Day 4 | 03.05.2016: Beaming Children's Eyes at Our Visit to the Bllice School in Albania

We were warmly welcomed in Shkodër, Albania by Argon Kocibellinj, co-founder of the aid organisation VIZION O.J.F (www.vizionojf.org). Argon drove ahead of us in his car and after four hours of breathtaking landscape over mountains and through valleys we reached the town of Peshkopi. Argon was an outstanding host and organised a guarded car park, a lovely hotel and a traditional Albanian meal for us.

The next morning we met Suela Kocibellinj, the founder of the aid organisation. Together with Suela we had organised the entire Bllice school project in Albania in advance. We drove together to the school in Bllice and were met by many beaming children’s eyes. We were happy to accept the invitation to visit the classrooms and tour the whole school site. In doing so we handed over the Albania relief supplies — children’s clothing, toys, school materials — along with a cheque worth CHF 3’333.-. As a thank-you, the girls’ dance group performed two traditional dances for us. We also left our 3 trailers with the aid organisation VIZION O.J.F, since in special situations such as flooding, earthquakes, or during the war years, they are always short of transport capacity.

The entire region in the Dibër district seems to have stood still for 50 years. The same is true of the school in Bllice. The forecourt and the exterior of the school are in poor condition. The classrooms are sparsely furnished or not furnished at all. The blackboards are no longer truly black and can barely be written on. The toilets are outside and are in a dilapidated state — broken and unusable.