An Albanian Case Study

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By Sonia A. Rosen [1]

“We are working to keep our parents. But other people, their parents work to keep their children” — former child worker in the NPF program

“We have a moral contract with these people” — Namik Shehaj, NPF Elbasan project coordinator

1. Introduction

In 2002, the International Centre on Child Labor and Education (ICCLE) received a grant from the International Labor Organization’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC) to promote global awareness and collective action towards the elimination of the worst forms of child labor. One requirement of the grant was to create a “comprehensive and analytical study documenting selected best practices in combating child labor showing various strategies, including especially free, compulsory, quality basic education and the innovative efforts of grassroots organizations.”

As part of its study, ICCLE analyzed and assessed innovative NGO/civil society grass roots programs that:1) addressed child labor in a broad socio-economic perspective, 2) focused on any trauma (psychological or physical) suffered by the children, 3) provided access to appropriate quality education, including vocational education, 4) included families and/or community members in developing the program, and 5) are cost effective. ICCLE will disseminate information about these outstanding grass roots efforts to gain support for such programs and share these experiences with grass-roots programs in other jurisdictions.

To gather information about these outstanding grass roots efforts, ICCLE prepared case studies on programs Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. This report, prepared by an independent consultant hired by ICCLE, reviews the work of NPF (Ndihmë për Fëmjët - Help the Children) and other NGOs working with Albanian street children and children exploited through trafficking for work and sex. The report does not attempt to cover local, regional or national governmental responses to child labor and trafficking. The findings are based on interviews with representatives of NGOs, government, and international organizations in Albania (Tirana, Elbasan, Korça) and Geneva, Switzerland during a week long trip in January 2003, as well as a review of pertinent written material. For a list of interviewees and bibliography, see Appendices.2.

History and Context

Albania emerged from 50 years of economic and social isolation in the early 1990s. Although child labor probably existed during that time in the rural, agricultural areas, there is no documentation. According to those interviewed, the Communist regime provided the basic necessities of life, including education for children. All social and economic institutions were government run. When the Communist regime fell, many of these institutions, including manufacturing and other economic activities employing large numbers of people, were lost.   During the post Communist period, Albania began to introduce democracy and a capitalist, free market system. During this time of economic and social transition, there has been a significant rise in unemployment, caused in part by the exposure of mass pyramid schemes coupled with a lack of a social welfare and safety net system. In addition, there is no properly functioning judiciary or juvenile justice system. According to many interviewees, those involved in organized crime benefit the most from the lack of viable institutions. They become extremely wealthy through illicit drug and human trafficking.

Although the population rate is falling, the rate of internal and external migration has skyrocketed. According to a UNICEF poll, 50 percent of Albanian youth believe that they will live abroad.[2] All Albanian families have at least one member abroad or preparing to move abroad. [3] Until the early 1990s, nearly 100 percent of children attended primary and secondary school. Current estimates are that only 60-65 percent of children currently attend school. Most NGOs and officials interviewed stressed the importance of developing Albanian institutions to keep young people from fleeing the country in search of a better life.

Migration and emigration in search of economic opportunity is the result of rising unemployment and lack of social and judicial institutions. Albania is also experiencing an enormous urbanization process because of families migrating from the rural areas to the cities in search of work. According to the International Labor Organization, economic hardship in Albania has undermined traditions and social customs, eroding the protection often provided within the family structure. Only one out of five families has sufficient income for a decent living. The problem is most acute among the traditionally weaker or dependent groups of the society, such as the Roma and “Egyptian” or “Jevgijt” ethnic minorities, and children. With household poverty increasing, and levels of school enrollment declining, there are more children working in both rural and urban areas. [4]

There is no current national data on child labor. According to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2000 conducted by Instat, 32 percent of children aged 6-18 are currently working. [5] Eleven percent of children aged 6-16 do not attend school. Most dropouts leave school by the fifth grade.[6] Nearly all of the child labor in Albania is in the informal sector since the country currently lacks much of a formal sector economy. Children who work fall mainly into two categories: street children [7] or children trafficked internally or across the border to Greece [8] or Italy for petty commerce and/or prostitution. In the rural areas, children may work in subsistence agriculture, herding, taking care of younger siblings and household chores. The worst forms of child labor found in Albania are: working in forced labor situations (forced use of children by organized criminal groups for begging, prostitution, and robbery); prostitution; work in hazardous conditions; and drug selling. Observers generally report that these forms of child labor are not only common but appear to be on the rise.

