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Highlights from the presentations

of the civic project

“Engaging Communities in Civic

Education in Albania”

On 25 April 2018 the students of grade 11 in

the non-public high school “Protagonistët”

of the Orthodox community on Tirana made

their presentation of their Project Citizen for

the year 2018 and the problem they chose to

address was “The green crown of Tirana”.

The initiative of the mayor of Tirana to

increase the number of trees and green areas

in the capital inspired the students to join the

project of the Tirana municipality “Tirana’s

orbital forest”. In the framework of their

project, the students organized meetings

with representatives of Tirana municipality

in order to present their ideas and get better

knowledge of the municipal project. In these

meetings the representatives of Tirana

municipality expressed their support for the

students’ initiative to donate and plant 100

trees as part of “Tirana’s orbital forest” and

planned the day when the activity would

take place. The students managed to raise

the necessary funds to buy 100 decorative

olive trees which were planted in the park

near their community’s nine-year school

near the artificial lake in the presence of the

mayor of Tirana, Mr. Erion Veliaj.

The project was presented to their peers in

the presence of school authorities, parents,

community representatives and media. They

felt proud to have been able to make their

contribution to improving the quality of the

environment in their city. The students and

school authorities also expressed their

commitment to continue their cooperation

with the municipality of Tirana for their

projects in the future as a very effective way

to contribute to their community.

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Presentation of Project Citizen from 11th grade students of “Protagonistët”

The students of the Medresse of Tirana

made their presentation of Project Citizen on

4 May 2018 and they had chosen to address

“Violence against women”. The reason why

they chose to address this problem was that

they were concerned by the high presence of

this phenomenon in Albanian society and

they presented data from 2016 which

showed disturbing percentages of domestic

violence in all regions of Albania. The

students identified responsible institutions

for targeting this problem on a national and

local level and underlined the importance of

increased awareness among women

themselves to stand up and courageously

denounce cases of violence against them.

Through their dramatizations of domestic

violence cases against women the students

also stressed the importance of cooperation

with law enforcement agencies and local

community structures in order not only to

help prevent this phenomenon but also to try

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provide support to all women subject to

violence. In their presentation the students

also focused on the negative impact that

violence against mothers has on children and

stressed the important contribution that

religious communities can make by

promoting traditional family values and

respect for women. The principal of the

Tirana Meddresse, Mr. Ali Zaimi,

congratulated the students for their excellent

work and expressed his gratitude to the

Embassy of USA in Tirana for supporting

similar projects which promote civic

activism, civic values and religious

tolerance.

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Moments from the presentation of the project “Violence against women” from 11th grade students of “Haxhi

Mahmut Dashi” Meddresse of Tirana

The students of eleventh grade in the “Liria”

Meddresse of Elbasan addressed the

problem of “Corruption in the health

sector”. In their presentation, organized on

the 30th of April in the premises of their

school, they brought evidence of corruption

from the Albanian health service sector and

conducted interviews with local residents in

Elbasan, all of which underlined the gravity

of this problem and the need for substantial

reform, especially as regards the use of

individual health care contributions. Most of

the respondents in the interviews were not

satisfied with the quality of service in public

health institutions and confirmed cases of

bribery. The students stressed the

importance of increased awareness among

citizens who should have the courage to

stand up and denounce every case of

corruption in this sector and the need to use

already available anti-corruption

instruments. They also suggested a closer

and continuous cooperation especially with

civil society organizations engaged in the

fight against corruption. The school

principal, Mr. Bajram Omeri, congratulated

the students for their excellent work and

presentation and pointed out the importance

of student participation in similar projects

which strengthen their connection with the

community and increase their contribution

to the fight against corruption.

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Students of “Liria” Meddresse in Elbasan during their presentation of the project “Corruption in the health sector”

In the Meddresse of Korça the students of

the eleventh grade this year chose “Sharing

what we do in our school with the

community”. The idea behind this project

was, according to the students, the best way

for them to share most of the things they do

in different disciplines at school, in order to

promote the wonderful work of teachers and

students and their experiences in different

projects. For this they chose to organize a

fair in the city of Korça open for all the

citizens in which they showcased the work

they do with different projects in their

school and how they acquire knowledge and

skills useful for their life in the future. The

fair attracted a lot fo citizens and it was a

great opportunity for the students to engage

in conversations with local residents and

explain the good things they and their

teachers do every day. Most of the visitors

were both surprised and happy to see all the

things the students had prepared and also

enjoyed the presentations they made for the

visitors. They encouraged the students of the

Meddresse to continue this experience in the

future and organize similar fairs every year

as a very good way to let the community see

how and what students learn in the

Meddresse of Korça. On the 22nd of May the

students made a presentation of their project

and best experiences in front of their peers,

parents and teachers. They said they felt

very excited by the warm reception they

received from the citizens of Korça and

proud for the values that they and their

school represents.

