Kujtim Sharku, a resident in the village of Pishaj, Gramsh Municipality, welcomed Prime Minister Edi Rama and the Minister of Health and Social Protection Ogerta Manastirliu in his newly-built home. The previous living and poor housing conditions in a ruined home where they lived together with their four children is now a memory of the past. “We visited Kujtim a year ago when his sons and daughters were preparing for the new school year. The old house was completely ruined,” the Minister of Health and Social Protection said.

Sharku family, entitled to the social welfare benefits scheme, now share proper dwelling space and a pleasant home environment. The children of this family will also receive their textbooks for free under the government’s initiative to provide textbooks to all schoolchildren around the country for free.

“I had never imagined we would have a house like this,” the housewife said during a conversation with the Prime Minister, who congratulated her children for their will and passion for learning as the only way to build a much better future for themselves. “It is important that everyone draws a great lesson from the fact that excellent pupils and students live in such poor housing conditions. There can be no more excuses about lacking many things. There are many new houses we have built and we will keep building and these children want to learn a lot now,” the Premier said.

The number of poor and needy families like Sharku family is not too high, however, the government head pledged to press ahead and expand the initiative of building new houses. “We are now taking stock to the number of families in such conditions and we will keep implementing more housing projects. We have some new ideas to better organize and cooperate with the volunteer teams in order to allow more and more families escape from such terrible housing conditions,” Prime Minister Rama stated.