A growing number of families are returning to their newly-built homes in the 11 municipalities, worst-hit by the devastating earthquake on November 26 last year, as around 1000 families will be celebrating the New Year’s Eve in their new houses.

Municipal workers will start collecting the makeshift container-homes in the village of Zall-Herr, Tirana municipality, as the quake-affected families will no longer need them, because they are now provided with permanent larger, safer and more beautiful residencies than the one they lost in the earthquake.

The five-member family of Hiqmet Kodra in this village today welcomed Prime Minister Edi Rama, who, accompanied by the Mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, personally handed over the property ownership certificate to Hiqmet, whose new house built from ground up in a special location above the hill.  “There is a number of houses built after the ‘90s on this hilly area. The houses located on the ridge of the hill were the ones to sustain most severe damages due to the earthquake. This area was the worst-hit in the entire village of Zall-Herr,” Mayor Veliaj said.

Prenga is a woman who has moved to Zall-Herr from Puka many years ago. She has hit bad luck and affliction twice, when her home was destroyed by the earthquake and her husband passed away and she became a widowed mom of three sons. For her, the new house is hope and unspeakable joy. And this is the case with many other families in Zall-Herr, whose homes are being constructed and moving into the new dwellings is just a matter of days.

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The families of Luan Kacelli and Alfred Kodra in Zall Herr will celebrate the New Year’s Eve in their new houses. For these families too, just like it was the case with many others at the beginning of this process – as Luan’s wife acknowledges while opening the door of the new house – few hoped that they will ever be able to move not only into a new, but also a larger house. 

“When I first reported at the municipal offices to file my application, I thought this is a useless effort, however I’ll be doing what everyone else is doing. But when my name appeared on the list of the beneficiaries and my house was constructed, it seemed unbelievable.”

Construction of all single-family homes in Tirana suburbs is slated to complete by next spring.

“This is the first batch of 47 houses. Once the procedures and the documentation completes, construction of the second lot of 200 new houses will begin immediately. Construction of all these houses will complete within next spring. The second batch of the new houses is result of the second phase of the applications, because people were really reluctant and they hesitated to file their applications. As soon as they saw the first group of the 47 homes then 200 more followed the lead,” Mayor Veliaj said.