Children with disabilities in Prrenjas Municipality to benefit from specialized social services

September 23, 2020

Prrenjas Municipality is among five other municipalities which are providing for the first time, social and educational services to children with disabilities in an integrated way.

23 September 2020  

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Albania and World Vision Albania (WVA), in partnership with Prrenjas Municipality, will provide integrated social services at home for 33 children and adolescents living with disabilities.

A mobile service called “Hello...Life” has taken off. This mobile service engages a team of professionals composed of a social worker, a psychologist, a physiotherapist and a speech therapist.  Children with disabilities will benefit from Individual Development Plans based on their specific needs.  Services provided will be made available at home, or while they attend  “Qybra Sokoli” school, where the ‘Development Spaces’ model is being implemented.

The ‘Development Spaces’ model aims to ensure targeted and specialized services within school premises by coordinating the work of education and psycho-social professionals with the work of professionals in the social and health services area, focusing specifically on the individual needs of children and building upon the principles of inclusive education.

The mobile services’ model also supports the family members or caregivers of children with disabilities, coaching and guiding them to conduct exercises weekly, as suggested by the therapists.

Prrenjas Municipality is among five other municipalities which are providing for the first time, social and educational services to children with disabilities in an integrated way.

The mobile services’ model also supports the family members/caregivers of children with disabilities, coaching and guiding them to conduct exercises weekly, as suggested by the unit’s therapists.

 “Hello...Life” Mobile service in Prrenjas Municipality is undertaken in the context of the United Nations Joint Programme “Leave No One Behind (LNB)”, which is supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and  implemented by UNDP and other UN agencies in Albania.

The Mobile service is in line with the Social Plan of the municipality for 2018-2020. The Plan highlights the need to provide social services for 857 individuals with disabilities, out of which 225 are children, 161 of whom living in rural areas with no access to social services.

Anduena Shkurti, LNB Programme Coordinator, highlighted: "The UN Joint programme ‘Leave No One Behind’ (LNB), aims to advance social inclusion of vulnerable persons and groups by fostering a system change in the provision of improved social services. Therefore, it supports municipalities in this regard, considering that service delivery is provided mostly at local level. The programme deploys various tools, such as small grants, to fund innovative local projects that are in line with our programme’s main goals."

Artina Morava, Program Director, World Vision Albania highlighted: “The key findings of the WVA’s study on the impact of Covid-19 on the wellbeing of children and families in Albania, demonstrated that 14% of the interviewed households had at least one person with disabilities at home. The key challenges that they were facing during this time were economic ones, as well as interruption of services like education.

Prrenjas Municipality is one of the wining municipalities that is benefiting from the first call launched by our programme for community-based social services. We are glad to see that, this collaboration between LNB programme, Prrenjas Muncipality and WVA, which for the first time is piloting mobile social services to children with disabilities living in remote arears, is advancing well. We hope this initiative will become a good practice, given the successful experience World Vision Albania has in this regard in other parts of Albania, and will pave the path toward more sustainable social services."