Approximately one-third of working children are engaged in street or market based activities. [9] The majority of the street children are boys. [10] They are scavengers and beggars. They wash cars, shine shoes, sell small items such as cigarettes and flowers, work in transport and in open-air markets. They are tailors and car service workers. Most of these children live at home and are sent out to the streets by their parents. Parents know that a child on the street can make more money than an adult.  Some of the children are orphans or illegitimate, are children of divorce, or have parents working in Greece or Italy. Nearly half of the children interviewed by the ILO in its recent rapid assessment survey on street working children have migrated to urban areas because of harsh living conditions, poor medical and social services, limited employment and housing in rural areas, as well as hope for a better life. Children on the streets work an average of seven hours a day, six days a week. Although poverty is often cited by the children and their families as a primary reason for sending children to work, it is more often a poverty of viable socioeconomic options available to or perceived by the family that underlies much of their decision making.

The majority of street children are school dropouts, although some of them attempt to combine work with school. They admit that work regularly interferes with regular school attendance.  Other reasons for the dropout rate include family crises (divorce, death, illness), and educational reasons such as poor school attendance, lack of schools nearby, poor performance, poor quality of teachers and curriculum, or general dislike of school.[11] Parents often are not convinced of the benefit of schooling so they do not encourage their children to attend. This is especially true among parents of ethnic minorities such as the Roma who traditionally experience discrimination in schools and other institutions. Finally, there is insufficient after school or community based extra curricular activities for children and youth.

Albania is a source and transit country for both trafficked and smuggled individuals. Women and children are trafficked mainly from Albania, Moldova, Kosovo, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, China and Kurdistan. Most of them are destined for Italy, Greece and Western Europe. NGOs estimate that thousands of women and children are trafficked to work in Italy and Greece.    Trafficking is often motivated by a desire to profit from sexual or other exploitation of the victims. Often a friend or boyfriend connected to organized crime recruits the girl, sometimes on the premise of marriage with the permission of the parents. They also use other forms of deception such as the offer of a job abroad. Some of the recruiters and smugglers are neighbors or distant relatives.[12]

Some children are trafficked and forced to become beggars or slaves. The most common child victims come from divorced families, from families with many children, children from poor families, children born out of wedlock, children who live in villages, children who were orphaned when their parents emigrated for work, children who have dropped out of school, children who have been beggars, and children who have performed other illegal activities in Albania. Many of their parents are illiterate and ignorant of the trafficking problem. Traffickers and smugglers often use speedboats from the ports of Dures or Vlora to cross the Adriatic and reach Italy undetected and avoid the customs controls of the countries. [13] Trafficking rings network with each other in the search for new victims. Traffickers have systems in place that make it difficult or dangerous for victims to escape their exploitation. They also rely on physical and psychological harm, and debt bondage leading to slavery like conditions. [14]

Most of the children working in Greece, in the streets of Athens and Thessaloniki, are Albanian. The children come from Tirana, Elbasan, Pogradec and Korça. According to a recent study on child trafficking to Greece by Terre des Hommes, “starting up in child trafficking requires almost no initial investment. However, profit is quick and substantial. Children give all their earnings to their employers. A small percentage is sent back to their families in Albania, but very irregularly. When a boss ‘owns’ several children, profits are substantial.”[15] Children as young as four are trafficked to Greece to beg on the streets.  By the time girls reach age 12, they are forced into prostitution. In addition to economic exploitation, the children work more than 12 hours a day and are physically and psychologically mistreated by a host of adults. Some children report that they are intentionally poorly clothed in the winter in order to be pitied by the Greeks and thus get more money for their employers.[16] Not surprisingly, the children refer to themselves as “Robots” – describing the psychological state they must endure to survive.

