The fall of the communist regime in Albania presented the Catholic Church with a positive challenge on the long road of the material and spiritual reconstruction of the country. Great energies have been devoted to this task; yet the journey begun years ago is only the beginning, and every day new problems arise which undoubtedly add to the number of unresolved issues.
Once again – in the grave emergency caused by the collapse of the pyramid schemes, which brought the country to its worst poverty – everything had to start again from scratch, but this time under the heavy weight of a deep distrust of the future, especially among the young.
Always in the front line, the Catholic Church accepted the challenge of the human and material reconstruction of this country, torn apart by internal divisions, structural poverty and cultural poverty, in one of the most politically heated areas of the planet; it is precisely in this political and human crisis that the origins of the Diocesan Caritas of Shkodër are to be found.
In fact, a year before the human catastrophe of Kosovo reached the world’s television screens, quietly and amid general incomprehension, Diocesan Caritas faced the problem of hundreds of refugees who were leaving their homeland to escape persecution.
Although poorly equipped, Caritas built two centres to receive these people, who could not yet benefit from international solidarity because their tragedy was unknown.
It was precisely these twelve months of sharing with our Kosovar brothers and sisters that meant that, when the humanitarian catastrophe broke out (and made the headlines), we at least had some idea of how to act… in fact Diocesan Caritas had been reorganised only a short time before, and we were unprepared and lacked the necessary experience in this field.
Within a few hours the first requests for food, clothing and blankets began to arrive from Kukës… and the first to answer the call of these desperate people were the Albanians themselves. Despite the general poverty, eggs, bread and wine began to arrive, and groups of young people made themselves available to help. This was the greatest and most unexpected surprise: the poor Albanian who, faced with someone living in even greater poverty than his own, offers himself and opens the door of his home to receive the refugees.
One of the first things to be done – amid the turmoil of those days – was to coordinate these energies: to help the Kosovars and encourage the Albanians, to support the first groups of young people who were trying to organise themselves under one name and in one organisation… But standing beside the poor when you have nothing with which to meet their needs is certainly not easy. Everything was lacking, and a health emergency was rapidly approaching in the city of Shkodër, caused by severe overcrowding in the complete absence of hygiene and health infrastructure.
A second, gratifying reality was the complete cooperation of all the religious communities, which gave a true witness of brotherhood in action: friaries, convents and schools opened to the refugees; priests and sisters all united in the service of the refugee, whether Catholic or Muslim.
The diocesan assemblies, held regularly at the seminary and led by the Archbishop, were exemplary: the discussions were no longer about catechetical methods but about how to prepare food for thousands of people, how to meet the physical needs of so many people and how to bring life to the camps – one of the strongest ecclesial moments in the life of the Diocese. All this was happening while the “normal” problems of Albania had not diminished but had, on the contrary, been aggravated by overcrowding.
When the letter from the Holy Father arrived, bringing his Apostolic Blessing on our work together with a financial contribution, our joy was as great as the encouragement to continue our service to our brothers and sisters, whether Kosovars or Albanians. Another important moment was the visit of the Pope’s representative to our Diocese.
The arrival of international solidarity brought with it the risk that the economically weaker local organisations and forces might withdraw.
The first great step forward in quality for Diocesan Caritas: under the Archbishop’s leadership a kind of steering committee was set up, to which the representatives of the foreign Caritas organisations present in the territory of the Diocese were invited. All were asked to join in a common front and to work together as an expression of the local Church, including those who had already offered their help earlier. The regular meetings with the other Albanian diocesan Caritas organisations in the National Council were true moments of formation; the work of Caritas Albania, both logistically and operationally and from a specifically ecclesial point of view, was invaluable.
In an exemplary way, national Caritas organisations such as those of Spain, Belgium, Austria and Germany, many Italian diocesan Caritas organisations coordinated by Caritas Italiana, and even larger organisations such as JRS agreed to work on one front with the Diocesan Caritas of Shkodër (at that time the Interdiocesan Caritas of Shkodër-Sapa), which, we might almost say, was “forced into existence” by the emergency.
The strength of the Diocesan Caritas of Shkodër – drawn from the help and professionalism of its sister Caritas organisations, which helped with food and money but above all by sending qualified staff – enabled it to become a credible and authoritative intermediary both with the United Nations agencies and with the Albanian public authorities, who were themselves pleasantly surprised by the response of the Catholic Church.
