Albania Country Information The Gypsy Community
The Republic of Albania is a Balkan country in South eastern Europe. It borders Montenegro to the north, the Serbian province of Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia in the east, and Greece in the south. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the west and a coast on the Ionian Sea to the southwest. Despite having a troubled history, the country has been classified as an emerging democracy since the 1990s.
Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu emerged
as the dominant figures in Albania after five years of political turmoil
following the end of World War II. Throughout all rule, Hoxha engineered an
elaborate cult of personality that elevated him to the status of infallible
leader. When he died in 1985, grandiose nation-wide mourning ceremonies were
organized. Soon after Hoxha's death, the government began to seek closer ties
with the West in order to improve economic conditions. In 1992 the Democratic
Party took control of the country through democratic elections. Since 1992 Albania has been oriented towards the West. In 1995,
Albania was
accepted in the Council of Europe and has requested membership in NATO. The
workforce of Albania has continued to emigrate to Greece, Italy, Europe and
North America. Construction is at a current boom in Albania as villas, apartment
complexes, offices, restaurants, and hotels are multiplying at a frantic
rate. from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albania
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Trans World Radio partnering with Gospel Waves, as the Albanian broadcaster in known locally, is helping to provide wide ranging programming that is distributing the gospel throughout the country.
One area that ‘Gospel Waves’ is currently working is in the gypsies communities. In these communities all sorts of basic building is needed to make these people’s homes liveable. We will be working the leaders, workers and the Pastor of the local church in Berat, a drive some two south of the capital, Tirana. We will be working to build a TWR Project Hannah centre for Roma Women and Kids. These various tasks require us to lend a willing hand. We will also be teaching them English, using various Bible studies. Finally we will be visiting the cities of Tirana and Berat where we will be based, and of course the beach . Berat is one of the oldest Albanian cities (2500 years old).
It is intended that our trip will be for ten days to the city of Berat with about five days of assisting the gypsy communities and teaching them English through the Bible and five days sightseeing. This adventure, where timings and situations can change rapidly, will be in summer / autumn 2010. The cost of the trip, excluding flights which we can book on your behalf, will be email anita and will include local transport, 3* hotel in Berat, 2 meals a day, and lunch when helping the local church, return transit from Tirana airport. All the rooms in the hotel are equipped with bathroom, shower, Air-conditioning, central heating, TV, mini bar. Other hotel facilities include: a bar, a restaurant.
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New Hope for Women in Albania
After almost 50 years of strict communist rule, Albania opened its doors to democracy in 1990. This new freedom brought new hope into the lives of Albanians. However, not everyone shared this new hope of a better and brighter tomorrow. Many others were disappointed and victimized. For many, their only hope of a better tomorrow is in emigration.
“Albania is full of contrasts. Village families have a miserable life. Mothers have little food for their children. There is little or no opportunity for education. They live in very slum-like conditions, with no running water, no reliable electricity, no new clothes, and no accessible health centers. Mothers give birth to their babies at home and some die just because of lack of simple hygiene.
Whereas most women living in the big cities as the capital Tirana and Durres are well educated and have a life like women in other European cities. Although they may have a good job and a better life compared with their sisters in the villages, they also suffer discrimination, psychological, physical and sexual abuses from their fathers, boyfriends, husbands or employers, as women have few rights.” (Enkelejda Kumaraku, Director of “Gospel Waves” TWR-Albania)
“Many women are being violated physically by their husbands, brothers or fathers. Single mothers are often forced by boyfriends or other males to sell their babies for illegal human trafficking. Also, many young girls are deceived by their boyfriends and then forced into prostitution into other countries.” (E.K.)
Prostitution and Trafficking:
How can you value the price of a fellow human being? In Albania, it is reported that some
women are bought and sold several times, with an initial price of about $70 US, doubling by the time they reach Italy. Most of them have been intimidated; about one third have been raped and beaten, and one in five has been kidnapped.
In some rural areas of Albania teenage girls are scared of being trafficked so they no longer attend school. Thousands of Albanian children have been cheated, abducted and forced to work a prostitutes. Many children are kidnapped by the criminals from families or orphanages and are sold into prostitution abroad. Others are used for begging and cleaning windows and cars without payment.
Listener Letter
Mrs. Shpresa 45 years old
“I’m a widow and I can not go in all church services. The church building is far a way from my house and I do not have any one to come with me. So radio is my friend. I listen every program. I love children and I speak a lot with the young moms in my neighborhood about the importance to raise healthy children. I lost my daughter many years ago and after that my husband. I was crying all the time. I had black clothes on and every thing around me looked black. But when I met Jesus things changed. I have joy in my heart. I’m glad we can pray together at PH prayer gatherings. It is wonderful to meet sisters in Christ. I suffered a lot from solitude, but the company I find in radio is wonderful and fills my heart with peace and joy to go on.”
Poverty and emigration:
Albania has often been considered to be Europe’s poorest country. 29.6% of Albanians are poor, while half of them live in the category of extreme poverty.
One in three families have low quality housing. One mother says: “I am really scared that one night my house will collapse on my children while they are asleep." She continues: “I hope my children are able to emigrate, as for Albania, there is no hope.”
Domestic violence:
More and more women and children’s lives are being devastated by violence in the home. Domestic violence has worsened in the last decade, although there are no reliable statistics showing this trend. Domestic violence remains behind closed doors. Many victims do not report abuse because they either do not trust in the authorities, or there is shame and fear from the abuser.
“Traditionally, the family is considered to be holy. But today there is a lot of crime within the family. Last year there were many cases where the father killed his teenage daughter just because she came home after 9:00 pm.” (E.K.)
Blood Feud (Blood Revenge),
or is another big issue facing Albanians today. Blood feud is a centuries old law (code of honor) that has never been put into print, and is still practiced in some parts of Albania today. If someone commits murder, the victim’s family has the right to revenge themselves by killing a male relative, ages 8 – 80, of the original killer. There are hundreds of families where boys remain locked inside their homes for fear of being killed because of blood revenge – and hundreds of woman who suffer the loss of her husband or son. “When the husband is murdered, the wife must go back to her parent’s family, whereas the children must go live with her deceased husband’s parents. The children belong to the father, and if the father is dead, they are the possession of the father’s family. A mother does not have rights over her own children.” (E.K.)
Why broadcast?
Women of Albania are burdened by extreme poverty, discrimination and abuses. Many young women are caught in the evil web of prostitution. Hundreds of mothers suffer the loss of their husbands and sons due to the Blood Feud (or Revenge).
Many Albanians see their only hope for a better life in emigration. One mother wrote: “I hope my children are able to emigrate; as for Albania, there is no hope.”
Jesus offers hope. He said. “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10)” Yet, the majority of Albanians have never heard this good news.
Gospel Waves programming offers unconditional love, acceptance and hope through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Only through God’s power can the Albanian woman find hope to leave their burdens with the Burden Bearer and experience a new freedom in Jesus.
TWR vision: to reach the world for CHRIST by mass media so that LASTING fruit is produced
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