1524, Sauk-Tirana, Albania
tel +355 4 378 517
e-mail danielborakaj@soskd.org.al
Sponsor a child in Albania or learn about child sponsorship
Next Country: Algeria