Monthly Mobile Library for Albanian Children

Dear Supporter,

Spring has arrived and with it lovely warm weather and the opportunity to see the new growth on trees and in the fields.  The Mobile Library can now reach the most isolated villages cut off by snow during the winter.

I want to tell you about two of the children who are benefiting from the Mobile Library and its monthly services, Yulia and Beni.

Yulia is 10 years old and lives with her family in Zogaj.  Zogaj is a small village high up in the mountains bordering on Kosovo.  Apart from the homes, the school and the mines there is nothing else in the village.  Families in Zogaj are primarily employed in agriculture and in the chrome mines.  Yulia is one of a group of six girls who are from families whose lives are based on the Quran.  Before Yulia became a member of the library the only books she had to read was the Quran or stories related to the Quran.  Joining the Mobile Library has offered Yulia other books that she can choose from and which provide her with the opportunity to read about other children, where they live, what adventures they have and different lifestyles.  If the Mobile Library were not visiting each month Yulia's access to a range of books and games would cease.

Beni is 4 years old and is from a Roma family.  They live on the outskirts of Bajram Curri.  He has two older sisters who have never been to school and cannot read or write.  Even so, his sisters are regular visitors to the Mobile Library; they choose books with pictures in or books that have simple puzzles in so they can complete them.  Beni doesn't go to kindergarten, so he does not have the opportunity to learn to read, learn songs or play with other similar aged children.  Beni loves to draw, so the visits of the library are very important as he can have some paper or drawings, some pencils and spend his time drawing and colouring them in.  For Beni, if the Mobile Library stops visiting his Roma neighbourhood, he and his sisters will not have any opportunity to see or look at a book and he will not get to colour in the drawings he likes so very much. 

Although Yulia and Beni live in two very different communities in Tropojë Municipality, they both are living in poor environments.  The lack of amenities and resources for children to read, draw, play and socialise are all influencing their development.  The Mobile Library is needed to bridge some of the deficits in these areas.

The Mobile Library needs your support or it may be forced to reduce the number of visits it makes to each village.  Please donate to keep the library running every month!

Dear Supporter,

Each year across the world in November, children and adults are reminded about Child Rights through campaigns and activities.  The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is a universal and international document that outlines the rights that every child has, no matter of his/her gender, age or nationality or faith or status.  The most commonly remembered rights are the right to: quality and free primary education; to live in a family; to have a life and to have a name; to be protected from violence or harm with some less well known being the right to play; to be listened to; to have information or to be enabled to participate in decision making when it concerns children or an individual child.

In Tropoje, activities on child rights  have been taking place throughout November, December and January with children in the villages.  Ilir and Xhevë have developed some games that not only provide and remind children about their rights but also are enjoyable.  In three villages: Zogaj, Llugaj and Babine groups of children stood in a circle and used a ball to encourage them to name a right.  Xhevë began by throwing the ball to one child; he said a right and threw the ball to another child in the circle and so on.  This game was a favourite with the children wanting to say as many rights as possible.  Some of the rights they mentioned were:  to be able to express and speak about their needs and desires; the right to live in a family; the right to play; the right to education; the right to protection and the right to equality. Other activities included the differences between children's needs and their wishes and children deciding on statements what was a right and what was not.

The Mobile Library carries books and leaflets on child rights and information to enable children to understand what support or protection they should receive from adults, thus promoting the right for children's easy access to information.

Child Rights are not a one-day a year activity, but are the entitlement of all children every day within Albania.  With your support, the Mobile Library will continue to provide literature, information and social activities for the children in Tropoje Municipality.

Dear Supporter,

11th September 2017, marked the first day of the new academic year and the start of school for many children in Tropojë Municipality.  After the long summer holidays and spending time with the family working in the fields, tending the animals or going camping on top of the mountains, there is a mixture of anticipation and joy amongst the children.

Thanks to your donations, the Mobile Library has new books and new toys for the children to read and play games with their friends. 

Alisa, a girl in the 4th Grade in Tropojë e Vjëter was visiting the Mobile Library for the first time and she said to Ilir; "I want a book like my friend had, it was with pictures and fairytales.  I can read the book and my little brother can see the pictures too''.

In September alone, more than 20 children have registered to use the library for the first time.  These children are in elementary school and many of them are in the first grade. More girls than boys are interested to have a book and to take them home to read and share with their families.  The boys prefer to play football and volley ball with the new balls.

In Llugaj and Babine the children were also asking for more drawing and colouring books, so that they could create their own pictures using different colours.  These simple books are very much in demand by the children giving them the possibilities to imagine and design their own drawings to put on their walls and brighten up their rooms.