3. Role of NGOs

Following the collapse of Communism, Albanian NGOs did not exist. Most people interviewed for this report explained this was a result of a society totally controlled by the government, with a population obedient to authority. Once that authority disappeared, there were no community groups to advocate for the people. Indeed, most interviewees described a way of life that relied completely on governmental institutions for all their needs. People were actively discouraged from expressing initiative or advocating for their rights or increased services. Some community based organizations – primarily women’s groups — began forming in 1992. The NGO sector, however, is now primarily donor driven, supported by foreign government development agencies and the migration of international organizations and international NGOs to Albania. Most of these groups came to Albania during the Kosovar refugee crisis but they found few grass roots NGOs to be implementing partners. Cynics describe the new NGO landscape, including those working on children’s rights, as big business formed by the influx of money from international donors, and not a series of civil society organizations established for the benefit of the Albanian people.

Most NGOs are located in the capital city of Tirana. Some of them are run by Albanians; others by foreign aid workers. But there are only a few community based, grass roots Albanian NGOs working on behalf of child workers and their families. They conduct a wide variety of activities including seminars on children’s rights, awareness raising on child labor and trafficking, media campaigns, networking, and lobbying the Albanian government for improved legal protections for minors and improved services to children and their families. Other groups run small schools or limited intervention programs for street children or temporary shelters for women and girls returning from Italy or Greece. As in most countries, NGOs in Albania rarely find the time to coordinate their interventions. The phenomenon of donor driven programs, however, tends to increase the chance that the donor community coordinates funding strategies. It is not uncommon, for instance, that Unicef, the ILO, Save the Children, Terre des Hommes, the IOM, government aid agencies, and local NGOs meet to discuss joint funding and strategies on child rights and child labor.

4. NPF (Ndihmë për Fëmjët - Help the Children)

One of the most effective grass roots NGOs in Albania working directly with street children, child victims of trafficking and their families and communities is NPF (Ndihmë për Fëmjët - Help the Children). Founded in 1996 by two teachers who were high school buddies, NPF works primarily in Korça, Elbasan, Berat and Tirana. They have a diverse funding base and deep roots in the communities where they work. NPF’s activities on behalf of street children and children trafficked for work and sex are coordinated with local government institutions, schools, teachers, social workers, employers and parents. Their general approach is basic but intensive:

• Identify children and families at risk, using children and teachers as the entry point
• Once children at risk are identified, community outreach workers visit families and earn their trust
• Place the children back in school in special intake classes designed to meet the special needs of children who have not been in school for long periods of time
• Younger children (under 12) are reintegrated into the regular classrooms; older children receive up to 3 years of reintegration classes, or non-formal education, until basic education equivalency and are then reintegrated back into the public school.
• Provide family support to ensure children go to school
• Provide relevant livelihood skills through vocational training to older children

Interventions are geared to supporting both the child and the family to focus their energies on ensuring the child’s success with education. The goal is to allow previously trafficked children to catch up and ultimately to reintegrate them into regular classrooms. When NPF finds working children or drop-outs under 12 years old, they work together with the school director to return them to public primary school. They also work with teachers and school administrators to identify children under 12 who are in school but at risk of abuse and dropping out. To prevent these children from working or dropping out, NPF organizes teachers to work with them after school on education and social issues. Children ages 12-16 are put into reintegration classes taught by two teachers and a social worker per class. The curriculum is based on the regular Albanian public school curriculum and covers material necessary to complete the fourth grade. NPF then works with the local school to place them back into the public school system.

NPF works quietly but diligently without much international presence. They represent one of the few truly grass-roots efforts fighting the phenomena of street children and the commercial exploitation of Albanian children. Because many of their strategies are good practices, they deserve a wider international audience so that other practitioners can learn and possibly replicate some of their interventions.

The following describes some of NPF’s work, highlighting certain efforts as particularly good practices. The report does not review or evaluate all of NPF’s programs or strategies. For more detailed information, contact NPF directly.

· Building Local Capacity and Creating Local Organizations

In Albania, international NGOs usually descend on the country during a crisis and then leave. After the fall of Communism, many NGOs came to Albania, including the international NGO Foundation Terre des Hommes (TDH), based in Lausanne, Switzerland. [17] TDH established operations in Korça because of its proximity to Greece. Traditionally, Korça was an intellectual center of Albania, but by 1993 it was poor and chaotic like the rest of the country. TDH hired local staff, including Robert Stratobërdha, then working as a French teacher and now the Executive Director of NPF. NPF started by doing humanitarian work with poor and underprivileged families. This gave it a lot of information “from the field” about conditions of life in Albania. Since few community structures or institutions existed at the time, NPF went door to door, talking to families about their situation. In this first assessment, they found many children had dropped out of school. Thus, their initial interventions focused on school dropouts. At this point, neither the government nor local communities saw child exploitation as a high priority. It became clear to NPF that their own families were exploiting children, particularly as beggars. At this point, TDH staff, together with Robert Stratobërdha and Namik Shehaj decided to form a locally based NGO to focus on responding to the needs of the children. Terre des Hommes provided training on how to run an NGO, fundraising, social interventions, and sustainability. Once fully trained, Stratobërdha, Shehaj and another colleague formally separated from TDH and formed an independent NGO.