Many international Caritas organisations (from Croatian and Czech Caritas to Polish and French Caritas), and church organisations (the Scouts and Catholic Action) or non-church ones (individual municipalities and trade unions), have in some way enabled us to carry out our work. It would be impossible to thank everyone without forgetting someone; there are, however, two groups of people whom we felt very close to us at the most difficult moments: the enclosed sisters, and the sick, who offered up their sufferings for our service to the refugees…
The return of the refugees after the end of the bombing changed the situation for good and presented a new and ever difficult challenge: on the one hand there was the joy of the refugees returning to their homeland, while on the other the disappointment of the Albanian people was strong – they had been made great promises but now saw all the organisations moving to Kosovo, forgetting the words they had promised… and this anger often turned into acts of violence and the destruction of the materials left over from the camps.
This criticism was never levelled at Diocesan Caritas! In fact, while the other organisations left, Caritas stayed. The whole of Caritas, since the only “officially” recognised Caritas was the Diocesan Caritas of Shkodër; and indeed, though the camps were closing, the humanitarian work continued among the Albanian poor, who have never been lacking.
Yet the return of the Kosovar refugees to their homeland confronted us with a question: how were we to respond to the great generosity we had received? The answer was immediate: “You received without payment; give without payment.”
The end of the war came somewhat unexpectedly for everyone, and although all the organisations were keen to go to Kosovo, none of them was ready to do so. We accepted the challenge and, with a group of Albanian volunteers, on behalf of the whole of Caritas Albania, we set out on the first mission outside Albania, while continuing at the same time to deal with the problems of the Diocese of Shkodër.
The mission in Gjakova lasted a few months – time enough for the sister Caritas organisations to reorganise their interventions. Having made available everything that was needed – knowledge of the culture and the language, and the organisation of logistics – we returned to Albania wishing to take a further step forward in quality.
The challenge, in fact, consisted in radically changing the type of intervention by building a project specific to the Albanian reality; what was required was a rethinking of the whole of Caritas, often identified with a “family parcel” or financial aid. It was necessary to abandon the emergency mentality and plan for “normality”.
First of all, a change in our own way of working was needed (it is much simpler to hand out family parcels), and then in that of the whole Diocese. In fact it was decided “not to accept being delegated” to assist the poor; instead all the parishes and religious communities were involved, so that each would take responsibility for the poor of its own community. Caritas supported these efforts through coordination, making available everything it received from international charity.
An in-depth study of the diocesan reality brought us face to face with little-known realities to which we had to try to respond: internal migration, illegal emigration, trafficking in women, blood feuds, prostitution, unemployment…
It was immediately clear that not only was it impossible to meet all the needs, but above all that this was not our specific task: we had to have the courage to help the Albanian institutions, which were not yet able to give concrete answers to very serious problems.
Before doing so, however, we considered it necessary to define our precise identity, which would allow us to draw up a social and pastoral programme with its own specific design.
To get this project under way we proceeded step by step: first of all, it was decided to maintain collegiality in decision-making. In fact, as has always been the case, the diocesan director has been supported by a steering committee led by the Archbishop.
At the same time, involving the other diocesan realities as well, a thorough reflection began which led to the approval of the statute and the canonical establishment of the Diocesan Office for the Pastoral Care of Charity, with the decree officially appointing the director and the steering committee for a three-year term, with the following sectors:
Management and external relations, entrusted to a religious
Formation, entrusted to a Dehonian religious
Emergency, Cooperation & Development, entrusted to a lay person;
Administration and Financial Planning, entrusted to a Friar Minor.
Social Field, entrusted to a lay person;
Health Field, entrusted to a religious sister who is a doctor.
The need for frequent exchanges among ourselves was felt at once, so as to keep a historical record of the interventions and of the reflections that matured in our work. A great encouragement for us was the regular presence of the Archbishop at the meetings and his reflections recorded in the minutes.
To draw up an operational social and pastoral programme, it was necessary to update relations with the other church realities, both inside and outside the diocese, and to involve local lay people in autonomous voluntary organisations of Catholic inspiration: “Justice and Peace”, “Malteser Hilfsdienst in Albania”, “Kolping Albania”, “Scouts”… all independent organisations, but ones that saw the Diocesan Caritas of Shkodër as a point of reference and a stimulus for their activities.
Professional training courses began for the local staff working at Caritas, as well as for the staff and volunteers engaged in the organisations mentioned above.
Another important step was the transformation of the refugee camp at Arra e Madhe into a multi-purpose centre and the operational office of Diocesan Caritas. The fact that part of the centre was turned into a friary of the Friars Minor and made a parish gave strong meaning to Caritas as an expression of the local Church. Arra e Madhe is perhaps the poorest district of the city of Shkodër; it is inhabited by people who came down from the mountains in a disorganised way, and every kind of poverty, even the most severe, was present in this district…
The experience of the Refugee Emergency had enriched us with many contacts with foreign Caritas organisations, which had been able to appreciate our commitment and intended to continue their work in support of us. In this atmosphere of cooperation the Shkodër Network was born, with a few well-defined priorities. Its sole purpose was not to seek funding; above all it was the place where interventions in the Diocese would be discussed, without overlapping, looking for the best resources, and thus giving a witness of fraternal cooperation for a decisive and effective intervention by the Church. It is precisely from this kind of cooperation that the specific character of Shkodër Caritas was born – certainly very different from others, working as it does in a particular environment and without resources of its own.