Taking into account the new school year, the children have asked Ilir for some more books that will help them with their homework.  In particular, the needs are for English and French dictionaries; atlases; science encyclopaedias and history books.  The demand for early reading books has also increased with the new and younger children at school.

With your help, we can purchase these new books and bring learning and joy to the children in the mountains.  Thank you for your ongoing support.

After five years of operating in extreme weather conditions, scorching heat or freezing snow bound mountains, the Mobile Library was looking faded and worn–out, so a face lift was in order.  The Mobile Library travelled down from Tropoje to the capital Tirana and spent two days being re-sprayed and decorated.  The transformation was amazing giving the Mobile Library a brighter and fresher look and once more becoming a shining beacon of information for the children of the mountains.  The inside was also given a boost with 280 new books and games equipment, including; colouring books, pencils, balls, skipping ropes, skittles, bean bags and tennis kits.  Ilir, the librarian was delighted with the extra resources he was taking back to Tropoje. 

Kocanaj, is a small village in Tropoje Municipality.  The children live in small houses surrounded by green fields overlooked by the mountains.  Some of the children who use the library are longstanding borrowers, like Argjend who is twelve years old and comes to the library with his mother.  Argjend likes to draw, but his second passion is reading books.  He draws pictures of the mobile library and things that he sees in the books he reads.

Also in Kocanaj, two sisters, Adela, 15 years old, Zana, 13 years old  and their brother, Jeton, 7 years old have been members of the library for the three years that the library has been visiting the village.  Adela and Zana also help Ilir with the registration of the children wishing to borrow or exchange their books by finding their names amongst the registered members list.   

The children in Kocanaj are very organized and very careful with their books respecting the need to protect the books and bring them back so that other children can read and enjoy them.  One day on one of Ilir's visits, not all the children were able to come to the library, so they asked if Ilir could make an extra visit on the Saturday.  Ilir agreed, knowing how much the books were appreciated by the children.  The missing children met Ilir and the library and were able to exchange their old books for new ones to enjoy in the forthcoming month.   

Children like, Argjend, Adela, Zana and Jeton not only in Kocanaj, but also in other villages across Tropoje Municipality like to learn English using the small selection of phrase books and stories in English that the library has.  Their other favourites are explorer books or science books.

Now that all the children are on their school summer holidays the library, the books and games help to occupy the long summer days.

Thank you to all our supporters for bringing fun, games and reading to the children of Tropoje!

Spring is a beautiful time in the mountains as nature begins to wake up to the early shafts of sunshine, trees and bushes shoot new young green leaves and the temperature is increasingly warm.  Ilir and the Mobile Library have continued to visit the villages and schools high in the mountains throughout the winter. For two weeks in January the Mobile Library could not travel into some of the villages as the snow was so deep and the roads impassable. 

Some of the children who come to the Mobile Library have been coming for many years and look forward to seeing Ilir.  Ardi, 11 years old and Beni, 13 years old are brothers from Babine village who attend hte local elementary school.  They come every month and look for a new book each to read.  As they are regular users, Ilir gives them two books each month as he knows they will enjoy both books and will make use of the information they learn.  Their favourite books are those on science and also adolescence and the changes that the body goes through when adolescence begins.  Parents and schools are ill-equipped to provide information to young people about puberty, adolescence or becoming independent so the carefully chosen books that the library contains are a vital source of information for young people like Ardi and Beni.

For other groups of young people like the five adolescent girls from the Roma community, who were not enabled to complete their primary education due to traditional family practices of removing girls from school as they reach puberty, the books and information in the library is also helping them to understand their bodies and their future roles as mothers.  Many Roma families are illiterate so to have this group of 5 dedicated readers using the Mobile Library is wonderful and shows the need for this literary resource even in the administrative city of the district.

Now the warmer weather is here, the library will be arranging many more games and sport activities so the need for new footballs, volley balls, skipping ropes, tennis racquets and skittles is upon us.  Can you contribute to this much needed equipment to ensure the children can play team games?  Although sport is a lesson in the schools, most schools have no sports equipment or a field or gymnasium to use.

Next month the Mobile Library will also have its paintwork renewed; the harsh weather conditions; harsh heat in the summer and extreme cold, ice and snow in the winter and the harsh detergents have stripped the colour off the exterior of the library, so a make-over is well over due.  The new look library will be included in our next report.

A very big thank you to all the new and regular supporters of the Mobile Library!  Your donations have helped us to keep the library going in the last 12 months, we hope we can count on your support for the next year.