The experience of TDH and NPF provides one model of creating local capacity where none exists. It also shows how an international NGO can pull away from direct service work by training community members to function for themselves. Whereas TDH was the first NGO to work with the children locally, their plan was not to stay. Indeed, TDH pulled out of Albania entirely in 1998, leaving NPF to take over their work.

NPF noticed that children were disappearing; they were being trafficked and returned from Greece. This was a very dangerous issue to discuss because the police and a strong criminal network supported the traffickers. NPF decided to ask Terre des Hommes to return to Albania to help coordinate interventions and advocacy on behalf of these children. Serious security concerns facing NGOs working on trafficking issues (NPF staff received death threats) made it important for an international NGO to serve as an umbrella group for NGOs in the region working on trafficking. TDH agreed, and now works closely with NPF. TDH trains and educates local leaders, teachers and students about trafficking, which helps identify children in need and raises awareness in the community about this human rights tragedy. NPF wisely and carefully chooses to work at the grass roots level, conducting reintegration programs, while TDH focuses primarily on prevention of child trafficking, and national and international advocacy.  Their collaboration has produced the first report clearly documenting the trafficking of Albanian children in Greece.

Together, NPF and TDH use their combined talents and skills to mount an all out assault on trafficking. Through human rights reporting and fact-finding, they have created Transnational Action Against Child Trafficking: A Model of Action that other groups can follow. Finally they have formed a high level network of local, national and international NGOs in Albania to advocate and lobby for new policies, programs, regulations and interventions against trafficking. This umbrella network, “All Together in the Fight Against Trafficking” (BKTF, së Bashku Kundër Trafikimit të Fëmijëvë) combines government, civil society, international organizations and donors to coordinate effective actions to fight child trafficking. In May 2003, BKTF announced a comprehensive approach to fight trafficking in Albania.[18]

· Good Practices in Working with Children and Parents

Each child is individually evaluated and an educational workplan is designed to be appropriate for the child's capacity and skills. The objectives are set in consultation with parents and child, and the educational team works closely with the child's parents, updating the evaluation of the child's progress every three months. After being trained, teachers are in constant contact with the families of the children, who also get support from municipal social workers . [19]

NPF has also established youth centers as a place for the students to gather, play and engage in sporting and creative activities after school. These centers give the children a safe and happy place to go after school rather than back on the streets.

Outreach – trust building

Out of school children are NPF’s entry point to the families. NPF staff, assisted by teachers and local social workers, identify children in need. They ask why the child is not in school, and usually learn that the parents are preventing him/her from going or returning to school. NPF staff also goes into poor communities and talk to the children, saying “ I haven’t seen you in awhile, where have you been?” Responding to the friendly inquiries, the kids report that they had just returned from Greece and talk a little about their experiences.

Following initial conversations, two teachers might go with the children to their home and, in a friendly way, find out what is going on and what issues are keeping the children away from school. The parents might explain that they do not have food or textbooks for the child. NPF then works with the family to create alternatives. They do not force the families to return the children to school. Instead, they talk about why children are important and need to be in school. Then they explain their classes and programs. They invite the kids just to come and visit — to see what the other children in the program are doing. This builds trust.

NPF staff are creating a safe space to allow the children to try to return to school without fear of retaliation by their parents. And the great majority of children desperately want to go back to school rather than work. They are just searching for a real opportunity to do so.

This process gives NPF support from the children and their families. In return, the children themselves help NPF find other children in need. For instance, children recently returned from Greece will point out other children coming from abroad. Finally, the children already enrolled in NPF programs and integration classes set an example by showing that they are happy, learning and in good condition. This reinforces the trust relationship between NPF, the children, their families, and others in the community.

