Albania, a land of stark contrasts – pockmarks of poverty in every village
Any visitor to rural Albania will tell you Albania is a land of very stark contrasts. Those contrasts are very evident in rural villages, like the villages around Peshkopi in the Dibra area in the northeast are of the country, where World Vision works. In these villages you will see homes with families living seemingly normal lives but right next door will often be a pockmark of poverty where people are struggling to survive, fighting of starvation daily.
One of those pockmarks of poverty is just a 10 minute drive from the city center. There sits a house, bookended by “normal” homes, that appears that seems to be abandoned. But, it is not abandoned. Rita, 44, lives here with four of her six children (the two oldest, 19, 16, have left the house). They suffer every day from hunger, violence and exposure to the weather. The father supposedly lives with them, but is mostly absent.
Each day, their lives trudge down the same wearisome path. The children have forgotten how to laugh. They have never known anything close to the “life and all its fullness” that World Vision hopes for them. The only things you can see in their tired weary eyes are fear and unmet need.
At first glance, it is amazing that Rita has managed to keep herself and her children alive at all. She has raised her six children alone in abject poverty, surviving only on the approximately $100 per month she receives from the government. Somehow she also manages to compensate for the fact that she has only one kidney and is unable to work.
With this money, Rita feeds her children, pays the rent and buys clothes for the very cold Albanian winters. Last winter, Dibra villages were buried in snow. The effect of this unrelenting suffering has calloused her.
Her 5-year-old daughter, Anjeza, isn’t going to kindergarten because it costs $30 per year—a modest sum, but a price the family can’t afford. Instead, she stays home while other kids her age are learning.
Rita’s frustration and aggression towards her children is common, especially among families living in poverty in rural Albania. These same parents often have few parenting skills in general and are overwhelmed by the challenges and frustrations they face as they deal with hunger and struggle to survive on a daily basis.
According to studies conducted a coalition of organizations, Albanian parents too frequently believe children are property, not people, and that they do not need to be consulted or considered in decision-making. This mentality puts children in a continuous position of dependence and obedience which often leads to violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect.
Poverty often puts children in risky situations due to several factors such as: dysfunctional families, families with social problems (like substance addictions, alcohol), and families with health problems. Many families suffer from a combination of one or more of these factors. The members of the organization Together against Child Trafficking, claim that poor children are markedly more vulnerable and more exposed to the risks of being abused, raped, trafficked and neglected. Regardless of the fruit that the poverty produces, all parties believe that poverty is the root cause of all these problems.
Many of these “fruits” can be seen in the effects that the root of poverty has had on the Rita’s family. For years, Rita struggled with her husband’s addiction to alcohol. “He always has been a bad influence to my kids,” she explains. “Every day since were married, he never brought any money home. He wasted his life drinking, sleeping on the streets and beating my children every time he was drunk,” she says sadly.
Abuse and neglect left Rita with few options. Not long ago she officially accepted the role and responsibility as sole provider for her children and told her husband, who had historically been more of a burden than a help, not to come back.
After this incident, her son decided to immigrate to Greece to look for work and other opportunities. He is just 19 years old.
As if this wasn’t enough; one year later, her next eldest son, Fatit, then just17 years old followed in his brother’s footsteps, also ending up in jail. His crime: steeling metal bars from the yard next door to buy food.
In his well-known novel “Les Miserables”, Victor Hugo describes his hero’s struggle to find enough bread to survive. A act that also landed him in prison. The novel describes life in 19th century Paris, but the scenes and themes that run through the book still play out in the daily life in 2012 for many in Albania. The family is but one example.
Fatit is still in prison but his mother remains convinced of his innocence. He was one of the best students at school. His dream was to continue getting an education, now they have taken that dream away,” she says.
Rita’s economic and social conditions make it difficult for her to care for the four children she has left at home. Depression has overtaken her, making it hard for her to take care of the day-to-day needs of her daughters: Era, 12, Arlinda, 7, Anjeza, 5, and Veri,10, putting them at an even greater risk of abuse and being trafficked.
The family is caught in the vicious and unforgiving cycle of poverty. The children do not have anything close to a normal childhood. But, despite their desperate situation, they still have hopes and dreams.
“I love school,” says Era. “Especially math. My aim is to go to the high school… But, what I would love most to do is fly from every bad in my life, as this butterfly in front of me does…. I wish I was her and I [didn’t have to worry] about anything bad in my life,” she adds.
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Little Anjeza and Era are both sponsored children. Anjeza has received two letters from her Korean sponsor. Era has participated summer camps and attended health, education and awareness-raising activities that World Vision has organized at her school.
World Vision is working to help parents, like Rita, be more aware and better raise their children during. The organization held special training sessions during “Family Week”. The child protection program in Dibra ADP is also closely observing this case and is working out how to help children at risk of abuse.
Today, thanks to the awareness raising efforts of the ADP and the Child Protection Unit, Rita has a job. She works as cleaning women in the city of Peshkopi. And, World Vision staff are keeping a close eye on both Anjeza and Era (as well as their sisters).
Because of World Vision, Era been able to participate in different education and child protection activates led by World Vision. “She has started to smile and to raise her voice for the rights of children,” says Elsa, World Vision monitoring staff. “In one of the activities we had for children’s rights Era voiced among all [the] other [kids] that children have the right to dream and to have food and education! She is very interested to learn and have a social life. She often comes to our office [World Vision’s office] and asks us about what other activities we are going to organize,” Elsa ends.
“We have many children in such circumstances in [the] areas we work on our heart and aim is to reduce these problems as much as we can for these children and familiars have a better life,” say Anduela Kaba, World Vision’s Dibra’s acting manager. “We are working closely with the proper structures to empower them so they can help to recover these people situation to have a normal life.
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