Capital: Tirana
Area: 28,748 km²
Population: 3.1 million (December 2000 est.)
Ethnic groups: Albanians 95%, Greeks 3%
Official language(s): Albanian (Tosk)
Religion(s): Muslim 70%, Albanian Orthodox 20%, Roman Catholic 10%
Currency: 1 lek = 100 qindarka

SOS Children's Villages' activities in the country

Two SOS-Kinderdorf International co-workers visited Albania in the summer of 1992, in order to get an impression of the catastrophic circumstances in the country. The conditions in the children's homes in the capital, Tirana were so bad that SOS-Kinderdorf International decided to act swiftly. A government agreement was signed with the assistance of the Austrian Embassy in Tirana on October 7th, 1992. The cornerstone-laying ceremony took place on March 23rd, 1994 and the first families were able to move into the SOS Children's Village in Sauk, a small community that lies to the south east of the capital, in July 1995. This SOS Children's Village also has an attached SOS Kindergarten and an SOS Hermann Gmeiner School with a canteen where vocational training is offered. For security reasons, both the SOS Kindergarten and SOS Hermann Gmeiner School had to be temporarily closed during the political upheavals in the autumn of 1998.

SOS Children's Village Tirana spontaneously started a community outreach programme in the spring of 1999. They offered refugees from neighbouring Kosovo accommodation. An SOS Emergency Relief Programme was started. The refugees were given food in the canteen of the SOS Hermann Gmeiner School. By converting two buildings, which they had rented, they were able to give shelter to 700 refugees. The "Play Mobile Project" was started in September 1999 as a means of easing traumatised children back into daily life (temporarily stopped). After most of the refugees, who were still receiving financial support, had returned home, the buildings were put at the disposal of the city of Tirana and used as kindergartens. The other SOS Children's Village emergency facilities (student hostel and canteen) were given back to the Albanian authorities on December 15th, 1999.

The first ever children's library, "Home of Books" was set up six months later on the site of the student hostel with the help of SOS-Kinderdorf International. Apart from local literature, it also has a range of books in other languages and offers leisure time activities such as pottery, painting, computing and the learning of foreign languages. The project is an attempt to keep the children off the streets. The SOS youth work in Albania started in 2001 when the first SOS youths moved to rented flats in Tirana. In the beginning of 2005 a larger flat was purchased in order to meet the increasing need for accommodation for the SOS youths. In October 2003 SOS Children's Village Tirana has initiated a prevention programme called "open up the village"which was extended in the beginning of 2006. With this programme poor families who are at risk of child abandonment are supported.

In the beginning of 2007 SOS Children’s Village Albania started to operate another Family Strengthening Programme, which enables children who are at risk of losing the care of their family to grow within a caring family environment. To achieve this, SOS Children’s Village Albania works directly with families and communities to empower them to effectively protect and care for their children, in cooperation with local authorities and other service providers. At the beginning of 2008 an additional family strengthening programme was started.