Going to visit the families, talking, sharing coffee shows respect and makes NPF welcome in people’s homes: the door is open without offering money.

Integration classes on school premises

The most difficult element of the project is placing children back into public school. Many of the children feel isolated because of age, physical and sexual development, and period of time already out of school. Working with the children and their families, NPF invites the children to enroll in their “alternative education” classes, called “integration” classes.[20] These classes, in both their location and their curriculum, are specifically designed not to set up a parallel education system for working or at-risk children, minorities or children living in poverty. Instead, the program is designed to mainstream children back into the community.

NPF has created special integration classes in public schools during regular school hours. This is a strategic and intentional decision. NPF specifically chooses to operate in the public school. NPF treats the beneficiaries of its programs like all the other children. Their only handicaps are social and economic problems. The NPF experience is that the children respond positively in a warm and learning atmosphere. They start feeling respected and are happy with the teachers. In many cases, this type of enriching environment is a new life experience for the children, who have been abused and abandoned by society and their parents.

While enrolled in the integration classes, children aged 12-17 begin reintegrating into the regular student population, making it easier for their total reintegration later. The students eat and play with the other public school students. This helps reduce discriminatory attitudes by other kids and teachers via a combined strategy of proximity, interaction and education. Locating the classes on the school premises, during regular school hours, is a critical strategy in the education and reintegration process for street children and children trafficked for work and sex.

Of course not everyone accepts the integration of the working children into their school. This includes teachers, administrators and other children. NPF responds to this challenge by constantly educating and negotiating with the school officials about the need for the children to be reintegrated by making the classes a successful experience for the entire school community.

In a special classroom, devoted to the education of the NPF children, Namik had asked the children to come to receive their school supplies. Since these are desperately poor children whose parents could not provide clothes and shoes, let alone notebooks and pencils for their children, NPF provides everything they need, including a special classroom in which teachers trained in social work tend to the children's academic and emotional needs. (Many of these children have no history of attending school and many suffer not only ostracism by their more fortunate peers, but trauma resulting from frequent travel, insecurity, and disrupted families.) The teachers not only teach them how to read and write, but they also instruct them in many tasks that more fortunate children learn at home. As soon as the children reach a 5th grade competency, they are mainstreamed into regular public school classes . [21]

Training and socialization of teachers and social workers

Teachers participating in the NPF program receive significant training to better respond to the educational and social needs of the children. They are also paired with trained social workers in every classroom.   On average, each teacher is assigned 10 families to visit twice monthly. The teachers are trained to visit the families in pairs. In the classroom, there are approximately two teachers for 25 students.

The teachers are trained in the curriculum, in relating to working children and children at risk, in identifying academic and social problems and problem solving, team work, children traumatized by trafficking, sexual and physical abuse. In addition, NPF staff carefully select the teachers for their program from the pool of regular Albanian public school teachers. NPF wants their teachers to be involved in the lives of the children and their families. During the recruitment interviews, for instance, NPF staff might ask a question such as:

When working with a family, which method do you prefer and why —

a) visit

b) conversation

c) fixed appointment

If the teacher answers b) or c) they are not hired. NPF looks for teachers who would visit families. The rationale is that in Albanian society, most problems are settled through a visit, and a visit contains all the elements above.

Focusing on the school

The focus on school is also a strategy for community building and empowerment. According to nearly all persons interviewed in Albania, most Albanians have no recent experience with community groups. Under the old regime, people were obedient to authority; they tended not to show initiative and waited for the government to provide for them. The people are so poor — and poorly educated — that they do not believe they can stand up for themselves. Most families are just trying to survive day-to-day.  NPF’s strategy to focus on school is also intended to make the school a center for community activity where none existed before, create social cohesion, and reinforce the role of school and education in people’s lives.

Focusing on the family

The overwhelming majority of children tell NPF staff that they want to go to school but they do not know how this is possible because their parents will not permit it. As a result, NPF intervenes at the family level. Having NPF staff visit them in their homes, having coffee with them and talking to them gives these visits an enormous impact and lays the groundwork for a relationship of mutual respect. This is key to convincing families to return their children to school permanently.

