Meet Monika

2017 Update and Hopes for 2018

ALBANIA

The Lord has been very good to us; we have seen the impact and the fruits of our ministry.  From a field country prospective, we feel grateful and indebted to our affiliates and we are particularly thankful to God for all our sponsors and donors - without them we could accomplish very little.

Although in order to measure the real impact of our projects we need to go beyond numbers because our ministry has to do above all with people and relationships, I hope some figures will give you an idea:

In 2017, we had 85 new enrollments and closed the year with 321 families - the highest so far.  We have 25 young beneficiaries receiving university scholarships this current academic year. This may seem insignificant if one forgets that every day we struggle to lower the rate of early school abandonment and illiteracy among the children on our Family to Family (F2F) programme.

We were able to implement 12 Self-sufficiency projects and out of the 98 families withdrawn, 69 families were categorised as self-sufficient.

Also, we were able to carry out 79 Gifts in Kind distributions for families, churches and other needy communities, managing about 50 tons of humanitarian goods.

Our Christian Input activities have been more intensive, both locally and nationally. We can count 24 activities for a total of 5250 participating people and 22 Christian puppet shows for 1060 young beneficiaries during the past year.

The most important news is that F2F community was blessed with 26 baptisms in 2017.

2018 is foreseen as a difficult year: the political situation is aggravated and beyond tense. The main political parties never put the country's interests first, only their own. The involvement of political figures in corruption and trafficking scandals as well as the deplorable juridical system are matters that keep Albania's future with the EU pending. Consequently, social policies are not among the priorities of the current government. This makes our presence more relevant than ever.

In 2018 we shall focus more in two communities for better impact. Our new centre in the outskirts of Durres will serve as a small community centre. Many activities will now take place in the area where 143 F2F families live, rather than somewhere else in the city. It will be the location for the ladies' awareness meetings, Bible studies, the English language course and also for the After School project that will see 40 F2F kids assisted every day by teachers, to overcome learning difficulties.

We shall be able to offer a multifaceted service to the families of the ex-swamp area.

Also, we shall address more the "sit and wait" or "surrender" mentality that is very common and difficult to change.

As we embark together on a new year, let us all take a moment and count our blessings again, those simple blessings that at times we humans forget easily or often take for granted but which mean a lot and make a difference - for us personally and above all for the people we assist through our joint ministry.

We should not forget that there is need but there is also generosity and kindness and dignity in offering help and addressing those needs and there is humility and gratitude in receiving help. The values make a difference.

We are ready to continue to face the tasks and also the challenges that lie ahead, always relying on each other and above all on the guidance and grace that come from God.

None of us can do anything alone, things are possible in cooperation and unity as it says also in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27

God bless,

Monika Qeremi, Field Country Manager in Albania