SOS Children in Albania

Albania is one of the poorest countries in Europe with an average daily income of about £3.00, compared to £46.60 in the UK.

Following the collapse of communism, conditions improved slightly as economic and diplomatic ties with the rest of the world were restored. However, services widely available under communism have deteriorated badly. One-third of children under five have no access to pre-school. Rates of infant and maternal mortality are high and many essential primary health care services are in need of investment.

Children in Albania face many risks. Various estimates place the total number of trafficked children at 5,000 to 15,000, most of them ending up in Italy or Greece, or even Western Europe. During the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, nearly 500,000 ethnic Albanians fled from Kosovo to Albania, putting a great strain on Albania's already fragile economy and limited resources.

Tirana

We began our work in Albania in 1995 in Sauk, a small village about two miles south of the capital, Tirana, when the first families moved into the 13 family houses. The SOS Children’s Village is home to 125 children and is situated next to a beautiful park and a lake. There are also SOS Youth Homes in central Tirana for the older children, where they live together and prepare for independence with the opportunity to manage their own time, budgets and school work.

Alongside the Village and Youth Homes are an SOS Nursery and a SOS School for 350 primary and secondary pupils. Both of these facilities are open to children in the local community as well as children from the village. Hot meals are provided daily in the dining hall.

In 2000, SOS Children helped to establish Albania’s first ever children’s library in Tirana. As well as a wide range of books, the library offers leisure activities such as pottery, painting and computer technology, with the aim of giving children an alternative to being on the streets.

We also run three Family Strengthening Programmes (FSPs) in Tirana. Through these programmes, children in disadvantaged families at risk of being abandoned are supported to stay with their parents. Children are provided with the education, healthcare and food they need. The programme also equips parents with vocational skills so they can obtain steady employment and support their families financially.

At present, we support over 850 people in Albania at our SOS Children's Village.  We also run one SOS Youth Home, one SOS Nursery School, one SOS School and three SOS Family Strengthening Programmes.

For more information about the work we do in Albania see our page on Albanian Orphans.

13-year-old Yllka from SOS Children's Village Tirana has written about her SOS mother:

"A mother is someone who loves you unconditionally. She takes care of you from the first moment you come in to this world. Many children are happy because they have a mother, while many others do not have one. I am one of those children. I came to the SOS Children's Village because I didn't have a mother. Here I found one, I have my SOS mother. I love and cherish her. She cares that I'm well, healthy and happy. She makes sure I have what I need and grow up to be strong and independent. I love my SOS mother.”