The Albanian government will be cooperating with the “Different Weekend” charity foundation, putting people who need support at the heart of a project to set up a Solidarity Centre. The Solidarity Centre project was launched around a year ago and now is about to be finalized. The Solidarity Centre will also house a vocational education school for families in need, as well as a rehabilitation centre up to highest contemporary standards.
Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks at launch of Solidarity Centre project:
Greetings everyone!
The 3D project has been designed by the executive director of “Different Weekend” Foundation, Arber Hajdari. I have no hand in designing the 3D project. Yet, in our time, a project is born out of an idea, which then is materialized initially in a 3D model and finally implemented on the ground. I am very excited to be here today and I am attending this event as a result of probably one of my toughest moments I have experienced while on a TV studio. Perhaps you may remember, not because of me, but because of Arber, as we were both in that television studio when I was invited to the “Opinion” talk show to participate in a discussion on charity. I repented over having accepted the invitation at the very start of the show, because, as I believe this is the case for every Prime Minister around the world, in a situation when entire attention focuses on critical moments of families living in critical conditions, the government head naturally finds himself in the position of the one to blame for everything and has no right to speak up. However, the best result of that show – where I wouldn’t attend should this film was to be replayed again – was that it turned into a new momentum for me to commit and provide my share of contribution, taking into account my possibilities.
When I published the first newly reconstructed house, Arbri sent me somehow an ironic message, congratulating me for the first step I had already made on this path, saying that I was not bad beginner at all, yet you can do a lot more should you accept my idea.
Of course it is a problem for me to be a second in command, so I asked him to tell his idea which was about setting up this Solidarity centre. He had spotted an area in Tirana’s other part. Indeed, it was all about a considerably large territory in a militarized area, and I promptly welcomed the idea. Yet I think we should go further because we have already launched an emergency system reform and join forces in another Public Private Partnership project.
So, we agreed on a PPP, with the administration and management tasks to be carried out by the “Different Weekend” Foundation, but we will employ our whole Civil Emergency arsenal under the Ministry of Defense umbrella and entire economic and social assistance support system to do exactly what Arber said, not merely the material joining of forces, but also to strengthen the message of voluntarism.
Mother Teresa used to say: “Poverty was not created by God, it is created by you and me when we don’t share what we have through our egotism.”
Undoubtedly, prior to Mother Teresa, the Prophet of many of you here, peace be upon him, has said that “Giving in charity doesn’t decrease your wealth in the slightest,” and Arber, as a smart boy he is, has taken the Prophet’s saying, and many think that Arberi is the one to have said it, and this adds the people’s respect for Arberi.
I want to say that we are committed to move this project forward.
I repeat again, the 3Dp project is not mine, so should the project undergoes changes in the process, it is Arber to be blamed and not me. But the project won’t change for worse, for sure. Project has room for further improvement, but I haven’t yet interfered in this process.
The programme features an extremely important aspect and it is a much needed project as the solidarity centre won’t be merely a collection centre for donations, neither a place where the volunteers will gather to distribute aid, but it will also provide important services, including the vocational training for young people. I think we can help more for this part of the project.
To conclude, I would say this is the case to remind the saying: “You come into the world with nothing, and when you depart it you can take nothing with you.” Yet, good memories and reputation, either be it in one single heart of mind, it is all we leave behind. In this sense, I believe Arber has already secured a place in the Paradise. I don’t know what the Imam who took the floor ahead of me thinks about this, but, without interfering in the clerics’ competencies, I want to say that until then, of course Arber has a longer road to go, but, for reasons the way I have lived, I have never worked as a subordinate under a director. I have been working as a university professor and it was only then I had to report to a department head and since then I have been a free man. Once I leave from my current position, Arber will be the only director I would work with as a subordinate at the “Different Weekend” Foundation.
