Children sponsorship letter from Albania
20/11/2007
Dear Sponsor
It is a real pleasure to share with you every happy or not so happy event, the important moments, the achievements the SOS Children’s Village had during this period of time. With your special contribution and continuous support we offer a real family to the children, who don’t have one, thus we want to present you an activity organised on the Family Day.
On 18th of May, the Family Day was organised a funny and educative activity in order to promote one of the essential rights of each individual, “the right to have a family”. On this occasion it was organised an open doors activity. In the opening of the activity was organised a mini - exhibition with posters created by the children of all the facilities and later on were paid visits near the SOS Village families.
Another very special event was the Children’s International Day, the 1st of June, where all people’s attention is focused on these tender creatures that always need the care and love of the oldest ones.
Since early in the morning uncle Landi the SOS Village technician together with a group of children started preparations for the decoration of the SOS Village premises.
Different coloured flag ranges were put in all sides, while balloons and flowers combined everywhere. “Happy 1st of June” was the slogan you could see immediately entering the SOS Village. The thing which gave a particular image to this spectacle was the children running who will be the first to decorate their beautiful village on this special occasion.
Then different activities came by: at school, in the family and the different premises of SOS Village.
At school were organised various musical and sport activities, but the most interesting one was the football match organized between the 7th and 8th grade. The match was very exciting and only in the very last minutes the 8th grade achieved to score and was declared like this the champion team.
What about the family?! The SOS mothers would absolutely pay their complete attention to the children in this particular day. “It is their special time and they deserve to feel happy” - said one of the mothers.
A very busy morning to create a really feast environment, a very tasty lunch prepared and a table full of delicious food and favourite sweetsÂ…To aunt Dona, an SOS mother, this day was twice important. On this special event near her family would find shelter and the care of their lost mother three new children. They were very little and thin, Fabijo 10 months, Rovena that in a few months gets 3 and their oldest sister Majlinda, 6 years old. They came from a very remote, mountain village, were not well-fed, naked and with an innocent look in their eyes. Only a few months ago a healthy problem took away their lovely mother and now the SOS Children’s Village offers them a possibility to find a family, and an SOS mother who can take care of them.
Some children celebrated the 1st of June feast outside the SOS Children’s Village. Through partnership with Tirana city Municipality a very beautiful activity was organized by a coalition of organizations which take care of children. A group of children who are talented in painting painted a picture in a canvas flattened in the “Skenderbej” Square. The size of the canvas was 200 m sq and the picture was called “Dream Landscape”. In this painting the children expressed all their desires and wishes. Another work was also realized in the Art Gallery where were build up 2 houses by pumice-stone 2.5 metres high. These houses were called the Dream Houses and the children made drawings on them. There were also organized concerts with songs and dancing and different games in the centre of Tirana.
At the moment near the SOS Children’s Village live 72 children and very often two new children are going to be admitted. Meanwhile two young girls were integrated near their biological families to live together from now on. Some other cases are being prepared to be integrated till the end of the year.
Other youngsters are being prepared to start a new way of life. Thus by the end of the year 7 youngsters will pass to Youth Community care.
SOS Children’s Kindergarten Tirana
The SOS Children’s Kindergarten is frequented by 205 children from who 21 have being supported by the scholarship programme in the framework of poor families help in support of the community. At the same time 7 other children from the Family Strengthening Project have been supported.
SOS Secondary School
During 2006 - 2007 the total number of the children who frequented our school was 242 pupils. 31 out of them have given the exams and got the diploma. While to 20 children has been given support with the scholarship programme as a help toward the families in need.
Beside the teaching - educative programme are also organized other activities. Thus during this period of the year the school newspaper “New Voices” edited three new numbers. This is a project realized by one of the literature teachers together with a talented group of pupils in the literature field. Through this newspaper the children transmit by means of their voice different events, activities, problems as well as their achievements. At the same time they reflect their creative work in different fields such as painting, literature, etc.
The incomes provided through the selling of this newspaper are registered in the framework of donations in king for SOS Children’s Village.
Another activity organised was that held in the framework of the global campaign for Education. During a whole week in the premises of the school are organized activities in painting and writing essays with the slogan “Friendly school for all”.
At the same time another important activity was the After-school programme organised by the school teachers for the children of the Family Strengthening Project. Through this programme the children were offered courses in different subjects such as English, computer, art and aerobics.
Family Strengthening Programme
In support of the families in need a great work was done by this programme. In February 2007 started its work the second project of this programme which was extended and supports the families in need in another area of Tirana district. At the moment the first project offers service for 59 families and the number of the beneficiaries is 137 people.
Meanwhile the second project has reached in 18 the number of the families and offers service for 34 beneficiaries.
The following is the story of one of these families.
Happy to be a child!
Sonila and her family were facing the hard healthy conditions of their father. Her mother worked all the day to provide food and medicine for her husband. The emotional side of both the parents was very aggravated and they had no more hope. In this entire messy situation the children were left isolated in a forgetful and very distant world for them. The various problems could not let them space to take care of their children’s physical or emotional well-being.
Sonila was the oldest child and the only girl of the three children of the family and very often she was charged the duty to take care of them. She had a very severe behaviour and she showed just physical care toward her brothers and this because of the care model she took from her parents. She never smiled or laughed and spoke with a very loud voice. At the beginning very often she quarrelled with the other children of the project as she was not used to build relationships with the others. Sonila had a lot of gaps at school and in a meeting with the teacher they came to a conclusion that they had to take the decision if she had to attend the second grade or not.
She had just finished the first grade, but no one had taught her to behave as a child. No one told her that children have the right to play, to make friends, to learn, laugh and have fun. That is why she didn’t know to act as a normal child.
After the meeting with the psychologist they decided that she had to start school again from the beginning. And this was the right thing for her because she had to start life as a child, go to school, make friends, play and have fun as all the other children and not to take care of the family and her brothers.
The intervention was focused in some aspects at the same time which obviously affected each other. The emotional advice and support toward the parents taught them to manage the situation and to give the needed parental care and mutual contribution in the family.
Sonila was provided emotional and educative support. And now the relationships with her brothers are more emotional and games and fun are the ones that unite them more. Her physical, her way of dressing and also her way of communication has changed and improved. At school she is one of the best pupils due to the great work done during the after school programme and the big help and support given by her parents. Due to this she learned to build up good relationships with the children of her age and she is very supportive and encouraging to the other children.
This is what she said to a new girl who has just entered the project and was facing difficulties during the learning process:
“Don’t worry! I was the same situation at the beginning. I had to repeat the first grade again and now I know that I have to learn and when. Here we play and learn by playing and that is why it is fun. Let’s go and get the ball and play and then when time for study comes you will see how happy you will be to make your lessons”.
Now Sonila has build up a very good relationship with her mother, a relationship which at the beginning was build up during the educative process and then later on was strengthened in other life situations.
One day when Z took as a present a big bouquet of mimosas from Sonila said:
“I had forgotten to be a woman. Now I realized that I am not only a woman, but above all I am a mother who has got the love of her children. This is the best preset ever given to me. I thank you very much that you helped me realize I can be a good mother.”
With respect,
Manuela Murthi
National Director
SOS Children’s Villages Albania
Relevant Countries: Albania.