When first visiting the family in their homes NPF explains that all children have the same rights. They empathize with the parents, noting that they know parents love their children and are trying their best to be good parents (even if not true). They acknowledge the family’s problems and promise to work with them to create solutions. And then NPF follows up. These conversations are intended build trust. The children begin to voluntarily enroll either in the regular public school classes or the integration classes, depending on their ages.

Once the children are in school, NPF teachers and social workers visit the families twice a month. During these visits, they discuss school and life needs, and work with the families to solve problems as a team. The results of these visits are recorded in the child’s school dossier, which also includes information about academic performance and behavioral issues.

NPF social workers try to help parents in other ways, including by informing them how to find a job. Experiences under Communism created passivity among the parents, who wait for the government or others to find a job for them. NPF intervenes to help them build job-seeking skills.[22] The NPF social workers also help families with medical issues, alcoholism, financial management, and basic food supplies for a finite period of time.

Vocational Training

Eighty percent of children aged 12-18 in the NPF program receive some type of vocational training in addition to attending the integration classes. The older children are trained specifically for work. The younger children are treated as part-time apprentices and taught some basic skills for about 1 ½ hours a day, 2-3 days a week. NPF hire staff to oversee the vocational training program, select and train local business people to mentor and teach skills to the kids in a safe and healthy environment and in an age-appropriate manner. The trainers/shop owners are carefully screened, and are required to have excellent communication skills with children.

Students 16 and older spend more time in vocational training than younger children. They receive a small stipend for their work/learning. Many of the children combine the vocational training with schooling. They attend school first and receive vocational training later in the afternoon. The goals of the vocational training programs are twofold: 1) provide relevant and age-appropriate skills for post school jobs; and 2) support the reintegration of the children so they won’t be ostracized in their own community.

Working with the local government

When NPF began its projects, there were few local government institutions responding to the education and welfare needs of families. Although the local government infrastructures are improving, they still lack the funds and capacity to provide schooling and materials for all children. Nonetheless, the NPF philosophy is to firmly engage the local education and social welfare institutions with the long-term goals of awareness raising and building governmental capacity to take over the educational responsibilities.

Before creating integration classes, NPF staff works with the Ministry of Education and Education Directorates to use existing public school facilities. The government’s obligation is minimal— provide the school building, electricity, heating and janitorial services. The local education directorate also instructs the local school principal or director to allow NPF to hold its activities in the school during regular school hours. This is particularly important because it helps change attitudes toward the children. Discrimination against the children persists because the teachers and administrators are skeptical that they can do anything for the street children or children returned from Greece or other places. At first they believe these Roma and “Jevgijt” children are dirty, smelly and are a burden to the system. NPF holds many discussions with the administrators and government officials to convince them to allow the children into the school. Gradually, experience shows that the kids can be integrated into school.

NPF has good relations with the Education Ministry. At this point, they do not ask for money. There is no budget to help this target group. By working together, NPF hopes to eventually encourage the state institutions to take over responsibility for program maintenance.

Setting realistic goals and identify strategic issues

Since its founding, NPF has continually evaluated its strategies and tried to adapt to meet new needs. It has constantly added new elements to their projects. Thus, the projects are not static because the organization and its staff are always learning and changing.

No cash handouts

If you come and just give money to the families, they do not respect you. There is no fundamental work for them. (The cash handout reinforces) they are right to beg. They win, but really they lost .[23]

NPF aims to change the view that NGOs are primarily a charity. Instead, the organization prefers to give families respect, to communicate with them directly and honestly, and help treat their problems and not just the symptoms. Philosophically, NPF believes that families will respond better to such an approach.

When NPF community outreach workers begin visiting families to discuss their problems and try to convince them that it is important to send their children back to school, they are frequently challenged to provide money to cover basic needs or make up for lost income. As a rule, NPF does not give cash handouts to the families. But they do work with the families to create alternative solutions and teach them how to solve their own problems. They also note that if cash handouts were provided there is no assurance that the money would be spent on the children.

While NPF does not provide cash handouts, it does assist families with material and in-kind support. In the beginning, this social assistance (often basic food supplies such as flour, sugar, pasta, oil) was provided on condition that the children attend school. After a year, NPF staff realized that even though the families were receiving help, the children were still on the streets. In response, NPF changed their strategy to providing assistance only after the children were sent to school, producing more positive results in school enrollment.

