If we take a look 10 years back from now, we’d notice how much the society in Albania has changed. There were not many NGOs or reliable information back then, so only a part of the youth was really active in the society. Now the situation is completely different for everyone who wants to reach that information, but especially for young people who are beginning to understand that they can take part and speak for themselves. What’s even better, is that they get the opportunity to not only help themselves but all the other others too, to protect the environment – the city they live in, to express their opinions, to fight for their own rights and, most importantly, to put their ideas into motion.
Over the past few years, youth activism in Albania grew in little steps, but nowadays is actually a huge part of our society and it has a great impact on our lives. Now there are several NGOs, from environmental to human rights, to those which support people with disabilities and promote equality. Not only NGOs, but even different movements have been encouraging youth to raise their voice, ask for their rights and, more significantly, to open their eyes and understand what’s happening right in front of them.
There would be many different movements from those which want to raise awareness, as: Make the world orange, Let’s clean Albania in one day, Cook one more meal etc., to the kind of specific movements as “For University” which asks for the student rights, or “# Movement” which is one of the biggest movements for the moment and the only anti-governmental one.
DIFFERENT NGOS
Out of many NGOs, I would like to mention Beyond Barriers, which is the contact point for Salto-Youth. It’s an association concerned with the rights of young people in general, and especially those with fewer opportunities. Beyond Barriers organizes many seminars, trainings and conferences to inform the youth, show them the benefits of volunteering, and also raise awareness about inequality, poverty, discrimination etc. This association has its own wide network of volunteers who cooperate with centers for disadvantaged people by helping them and trying to integrate them in the society. Recently the NGO has been working on the project WeB4YES – Western Balkan Civil Society for Youth Employment Support.
Another NGO is Youth Center Borderless. They were engaged in two of the most widely known campaigns for women around the world in the past years.
1) “He for She”- For this campaign YCB was on a tour around Albania to promote gender equality. Since this campaign in itself seeks to involve men and boys to engage in this movement, it was a novelty in Albania where most of the families are still patriarchal. The slogan of this movement was: “Change your perspective, be a he for she”.
2) ”Orange the World” is an international campaign, about elimination of the violence against women. The campaign back then lasted for 16 days. All the trees at the main boulevard were “dressed” in orange for this campaign, also the municipality of Tirana helped to raise awareness by turning orange the lights of the main institutional buildings.
New Vision is an NGO that organizes different projects from the others. One of their most successful projects has been “Youth competition of writing” which consisted of poetry writing and supporting these young writers to express their talent and to be appreciated for it. The winner of this competition got her book published. They are also doing a project called “Every day with children” which from the name itself consists in spending every day for a couple of hours into volunteering near the disabled children institutes (mental, hearing and visual abilities).
PVN (International Voluntary Projects) is also an active NGO which mainly works in the human rights field. They promote peace and inclusion through intercultural dialogue. They have organized many informing session for young people in Albania, one of which has been The Human Library. But they are also known about their international exchange activities through their international camps and workshops.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECTS
Different environmental organizations have been involved in many projects over the years, such as:
1) “Let’s clean Albania in one day”, which used to take on November 20th. In each city of Albania, civil society is voluntarily cleaning the streets, their neighbourhoods, schools, and most public areas. The purpose of this is clearly not only to clean but also to raise awareness about protecting the environment and to take care of the city where they live.
2) “Tirana without cars”. A day of the year when the city center gets “rid” of all the cars and the bicycles “populate” the area from the city center all over the boulevard to the university corpus. The organization ECO Bicycle is always getting people together to protest for more bicycle lines, for a greener city, and to cooperate with other environmental organization too by pedalling.
3)”Earth Hour”. This is one of the most important worldwide campaigns by WWF. The aim of this project is for people to make their stand against climate change. Everyone is supposed to turn their lights off for at least one hour that day. In Albania this is held in Tirana, and with the collaboration of the city hall all the lights at the city center go off by 8:30 pm.
4) “Plant your own tree” is an open activity for everyone to join and it consists of populating the most polluted parts of all the cities in Albania with trees.
PROTESTS AND YOUTH ACTIVISM
Regarding protests, many years ago, I wouldn’t categorize Albanians as wise protesters, most of the time they protested regarding issues they were not informed properly. However, in the past couple of years, they have started protesting about their rights, about the environment and about art (against demolishing the National Theatre)
One of the biggest and most successful protests some years ago, was the one against the dismantling of the chemical weapons in Albania. There were thousands of people protesting and saying No to chemical weapons. In the end, their voice was heard, so even the prime minister spoke in front of them and decided to say no to chemical weapons.
Another very important protest was the one of the university students, which lasted for weeks. The protest started against the unfair fees, but as more young people joined it grew bigger and the students started complaining about more than just fees. Although not all of their requests were taken into consideration, this protest became known as a good example of youth activism.
On the other hand, a great example of youth activism and community spirit was demonstrated during the earthquake in the past year. With or without the help of NGOs or other organizations, young people gathered on their own and started helping, giving and paying attentions to those who needed it.
At the end, I hope this youth activism spirit will not go unnoticed or will never fall on deaf ears. I’m almost sure Albania youth activists are on a right track. Maybe some need to work more, but the final result is great and their ideas, energy, hard work and help never ends. We’ve all come from a long road and we’re still learning how to raise awareness, improve ourselves and how to succeed. Youth activism in Albania is more than a green light, its hope for all of us so we won’t give up, or stop doing what we’ve dreamed about: Making our society a bit better day by day.