Emergency Funding Keeps Kavajesian Children in School

The families of Rruga e Kavajes are piecing their lives back together after the upheaval of their forced eviction from a site in Tirana’s city center in the summer. Exiled to a remote location some 11 kilometers from downtown, 38 Romani families now occupy the former military barracks at Shtish-Tufinë.

The families of Rruga e Kavajes are piecing their lives back together after the upheaval of their forced eviction from a site in Tirana’s city center in the summer. Exiled to a remote location some 11 kilometers from downtown, 38 Romani families now occupy the former military barracks at Shtish-Tufinë.

The pattern is nothing new and has been repeated by city authorities and commercial developers across the region – whether in Tirana, Belgrade, Sofia or Budapest – who level Romani neighborhoods to clear the way for unabated construction, without addressing the needs of those who have been forced from their homes.

Due to an emergency intervention and campaign by local Albanian NGOs supported by the Roma Education Fund, the city of Tirana has finally acknowledged and reacted to the need to provide rudimentary public services including a vaccination program for young children who, with REF assistance, are bussed daily to school.

Early this winter, as the families settled down in their hard-won accommodation after camping and protesting on the street for several months, Prime Minister Edi Rama was reaching the first milestone of any newly elected official, his first 100 days in office. The charismatic former mayor of Tirana, now given a national mandate, has spoken widely about his party’s platform to provide access to quality inclusive education to all children in Albania.

In a carefully orchestrated public campaign to support Romani children to fulfill their right to quality, inclusive education, the Roma Education Fund, together with its local partners the National Center for Community Service and Romano Kham, invited journalists to cover this story in the heart of Tirana this fall. Articles in Shqip and Telegraf and Albanian public television covered REF’s intervention and urged the government to intervene with its resources, quoting fully from REF’s press release:

Poor, homeless children are far less likely to prepare for and attend school and they are prone irreversible emotional and physical damage by living a meager existence with their families on the streets. In order to fill this gap in services as well as fulfill fundamental human rights that the Albanian government is unable to guarantee, REF has contributed to providing basic amenities for these families (some 114 adults) and funding appropriate housing solutions in an effort to assure the children of Ruga Kavaja attend school. Specifically, from 29 children under age 5, 8 are attending kindergarten thanks to REF’s intervention; from 33 children between ages 5-10, 11 are currently attending preschool or primary school and REF will enroll another 22; and 34 children between ages 10-15 are also attending school with REF’s assistance.

Later during the holiday season, REF and its partners designed a public relations event that provided a photo opportunity for the Minister of Social Welfare and Youth, Erion Veliaj, as well as the head of State Social Services, Etleva Bisha, to visit the new site and share their thoughts about the future with the community formerly from Rruga e Kavajes.  After a dance and choir recital, the minister expressed his gratitude for the contributions made by all, and especially the children for their exemplary school attendance, and pledged to find a better housing solution.

Among the problems regarding the new site and schooling transmitted during the officials’ visit was financial assistance to purchase compulsory school books, opening a second classroom due to overcrowding at the children’s new primary school, developing a community center, alleviating commuting times to school and ongoing heating and hygiene issues.

As the spotlight fades on the new Albanian government’s good start, and as the available support in REF’s emergency fund runs dry, what will happen to these children and their families without a deeper and long-standing commitment to invest in their communities?

Select links to REF in the Albanian media

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8ruuWVyDwE                     

http://gazeta-shqip.com/lajme/2013/12/25/thyejme-mitin-e-sizifit-se-bashku/                               

http://mapo.al/2013/12/27/per-nje-politike-te-mire-per-romet/