Adopt-A-Child: Reaching out to new Areas in Albania

For many years our work in Albania has centred around four villages in the mountains in the south of the country – Kotodesh, Katjel, Rodokal and Homezh. We have buildings in these villages where we run feeding programmes for the children twice a week and where we also hold Bible classes for the children, youth meetings, ladies’ and men’s meetings and Church services. Between 700 and 800 children regularly attend these programmes.

Last year we started a new outreach into the even more remote Mokra region of south Albania, holding weekly meetings in four more villages – Proptisht, Dunica, Trebinja and Kalivac. We do not have our own buildings in these villages at present, as they are too far from our main centre in Pogradec, where the food is prepared in our kitchens, to be able to take regular hot meals there. We meet in homes or in small local cafes to share the Gospel message and to help and encourage the people there. These meetings are very well attended and we have been able to take food parcels once a month to the families who regularly come along, which is a great blessing in these very poor areas where there is little or no regular work available. 

The scenery as you travel to these high mountain villages is quite spectacular, with panoramic views over the mountains. However, the roads are very poor in these areas – very steep and little more than dirt tracks in some places. It is difficult enough to drive there in the summer months, but in the winter it becomes very treacherous and sometimes the highest villages are cut off completely for many weeks. Life is really hard for the people who live there and they very much appreciate the regular help we are able to give them.

The cost of providing the food parcels in the remote villages is not covered by sponsorship income, as we are not able to register children in these villages for formal sponsorship as yet. The cost of providing a parcel, which contains the basic items of flour, rice, pasta, oil, salt, coffee and soap, is £5 per month (the equivalent cost in the UK is between £7 and £11 depending on whether you shop in a discount supermarket or one of the mainstream ones). We have set up a special ‘Albania Food Parcels’ project that people can support to help fund this work, either with a one-off donation or by signing up to provide one or more each month. Visit our website at www.adopt-a-child.com, click on the ‘Donate’ button, the flag of your country and ‘General Donation’ if you would like to help out with this project. Just add ‘Albania Food Parcel’ in the gift notes box.

This work is expanding all the time and we hope to be able to offer sponsorship opportunities in these villages too in the not too distant future.