World Vision’s “Family Week” strengthens the families in Albania
The story shows the impact of World Vision’s “Family Week” training section on the lives of families from rural areas of Shkodra area development programme. The goal of the training is to raise the awareness of parents about the role they play in the family and empower them with knowledge to fulfil their roles even better. Together, 63 couples participated.
They learned more about how to be better parents, the importance of spending time with their children and the importance of the respect they should pay all members in the family to have more harmony and joy. For most of the women, this was the first time they participated in a training like this one, especially with their husbands.
The story is told by Gjyl, 39, a mother of two children. Thanks to the training, today she and her husband have more harmony and joy in their lives thanks to the knowledge they received in the training. This is the second time World Vision has held “Family Week” in the Shkodra. Last year, 57 couples participated in a similar training that focused on the value of marriages.
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Gjyl, 39, lives in a village in the area of Shkodra with her husband and two children: Roko, 10, and Xhuljo, 15. She is a trained nurse but unfortunately, like many women in the area, because of the unemployment situation in Albania, she doesn’t have a job.
Before joining World Vision’s family week training, Gjyl said: “I needed so much to learn about being a better parent and those trainings grabbed my attention; [they taught me] to spend time with my children even though I am very busy every day. Now, I understand how important is to be near them,” says Gyl.
The training not only contained theory, parents also time to discuss together where they felt they had failed and how they could go about building more harmony among the relationships in their families.
“I have always been a good mother,” says Gjyle. “But, the trainings brought to mind times when my children wanted to talk to me, and sometimes my response was, ‘I am cooking’ or ‘I am planting in the field,’ made me think. After the training, I started to communicate more with my children,” she continues. Her children have noted the difference. “My older son, Xhuljo, one day said to me, ‘Mom, what agood affect those training have had onyou.’ I was glad to hear those words,” says gjyl. “ I wish I could have heard such information years ago,” she adds.
Jetmira, the World Vision’s community mobilizer, who waswith the families during whole training time, said: “It was beautiful to see some couples discussing together for the first time. During the first day of the training, the majority of them were shy, distanced. It was obvious they were locked in and did not have communication with one -another, as it is very common in Albania in the rural parts. Over thecoming days, however, the couples started to talk with each other a bit. The men started to smile andlisten tothe opinions of their wives. It was beautiful,” says Jetmira.
“In the end, we made them [our husbands] give us flowers,” says Gjyl, smiling.
In addition to participating in the Family Week for improved family relations, Gjyl and her husband have also received support from World Vision for income generation. Thanks to this training, Gjyl and her husband are planting sageon their land selling it for medicinal products, enabling them to earn a living.
“Thank you for giving us this idea to do something with the land we have, because although I am not employed, now I have a small business to maintain my family and raise my children well,” says Gjyl, in gratitude.
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