Greeting speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama delivered in the Development Centre in Durres:

Hello to everyone!

I’m excited for this visit because, whenever I have to visit for work purposes such realities, I feel excited and privileged that from a direct contact with people in need, with special children, persons with disabilities, with the lonely old people, I am given a special encouragement.

This initiative is special because it takes place at the same time across the country, in all 28 social care centres for different categories; children, persons with disabilities, women, and the elderly. It is not just the festive atmosphere, but in addition and thanks to the festive atmosphere, we want at the same time to thank the community.

I want to thank all those in this centre for keeping it alive with their dedication and volunteering in order to help as much as possible the children that in this place socialize and develop their capacities; the civil society organizations that are involved in the process of progress and expansion of these centres; businesses that fortunately have been growing around this social and humanitarian activity, and certainly different international partners have consistently given they their contribution so that these centres would develop and expand.

On the other hand, there are two important things to highlight, which are also two objectives of our government, but I believe that they are good intentions of our society generally speaking.

Fighting discrimination against persons with disabilities in all aspects of social or private life, and especially when it comes to their deserved employment or their necessary education and access to services. Unfortunately, our society is not yet fully open to persons with disabilities, forgetting that disability is not about the individual. “My disability exists not because I am using a wheelchair, but because the environment around me is inaccessible” – a disabled girl says.

Referring to official data, we are in a dramatic situation that has been inherited year after year, because 64% of disabled school-age children do not attend compulsory education. Certainly, we are not a unique case. There are approximately 93 million disabled 0-14 year old children worldwide who do not have access to education, or whose school enrolment rate is very low.

We believe that lower rates of enrolment are due to bias, but also because of the lack of suitable infrastructure for these children in schools, due to the lack of a well-organized institutional support. No doubt that the denial of the right to education is one of the biggest obstacles for people with disabilities, who are excluded from rights that give them the opportunity to be part of society and not feel more even more limited because of the restrictions imposed on them by society. In many cases this restriction begins in the family who feel embarrassed and are not psychologically prepared to fight together with us, in order to give these children the access they deserve.

Albania is part of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. By accepting the Convention, the Albanian state has the obligation to respect the rights of all groups of people with disabilities.

I’ve had the chance to meet with the Special Adviser to President Obama’s in the State Department, an extraordinary person in a wheelchair and an excellent US diplomat. During the talk I had with her, I had the chance to understand more about the difficult conditions that persons with disabilities face worldwide, and about the psychological barriers they encounter as a result of the psychological obstruction of societies and decision makers’ in relation to disabled people.

What I want to say is that the establishment of rehabilitation services in these centres, which is going on at a pace that is not probably the one it should, but nevertheless it is an important pace, is an added value and a must for these centres to be a temporary station that will help children to reintegrate in society.

We have a Project that we have named “My Dream”. One of the winning projects of 2015 was that of a girl Desli Shahini, and it aimed at the inclusion and socialization of deaf children in the everyday life. One of their skills and talents is painting and handicrafts. Those kids worked in the Prime Ministry for a week, used their imagination and gave themselves the opportunity, through the possibility that was given to them, to talk more through what they did. And what happened that week was very significant to see that there is a real capacity and a real opportunity to be used in order to help these children, so that tomorrow they will be able to go through life successfully and integrate in society.

Finally, I want to thank all those who work in these 28 centres, where indeed we have seen a lot of dedication, we have seen a lot of skill that have helped us understand and help these children. Just as I would like to thank the parents who with their presence, their care, but also with their collaboration with these centres are an added value that helps us understand what we can do better.

My best wishes to all of you who are here, and through you to all those who could not attend this activity today for personal reasons.

I take this opportunity to wish all the best also to the parents of these special children, as I like to call them, wishing that next year will bring you more joy and more positive energy to work together with us and overcome the obstacles that we mentioned.

Many thanks to all of you!

Happy New Year!

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More love and more attention for the people in need in this last period of the year. With this message, 28 festive activities were organized today in 28 social care institutions across the country under the auspices of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth, and with the support of businesses, media and celebrities in different areas. For this purpose, 28 prominent figures in the political, economic, social and cultural life visited one of the 28 institutions to celebrate with the people living there, considering this day as the beginning of a new year in the spirit of solidarity with the people in need.

Prime Minister Edi Rama conveyed his best wishes for the holidays in the Development Centre in Durres, which serves children with disabilities. The event was attended also by the Minister of Youth and Social Welfare.