With funds from ILO-IPEC, NPF is able to provide basic school materials such as textbooks, notebooks, and other educational materials.

In the final assessment, NPF believes that if their interventions stopped today, the families and children would feel an immediate abandonment, but the majority would eventually continue to go to school because they have received the encouragement and tools to help themselves.

We bring the families to the employment office, not the social service or welfare office. If we give them stipends, how long will this last? One year? Two years? How will this help them? They will just ask for more. We need to be working with them to make their lives better. Money is a humanitarian effort. We are doing development .[24]

Follow up

Intensive and constant follow up with families, teachers, etc. marks the difference between one- time pilot project and a sustainable, community-based project aimed at significant social change. By working with children in their home milieu, NPF must keep in contact with the families and the teachers, social workers and vocational trainers.  NPF intervention is a daily one, managed 100 percent by local staff.

5.Conclusion

NPF uses an integrated, community-based approach to reintegrating and maintaining at-risk children in school, emphasizing creation of conditions for positive social and human development. They strategically cooperate and coordinate with other groups and governmental institutions to leverage their work on behalf of families. They grow slowly so as not to outpace themselves, and also ensure their ability to deliver programs effectively, follow up with existing beneficiaries, and always be able to keep the promises made to children and their families.

Albanians see foreigners and immediately ask for charity. This is not always true in the case of local organizations living and working in the community. If done smartly, the local work tends to be more sustainable in the long-term. This is what NPF is doing by building local capacity and creating local organizations, emphasizing outreach and trust building, creating integration classes on school premises, providing adequate training to teachers and social workers, focusing on the school and the family, providing vocational skills training, setting realistic goals and identify strategic issues, not giving charity/cash handouts, and constant, verifiable follow up. NPF realizes, however, that alone it is not capable of implementing all the wide range of interventions required to eradicate child labor and trafficking. Instead, NPF staff coordinate strategies with other NGOs to try to ensure that “all bases are covered”. For example, Terre des Hommes implements intensive awareness raising and local prevention programs on child labor and trafficking. The staff of both NGOs cooperate so that the prevention programs of one group complement the rehabilitation programs of another.

NPF takes the lessons learned working with the children and the community and works with an action-oriented network of local, national and international NGOs to influence policy on at-risk children. Through this network, NPF has taught other Albanian NGOs to replicate their model in areas where they have no operations.

Finally, NPF has cultivated a diverse but loyal funding base. They encourage donors to collaborate with them and amongst themselves to best leverage funding to increase the effectiveness of NPF programs. This also allows smaller funders to contribute to existing programs in a meaningful way.

In the final assessment, NPF is one example of a community based NGO that smartly and respectfully works in and with a local community to address some of their most fundamental needs, and then takes that experience to inform national level policy to improve people’s lives.

Appendix A: Interview List

Mission to Albania, January 2003

Name Affiliation Location Ms. Snezhi Bedalli ILO-IPEC National Program Manager Tirana, Elbasan, Korça Mr. Pierre Ferry UNICEF Project Officer, Child Protection Tirana Ms. Shkelqesa Manaj Chief, Child Labor Unit Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs Tirana Mr. Altin Hazizaj Co-Director, Children’s Human Rights Center of Albania (CRCA) Tirana Mr. Vincent Tournecuillert Chef de mission albanie, Terre des Hommes (TDH) Tirana Ms. Holta Kotherja Director, Legal Clinic for Minors Tirana Ms. Natasha Pepivani Chief of Section for Relations with NGOs, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs Tirana Ms. Anila Hazizi Project Coordinator, BKTF “ All Together Against Child Trafficking in Albania” Tirana Mr. Skender Veliu President, Amaro Drum (Roma Union of Albania) Tirana Mr. Asdit Hoveu Kinder Haus (National Help Program Albania) Tirana Mr. Relian Kuteli Kinder Haus (National Help Program Albania) Tirana Mr. Ermal Serjani Kinder Haus (National Help Program Albania) Tirana Ms. Suzana Sakiqi Albania Country Director, Every Child (formerly European Children’s Trust) Tirana Ms. Silva Mjeda International Organization for Migration Tirana

