Students mobilise the community for a new schoolyard

They are senior high school students and they already feel responsible for the little ones in their school. The 16 school government’s senators of "Karl Gega" school in Lezha dedicated their time and energy to provide a reconstructed schoolyard to their younger peers. They organised a movie screening and the revenues collected will go for the yard reconstruction.

Student Governement of Karl Gega school together with their teacher Drita, who has supported them on this initiative

Nostalgic about the time when they studied in the small banks of the school in Balldren, they remember the difficulties they had to face when they played in the yard. “We had also spent our childhood in that school and we have seen the bad conditions of the yard. Children have no place to play or perform physical activities because the yard is filled with dirt and mud whenever it rains” says Markela, president of the school’s senate.

The schoolyard in Lezha where about 200 kids study from first grade to fifth

Since September last year, the city of Lezha has finally a running cinema again, after more than 20 years of absence. The idea was born when a group of young people from Lezha , "Youth Vision", supported by World Vision Albania, conducted a survey with 500 peers and community members. 80% of the respondents said that their first choice for their community would be the re-opening of the cinema. Now, their goal of using the cinema to bring attention to social issues seems to be getting fulfilled. “In our city, there are not too many alternatives to spend free time. We decided to use the cinema, since now we have one, not only for entertainment, but also for a good reason”, says Dorina, one of the members of student government.

“We are only 16 student government senators, but a lot of people have joined our initiative. Around 200 students, parents, our teachers, the local community and World Vision are by our side”, says Markela. Even the municipality and the school district supported their initiative. Markela, together with her two friends, cannot hide their enthusiasm to see so many people mobilised for the same purpose. This will certainly be remembered not only in the small village of Balldren, but in the entire city of Lezha.

Markela, Ermelinda and Dorina (members of Student Government) are waiting to see how many people will come to the movie screening.

“First we shared the idea with our teacher, Drita and then with the school director”, says Dorina. “Soon we found the support of a lot of people and so we decided that the movie we were going to show would be “The great debaters”.

The cinema has a seating capacity of 350 and the ticket was less than US$1. Hence, this amount would not be enough to renovate the yard. With the support of World Vision and their teachers, these young people decided to organise a fundraising campaign and the movie screening was one of the steps. The reconstruction would cost around US$5,000, out of which US$1,000 was set for salaries. This expense is not needed anymore, thanks to the volunteer work of the community members (teachers, parents and some businesses). Meanwhile, teachers and students have collected an additional US$200 from the community members and businesses in the area.

Students welcome the people that came to see the movie.

“It has been a great pleasure for me to be part of this idea and to help these students. I like the message they want to spread. It is so collaborative and it sparks the idea of students to come closer to the school and the community members to come closer to each other”, says teacher Drita. “This initiative serves to break the ice and help the community to mobilise even more to make our village a better place for us, for our children, for anyone who lives here”, she adds.

During the film, the students’ were extremely happy to see that there were no empty seats left. Being so grateful for the attention dedicated to their idea, they promised that this is only the beginning. “Our school is a community centre, and it is expected of us to be role models. We want to achieve more”, says Markela

In their minds they already have some other initiatives: a park for the children, the reconstruction of the bridge that leads to this school, etc., but for these ideas, they have to sit and plan carefully. For now they enjoy the fruit of their work and hope to be an example for other students. “If we achieved this, other students can as well. Today the idea was to reconstruct the schoolyard, tomorrow it can be something bigger. Maybe we have inspired someone with what we did”, says emotionally Ermelinda, member of Student Government.