News

From April  22^nd to  24^th, 2013 representatives of the Amalipe Center  participated in exchange/ study visit in  Albania on Project PAIRS "Sharing experiences, promoting inclusion."

PAIRS project aims to collect good examples of sectoral and local policies that have been used for the effective inclusion of Roma communities in eight countries and provides a platform for the international exchange of knowledge and experience to facilitate the integration of Roma minorities throughout the region.

The goal of the visit was the presentation and exchange of good practices about social inclusion of the local Roma population. During the three-day visit representatives of  Amalipe Center - Maria Ivanova and Zornitca Petrovska got familiar with best practices from several regions in Albania:

- I n Tirana (the capital of albania) visited were the organizations / practices UNDP Project, OSCE / ODIHR project - Good practices for the integration of Roma in the Balkans, UNICEF;

- In the city of Shkodra  a meeting was held with the project partners. Delivered were speeches  by the President of Malteser Albania - Mr. Lucian Augustine, Chairman of the Municipal Council, the Mayor of the city of Shkodra - Mr. Luke and others. They gave a detailed information about the number of the local Roma population, the problems that they face every day and the measures that are being taken by local authorities to improve the housing conditions and  education of Roma people who live in the city of Shkodra. Basically the Roma population in the region is not large, but the people are facing the same problems typical of the majority of Roma in Europe, such as unemployment, low education, poor housing conditions.  In the city of Shkodra we attended the so-called      Peace village – this village was established in the past in order to host migrants from Kosovo, families without shelter. Today  there we saw a kindergarten and school for Roma children in need. Information about the educational progress of the children who attend the school was presented.  We also visited the so-called ghetto, where Roma live in deplorable conditions, lack of buildings, water, electricity, and their main source of income is the collection and sale of metal. According to the local municipal representatives the problems that these people are facing come from the lack of address registration of residents in the ghetto.

 - City of Fushe-Kruje - we visited the local organization ADRA that had established a local community center where women, children and men are attending literacy lessons, they acquire various social competencies through attendance at lectures, tutorials and participate in the making of souvenirs. Representatives of ADRA stressed that recently they moved the community center out of the neighborhood which made the local women and children actually go out of the neighborhood and not be so segregated. Children from the neighborhood now attend normal school - not the segregated school and they  gradually adapt to the new environment. The people working in ADRA shared that there have been protests where the parents of non-Roma children in schools are protesting against the inclusion of Roma children, but representatives of ADRA  worked hard with both sides of the issue.

 

The third day of the exchange visit was back in the capital Tirana, where representatives of Amalipe Center visited:

 - Ministry but Labour and Social Policy ,(Partner on the PAIRS Project), representatives of the Ministry made a brief analysis of the main problems that Roma people face in the country such as registration of residence, housing, unemployment. They said that a change of the procedure for residence registration is being prepared , which will make the whole process simpler. They also shared that in Albania there is a Roma secretariat that prepares strategic documents on Roma inclusion. The Secretariat shall consist of 4 people, with a trend that body to be transformed into an agency. Shared was the experience of establishing the role of "Health mediator" and the aim for the future will be to increase the number of these mediators. As a problem for Roma Inclusion was outlined the lack of coordination between local authorities and central government about the problems of Roma in Albania.

- Visit to School "26 Nentori" - presentation was made by a teacher working in a multicultural environment about the work with Roma children and the participation of Roma trainers - training teachers to work with children in a multicultural environment.

- Visit of the NGO "Save the children", which works to protect children's rights. Areas of work of the center: 1. Educational Program-preparatory classes giving knowledge of the children and preparing them for the school system, adult literacy classes, social, sporting, recreational activities. Social program, counseling, home visits and evaluation of socio-economic status of the family work in some cases, information for parents on rights, obligations, registration of unregistered children in kindergartens and schools, as well as adults in a variety of courses care, escorting children to medical facilities.

The organization has cultural mediators who are working in the Roma community.