Naturally it was not possible to answer the calls arriving from every side; the availability of the means made available by charity often confronted us with new responsibilities: both towards the Diocese, as a kind of support to the Pastoral Offices on the path of formation (starting the translation of the documents of the Second Vatican Council and of the Holy Father’s encyclicals), and towards the society to which we belong, through help (professional training courses, health interventions, social assistance) to the still fragile Albanian institutions.
We needed to set priorities, seeking to create specific works that could not be exploited in a multi-religious context.
Apart from the commitments we might call “ordinary administration”, the specific interventions it was decided to carry out were two: the Bottega Project and the House of Peace.
The Bottega Project sought to respond to two deep problems that were destroying Albania: youth unemployment and illegal emigration. In both cases young people are at risk of ending up in the hands of organised crime, drifting into the trafficking of drugs and arms and into prostitution.
In practice, instead of giving financial help to the unemployed, the project places them in businesses that undertake to give the young people professional training; the project provides young people with work grants, on the understanding that the business takes care of their training as a whole. Supervision is entrusted to tutors, who guarantee the training. At the end of the training cycle, personalised projects for developing the business can be studied.
Aware that it is not characteristic of Caritas to intervene in such detailed and specific ways, the whole project, including the training paths for tutors and businesses, was entrusted to the Consorzio delle Cooperative Sociali Polis of Pisa, an independent body born of the Diocesan Caritas of Pisa.
Although more ambitious, the “House of Peace” project is the one that will leave the strongest mark in the long term. In fact the “House of Peace”, set within the “Village of Peace” on Mount Tarabosh, aims to be a meeting place for different cultures, ethnic groups and religious faiths. A few kilometres from the borders with Montenegro and Kosovo, it aims to be a sign of reconciliation in the Balkans, which, as is well known, have for centuries been martyred by fratricidal wars.
Nor was the place chosen by chance: an old army barracks, later a border police post, on Lake Shkodër where the River Buna rises. It is precisely there that a Roma community has been settled for centuries, never accepted by society and living in poverty beyond human limits.
Many challenges still lie ahead of us; it is therefore necessary to carry forward the process of making our interventions more professional, continuing the ongoing formation of our workers and strengthening the formation of parish Caritas groups, based on these guiding principles:
Albanians helping Albanians.
Albanians showing mercy to Albanians.
The poor Albanian helping those poorer than himself.
Nevertheless, it is objectively impossible to do without international aid, above all that of our sister Churches; it is therefore necessary to keep open the dialogue with the international organisations that have worked in the territory of our Diocese, and to involve others as well.
For this reason, in order to pass on messages to donors, efforts were made to make better use of modern technologies such as the internet; in fact in those years there was a website of the Diocesan Caritas of Shkodër. The first experimental site was created by some German parishes in 2001 (WWW.HELP-FOR-ALBANIA.ORG) and produced unexpected results; its purpose was to link and register the respective addresses of the Bottega Project and the House of Peace – a site connected with the Shkodër Network that could represent the spiritual centre in which the development and growth of the Diocesan Caritas of Shkodër would continue.
So as not to depend entirely on help from abroad, young Albanians were trained in the particular technical skills needed to manage websites – a structural strengthening, until modern technologies reach a large part of the Albanian population, which could open up unexpected prospects in Albania too. Despite the difficulties, we considered the effort in this direction important.
Shkodër Caritas’s wish to master contemporary technologies was also intended to offer the other Albanian diocesan Caritas organisations, or even the whole Catholic Church in Albania, a service with this kind of tool, ever more necessary in the pastoral work of evangelisation too.
The commitment to passing on information through modern technologies also had another educational purpose: often, when speaking about Albania (when we are outside its borders), we realise that it is a reality truly unknown to the European community; we thought that knowledge of the great poverty of this country might make it easier to accept the Albanian emigrant.
Cooperation with many Italian diocesan Caritas organisations and the presence in Shkodër of many foreign volunteers have led to a greater awareness, especially at church level, of the need to help this European country, forgotten for centuries and for centuries an “unresolved problem” in Europe.
Aware of our limits, and always open to every possible cooperation, we go forward in our service, hoping that the few works we have brought to life and our presence as an Albanian reality may be a true Christian witness in the social life of this martyred country.