Rising food prices bring hunger and despair to Albanian family

Despair, hopelessness, and hunger have obligated these parents to make extreme choices regarding their lives and that of their children.

The Sadiku’s live in Shelcan village, situated at about an hour’s drive from Elbasan town in central Albania.

We owe US$400 to the flour shop and another US$400 to the grocery store Their house sits at the foot of a hill and is prone to flooding and endangered by landslides when it rains. The entire family shares only two bedrooms with hard concrete floors, bare cold white walls, and three old unusable sofas, one bed and a wooden stove used during the freezing winter months.

Denisa, 11, who is also a World Vision sponsored child, shares a room with her mother Fatmira, 46, and her father Kadri, 47. Denisa’s brother Agim, 24, his wife Nexhmie, 20, and their 16-month-old son Amarildo share the other room.

The family of six lives on a meagre sum of 500 lek a month- the equivalent of US$6, which they receive from social assistance. Occasionally their son Agim is employed in construction for a few days but even that doesn’t pay much. The family has many debts that have worsened as prices have increased. Now they are no longer welcomed in any of the village stores.

“We owe US$400 to the flour shop and another US$400 to the grocery store. The list is as long as a sheet; no one is opening the door for us anymore,” says Fatmira.

Kadri has not worked for many years now, due to a childhood illness, which brings severe daily convulsions. They cause him to be unconscious for several hours at a time, preventing him from working and providing for his family.

As a result Kadri feels that he has failed his family and his children and it is not rare for him to contemplate suicide.

At least that way I won’t see how much they are suffering. I won’t see my daughter and my grandchild crawling around the house crying for food “At least that way I won’t see how much they are suffering. I won’t see my daughter and my grandchild crawling around the house crying for food,” says Kadri with his head lowered.

Fatmira together with her daughter Denisa and her daughter-in-law often travel into the mountains to collect medicinal plants. However, this is just seasonal work and takes a great deal of effort for very little gain. The plants are sold dry and Fatmira works seven days just to derive one kilogram.

“I never see the money that comes from the sale of the medicinal plants. I usually use it to pay the many debts we owe at the grocery store,” explains Fatmira.

Global food price rises have only exacerbated the family’s ongoing problems making their all too familiar poverty that much more unbearable.

According to the Albanian National Institute of Statistics and Sherif Bundo, a well-known economist in Albania, the high inflation of 4.6% and the 33% price rises will greatly affect all of the Albanian population, making the poor of Albania poorer and deepening the country’s poverty.

“I took my son to see the doctor the other day and the doctor said he was suffering from malnutrition and that I needed to feed him,” says Nexhmia, Fatmira’s daughter-in-law. “But I went to the store and rice is US$3 for one kilogram. I simply couldn’t afford it, so I walked out”, continues Nexhmia.

“Everything is ten times more expensive. Even the little things that we used to afford are no longer affordable”, adds Fatmira.

“One of the store owners came yesterday to ask for his money. I started crying because all we have is half a loaf of bread for the week. ‘Take my soul if you want’, I said. ‘I have nothing else to give,” laments Kadri.

Take my soul if you want...I have nothing else to give The house is sparsely furnished and what little they own is worth nothing. They don’t have cattle or sheep, their small plot of land lacks water and they cannot afford to buy fertilizers or the appropriate tools to work it.

“We planted potatoes, corn and some vegetables but they did not grow healthy because of the lack of water,” explains Kadri.

“I have been poor most of my life but I can never remember not having bread to eat,” adds Fatmira.

“Price rises are affecting Albanian communities and are limiting nutritional options and undermining coping mechanisms. However, World Vision Albania is focusing on empowering communities to be able to provide for themselves”, says Jason Evans, National Director of World Vision Albania.

He adds, “We are working on strengthening agricultural and economic development programming, which would allow communities to ride external crises such as this using their own capacity and resources”.

For this family, the future doesn’t look any brighter than the past. They have no hope and depression has taken over their lives.

“Poverty causes much quarrels and conflict among us. Sometimes we say things to each other that we do not mean,” says Nexhmia.

Poverty is not only affecting the quality of life of the Sadiku family but is also diminishing any hope for little Denisa’s future.

Like any child Denisa likes school, she enjoys literature and loves history. However, she enrolled in school very late and only attends sporadically. She also resigned herself to sharing the burden of taking care of her family.

“We hesitated to send her to school first, because we didn’t have the money to buy books and other school supplies needed,” recalls Fatmira. “Sometimes her teachers have paid for her books, other times people have given her used books for free; now World Vision is helping us with school supplies.”

“I know that she will end up like me working in the fields. To get a good job she needs an education and we are barely able to support her through elementary,” adds Fatmira.

“I want to be a kindergarten teacher, I like to care for younger kids”, says Denisa who has brighter dreams for her future despite her parents’ lack of faith.

“She comes home in tears many times and says she is ashamed to go to school Denisa is shy and doesn’t say much. The only person she feels she can confide in is her best friend. Unfortunately, Denisa only sees her when she occasionally goes to school. The rest of the time she spends alone, isolated in her world. She is ashamed to play with other children at school or even in the neighbourhood, because she doesn’t have all the things they have.

There are many times Denisa refuses to go to school because her friends buy things during break time and she cannot. She stays in the corner alone and hungry.

"She comes home in tears many times and says she is ashamed to go to school,” says Fatmira while Denisa lowers her head and says nothing as she listens to her mother speak.

It is this shame that often keeps the desperate needs of families like the Sadiku’s hidden. World Vision recently discovered the magnitude of this family’s need and responded immediately, providing food and hygiene items as well as assisting Kadri and the rest of the family to get appropriate medical help and assistance.

We thought no one cared...we are so grateful to World Vision World Vision is also involving the family in an economic development project that will increase their capacity to provide for themselves and to slowly break free from the vicious cycle of poverty.

“We thought no one cared,” says Fatmira, whose face lit up when talking about receiving this assistance.

She continues while hugging her daughter, “We are so grateful to World Vision”.

“We are also helping Denisa go to school and encourage the family to send their daughter to high school after junior high,” says Arian Gjorga, Manager for Elbasan Area Development Programme 1.

World Vision Albania assists approximately 13,000 children of which about 6,500 live in Elbasan, one of the poorest regions in Albania. World Vision Albania partners with communities to improve the quality of life for families affected by poverty and injustice, with a special focus on women and children.