Name Affiliation Location Mr. Namik Shahaj Coordinator, “Ndihmë për fëmijët” (NPF) (Help for Children) Elbasan Anonymous: Children, students, teachers, social workers, parents and other family members, vocational training supervisors Community members in Elbasan participating in or with knowledge of NPF programs. This category includes 50+ persons. Elbasan Mr. Robert Stratobërdha Executive Director, “Ndihmë për fëmijët” (NPF) (Help for Children) Korça Anonymous: Children, students, teachers, social workers, school principal, and family members Participants in NPF programs in Korça. This category includes 50+ persons Korça Ms. Anduena Shkurti Program Officer, Save the Children Tirana Mr. Olivier Feneyrol Head of Mission, Enfants du Monde Droits de L’Homme (EMDH) Tirana Mr. Ilir ___________ Ms. Clara _________ Fëmijët ë Botes Shqiperi (Children of the World – Albania) (FBSH) Tirana Mr. Klaus Gunther ILO-IPEC Europe Program Director Geneva Ms. Asha D’Souza ILO-IPEC Campaign Dept, Project officer for ICCLE grant Geneva Mr. Florencio Guidino Coordinator, ILO-IPEC Evaluation and Design Team Geneva Mr. Geir Myrstad, Head of Programs, ILO-IPEC Geneva Ms. Uma Sarkar Head of Education Unit, ILO-IPEC Geneva Mr. Lelio Bentes Correa ILO-IPEC Education Unit Geneva

Appendix B: Partial Bibliography

mission to Albania, January 2003

ILO-IPEC, IPEC Albania at a Glance and Action Programmes

ILO-IPEC, Albania Fact Sheet

ILO-IPEC, Fundamental International Instruments on the Rights of the Child . Small handbook in English and Albanian

ILO-IPEC Programme Document, Integrated Programme for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour in seven selected areas in Albania, 10.2002 – 6/2003

Albanian Center for Economic Research [ACER], Common Country Assessment: Albania , June 2002

INSTAT (Albanian Institute of Statistics), The Population of Albania in 2001: Main Results of the Population and Housing Census , 2002.

ILO-IPEC, Child Labor Training Manual , Used by the Children’s Human Rights Centre of Albania (CRCA) in their trainings, 2001. (in Albanian).

ILO-IPEC and the Institute for Contemporary Studies, Albania: Street Working Children in Tirana, Shkidra, Vlora: A Rapid Assessment Survey , March 2002.

ILO-IPEC, Street Working Children: Gender Aspect (materials used in Jan 2003 training workshop)

ILO-IPEC and Inter-Parliamentary Union, Handbook for Parliamentarians -- Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labor: A Practical Guide to ILO Convention No. 182 , 2002. (in English and Albanian)

ILO-IPEC, Combating Child Labour: A Handbook for Labour Inspectors , 2002 (in English and Albanian)

ILO-IPEC, Child Labor Training Manuals , 2000 (in Albanian)

ILO-IPEC, Praktika te mira: Perfshirja e aspektit gjinor ne veprimtarite kunder punes se femijeve , 2002. (in Albanian)

ILO-IPEC brochures and posters

Terre des Hommes, Unicef, Oak Foundation, The Trafficking of Albanian Children in Greece , January 2003.

Unicef, UNOHCHR, OSC/ODIHR, Trafficking in Human Beings in Southeastern Europe. Current Situation and Responses to Trafficking in Human Beings in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Romania , June 2002.

Terre des Hommes, Unicef, Oak Foundation, Trafficking in Children: Training Pamphlet for Teachers ( in Albanian)

Terre des Hommes, Unicef, Oak Foundation, poster/cartoon materials on trafficking for children. (in Albanian)

Information and Research Centre for Children’s Rights in Albania, Brochure (in Albanian and English)

CRCA and IPEC, Brochure, Children’s Newsletter (May 2002), and Poster (in Albanian)

CRCA, General Information on the Action Programe and the Implementing Agency: Report to ILO-IPEC on project implementation 6/1/2001 – 6/1/2002 , July 8, 2002.

CRCA Website Materials

BKTF (“All Together Against Child Trafficking in Albania”), Statute of the Organisation , January 2003.

U.S. Department of Labor, 2002 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor , 2003.

U.S. Department of Labor, 2001 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor , 2002.

U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2002 , 2003.

U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2001 , 2002.

U.S. Department of State, Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000: Trafficking in Persons Report , 2003.