Child Protection Albania Project #56088

Supporting 205 Ukrainian children

by Multifuncional community center (MCC)

Project Report | May 19, 2023
Supporting Ukrainian children

By Fatbardha Idrizaj | Fatbardha Idrizaj

The situation in Ukraine for children is still difficult.
The Multifunctional Community Center in Tirana is making efforts to support orphaned children .
Our center supported 175 children at the beginning of the war and later supported 205 children and women.

They were supported with housing, food, health and educational treatment for a period of 5 months, from the first week of the war until July 30, 2022. During this period, additional social activities were offered to Ukrainian children by other local organizations as a sign of solidarity and attention to their dramatic situation.

We believe that our warm hospitality and loving shelter that we built for them,
will remain long in their memory and history.
This will influence the creation of a culture within them to support and help people in need throughout their lives.
Those children received a vital message that they were not and will never be alone, because they were supported and received a lot of love in the darkest days of their lives, in the terrible shadow of war. Placing them in a seaside retreat was excellent therapy for the post-traumatic stress they were experiencing and an excellent choice of our centre.
.
We dealt with them for 5 months in a row and we made the decision to keep them until the end of the war, but this objective is not being realized due to lack of funds.
Donors apparently focus on Europe/Poland and Romania.

At the request of the coordinators in Ukraine, we plan to return to Albania a smaller group of 49 orphaned children. The coordinator of this group in Ukraine, through a video, is asking for help to take back the contingent of orphaned children in our shelter.
she says that the other children found a solution through their relatives and left to countries without war, but the contingent that is without parents asked to come to our Center until the end of the war.

We hope to help these children until security is established in Ukraine.

We hope that donors, companies and corporations use their savings in the Account of this project with GlobalGiving,
We will really appreciate it if Global GIVING finds elements and indicators that would influence this project to be supported by different companies and corporations until peace and security begin in Ukraine.

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Jan 17, 2023
Updates on Project "Supporting 205 Ukrainian Children"

By Farisja Idrizaj | Project Leader

Arrival of first group of Ukrainian guests

205 Ukrainian children and their mothers received immediate support from Multifunctional Community Center in Tirana, in the very first month of war in Ukraine. It was an excellent collaboration of the Ministry of the Interior Affairs of Albania with the ambassador of Ukraine in Tirana that in a record time took them and saved their lives from blasting of the basement of a dormitory in Kiev, where they were staying for days. The fathers of this contingent of children were the leaders on the war front selected by the Ministry of War in Ukraine, and these children arrived in Albania as supreme will from this institution. Our center appreciated their trust and took care for the whole group of arrivals, even though we received the very sad news about one of the families, who was bombed at the last station at the border, before boarding to the bus to come to Albania. It was a great tragedy for this father who lost his daughter, son and wife, as well as his leg, being crippled for life, watch the video for more here.

Inspired by this terrific tragedy, our staff decided to save other children so instead of 175 first arrivals, the number of people in our shelter increased to 205 in total. They were supported with accommodation, food, health and educational treatment for a period of 5 months, from the first week of the war until July 30, 2022. During this period additional social activities were provided for Ukrainian children from other local NGOs, as a sign of solidarity and attention for their dramatic situation. Some of these activities were: concert with instrumental and songs, celebration of teachers’ day, celebration of mothers’ day, celebration of children’s day, visits to Tirana city, gifts for Easter, etc.

We believe that our warm welcoming and the shelter full of love we built for them will remain for long in their memory and story. And this will influence the creation of a culture within themselves to support and help people in need during their lives. Those children received a vital message that they were not and will never be alone, because they were supported and received a lot of love in the darkest days of their lives, under the terrible shadow of war. Placing them in a shelter by the seaside was an excellent therapy for the post-traumatic stress they were experiencing, and a great choice of our center.

We are working hard to continue support the same group of 205 children that (for lack of funds) went back to Ukraine since end of July, hosted by their relatives in areas with lower risk. We are planning to gather funds and to send trucks to their locations in Ukraine with: warm clothing and food, and generators. While, we plan to bring back to Albania a smaller group of 49 orphaned children (without parents) together with their guardians and shelter them here until the end of the war. The mechanisms to reach this goal is an Online Fundraising Campaign, where the influencing elements are:

1) The Chain of Love challenge in Instagram for donations built by VIPs and Albanian personalities: a Sportsman, an Ambassador of Peace, the World Great Grandfather of Bektashism, an Athlete, the Ambassador of Ukraine in Tirana, an International Singer, etc. who offer their donation and nominate three of their friends do the same and repeat the challenge.

2) The account of this project with GlobalGiving, which enables the giving of donations at an international level,

3) Making the Chain of Donations popular and viral online, so many individual donors and donor organizations can join this campaign and donate to help our 205 “Children of War” to relieve their sufferings from winter and war and to give them the message “YOU ARE NOT ALONE”.

We will really appreciate if our current donors continue to support our project and participate in the Chain of Love challenge with their monthly or one-time donations.

Restaurant area

Teaching classes at the shelter

Medical services offered at the shelter

Rooms where Ukrainian guests were accommodated

Celebrations of Ukrainian Peace Day

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