PROJECT HISTORY:

The Albanian Sunrise School is a project of AMURT Albania. It was started in October, 2000 and has been running continually since then.

The school is situated 15 km from Tirana, the capital of Albania. The district where the school is located is called Bathore. This area was a large state owned farm during the communist period (1945-1990).

Following the collapse of communism in Albania, migrants from Albania’s northern provinces began to settle on this land (as squatters). They built houses and some of them did some small cultivation (though the plots are small). During the 1990s more people settled and today this area is a suburb (with a rural feel, as many people still keep cows and chickens) with over 35,000 people.

The people who settled in Bathore did so because there was no employment in the rural areas where they came from, as the state economic structure of the communist years suddenly collapsed. They came to the Tirana area in hopes of jobs. But even today, more than 50% of the population in this district is unemployed and some of the families face extreme hardship.

The state and municipal authorities were slow to provide infra structure to this community (electricity, roads, water and sewage) and presently one government school serves the entire area. Though conditions have improved in the past eight years, there is a shortage of kindergarten places and that is why we established our school here.

We started in October 2000, with one teacher in one classroom and 20 children. We expanded to two classrooms and two teachers and 40 students in January 2001. In March 2003 we moved to our present building which has three classrooms, three teachers and up to 65 children.

In January 2008 we took over the management of another kindergarten which is located 2 km away from the first kg. There are two teachers and 45 children at this new school.

In the past seven years several hundred children have been educated at our institution and they are doing very well in the state-run primary school system. Our school has won a reputation of academic excellence as a result of this.

PROJECT MISSION:

To provide high quality, neo-humanist education to children living in Bathore, Albania at an affordable price.

We would like to construct a play area in the back of the first kindergarten. The landlord has been using this area for his carpentry equipment, but he is removing it now and we would like to put in swings, slides, play equipment and landscaping now. The amount needed is $ 1500.