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Moments from the presentation of the project “Sharing what we do in our school with the community” from the

students of the Meddresse of Korça

The girls of eleventh grade in the “Hafiz Ali

Korça” Meddresse in Kavaja chose to

engage in the project “Grow your own

plant” which was their contribution to

planting seventy new pine trees all around

their school yard. They said they had been

considering this idea since last year so they

proposed this project to their school

authorities and got their full support. The

students decided to start a fund raising

campaign among the school and local

community. They prepared leaflets

describing their initiative and distributed

them to their peers, parents and local

residents in a very close cooperation and

with the support of local Muslim community

representatives. They chose to plant their

trees on the 8th of March as a tribute to all

mothers in Albania. In the first week of

April they made a presentation of all the

steps they had taken in the course of the

project and shared experiences with their

peers, thanking everyone who had made

their modest contribution to making their

school a better place.

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Students of “Hafiz Ali Korça” Meddresse in Kavaja engaged in the project “Grow your own plant”

The girls and boys in the “Haxhi Sheh

Shamia” Meddresse of Shkodra made their

presentations of Project Citizen 2018 on the

15th of May in the premises of their school.

The boys of eleventh grade had chosen to

address “Waste management in rural areas

– A challenge for the future”. The reason for

their choice was the very bad situation and

threat to the environment in the villages

close to the border with Montenegro. The

students had meetings with representatives

and residents in those villages to learn more

about the situation and the responsibilities of

local government authorities. In cooperation

with the local residents the students

organized a special cleaning day in an effort

to increase awareness about the importance

of protecting rural environment in those

villages which will not only improve the

quality of life but also present a more

attractive picture for the foreign tourists

entering Albania from this side of the

border. In their final presentation the four

groups presented their work in the

framework of the project and students said

that the project helped them to get a better

understanding of the local government

responsibilities as regards the management

of rural waste. The local residents, on the

other hand, expressed their gratitude to the

students for helping them to clean the area

and for urging local authorities to strengthen

their cooperation with the municipality of

Shkodra.

The girls of eleventh grade in the “Haxhi

Sheh Shamia” Meddresse of Shkodra chose

“In memory of those eternalized in

memorials”. The main reason why they

decided to address this problem was the

lamentable situations with memorials in the

city of Shkodra, which, according to the

students, was a total lack of respect and

appreciation for our traditions and history.

The students carefully identified and took

pictures of all memorials with problems and

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with all that evidence in hand they had a

meeting with the head of the responsible

office in the municipality of Shkodra to

discuss how the situation could be

improved. While the municipality agreed to

fund the necessary repair work for all the

identified memorials, the students

volunteered to clean the area and plant

flowers around each memorial. The students

also decided to send a proposal to the city

council for a memorial in honor of Haxhi

Sheh Shamia for his contribution to religious

tolerance in Shkodra. In his concluding

remarks, the principal of the Meddresse, Mr.

Kujtim Dervishi, thanked the students for

their civic contribution to the community

and underlined the importance of Project

Citizen for strengthening the connections

and cooperation of their school with the

local community. He also expressed his

gratitude to the Embassy of USA in Tirana

and IDM for a very fruitful cooperation over

the years which has affected generations of

students graduating from the Meddresse of

Shkodra.

Project Citizen presentations from the students of “Haxhi Sheh Shamia” Meddresse in Shkodra

Project Citizen for the students in the “Pjetër

Mëshkalla” high school of the Orthodox

community in Shkodra this year was about

“Improving public transportation can make

Shkodra a cleaner city”.

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Eleventh graders in this school brought

evidence of the serious lack of public

transportation in the city of Shkodra and

how the use of private car transportation by

the majority of citizens increases pollution.

The students argued that although the

number of people using bicycles as their

every day means of transportation has

increased thanks to an old tradition and

promotion by local authorities, the quality of

air in the city is alarming due to the use of

bad fuel and old cars with high pollution

norms with no respect for environment. The

students surveyed local residents in Shkodra

to ask their opinion about public

transportation and the majority of them said

that they would be happy to use public

transportation if they could rely on it not

only because it would be less costly for them

but also because it would reduce pollution in

the city. Most of the citizens using bicycles

to commute in the city said it was not safe to

ride in the streets of Shkodra because there

are no dedicated lanes for riders and also

because drivers do not respect traffic rules

and accidents have been quite frequent. The

students prepared and distributed leaflets

promoting their proposal for the city council

to consider the introduction of public bus

transportation for at least four of the main

corridors in the city with the potentials to

expand it in the future based on a careful

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planning by relevant local authorities. They

also invited representatives from local

government and local police to discuss their

proposal and ask for their support.

The girls in the “H. Mustafa Varoshi”

Meddresse in Durrës chose “Thalassemic

children and our responsibility to help

them”. The students organized a special day

where the girls cooked and served food and

all the money they collected was donated to

help families with thalassemic children. In

close cooperation with the local Muslim

authorities, the public hospital and Red

Cross in Durrës the students organized a

blood donation campaign. In addition, they

prepared and distributed leaflets among the

local community to increase awareness

among citizens to help thalassemic children.

The presentation of their project in prezi can

be found in the following link

https://prezi.com/view/5SgFS0iuQu2lCbASICeA/

Students of “H. Mustafa Varoshi” Meddresse in Durrës in action with their project

“Thalassemic children and our responsibility to help them”