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Solidarity
Summer 2002
08/12/2002
Albania
In this summer of solidarity the number
of the Schools of Peace increases
From the north to the south of Albania the summer Schools of Peace gathered hundreds of Albanian and Roma children. News and
stories.
QIn Albania, this summer, every week a new school opened: there were tens of summer Schools of Peace of the Community of Sant�Egidio, reaching out to many new places. From Tirana to Lezha, to Scutari, hundreds of children of all ages were involved every week, both Albanian and Roma. For the Roma children in particular, this was often the first experience at school.
The Schools of Peace are an opportunity to speak about the world, about the conditions of the children in Africa, Asia and Latin America, like travelling through the continents on an imaginary train.
Solidarity is fed also by knowledge of the other, of his or her problems and stories. That is why hundreds of children have �travelled� in every school, making a journey that brought them to meet the world, opening to the others, the best way to grow up with feelings of peace.
The Fan Noli school in Tirana is a traditional place for the summer School of Peace of the Community, like the village of Berxhite, where the headmaster of the public primary school followed the activities of the School of Peace day by day, later writing in a letter: �I thank the Community once again for what it has done in this school, for the high and integrated level of its activities educating the children to peace, friendship and respect for the environment�.
 Going towards the north, on the road towards Elbasan, half an hour from Tirana, on the hills, there is a village called Ibe. The headmaster of the school there has also known the Community for years. The whole village was waiting for the opening of the School of Peace: the mothers, the elderly, the teenagers and many, many children.
The school at Shen Gjin, a village in the district of Lezha, is placed between the sea and the mountains, at the centre of the village: the Community completely rebuilt it and furnished it three years ago during the war in Kosovo so that it could welcome the refugee children. At Shen Gjin many Roma families, all very poor, live in houses partially in ruins.
There are few children who go to school, withheld by shame for their tattered clothes or because they need to work � collecting tin cans � to help their family.
This is the second year that the school has opened for them during the summer, for a literacy course in Albanian.
 In the past years many families have come from the villages on the surrounding mountains to live on the outskirts of Scutari, the most important city in northern Albania. Many of them still live in bad conditions.
This year, for the first time the School of Peace opened for them and more than 150 children registered. At the end of the first week there was a party on the city�s streets: a colourful train, made by the youngest children, travelled through the sceneries painted by the oldest and depicting the continents. What was at first a surprise for many young and elderly people, soon became a party on the square and everybody took part in it.
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