Puke, poor families unable to celebrate the end of the year holidays

2023-12-24 19:12:00, Aktualitet CNA

In Albania, at the end of this year, a large number of families are in poverty and unable to celebrate like the rest of the Albanian families. As the correspondent of the Voice of America, Pëllumb Sulo, announces, in the mountain municipality of Puka, with the financial support of the Albanians of America, a group of young volunteers is distributing packages of food to poor families, so that they too can celebrate Christmas and New Year

While the city centers shine with the atmosphere of the end of the year holidays, in the suburbs and in the mountain villages in the north of Albania, the days are ordinary for poor families and those in extreme poverty. In the Municipality of Puka, one of the poorest in the north of the country, a group of young people, supported for the eighth year in a row by the artist from Puka living in the USA, Fran Gjoka, have been distributing food packages to poor families for several days. in Pukë and Fushë-Arrës, so that they too can celebrate this end of the year.

"The number of families that are in difficulty is increasing, mainly in rural areas. The people who are left in these areas face great economic difficulties and, based on our idea that no one should be left without celebrating Christmas and New Year, we started this action with the financial help of Fran Gjoka".

According to official data from INSTAT, 21.8% of Albanians live at the risk of being poor, while, according to the World Bank, poverty is widespread in about 38% of the population in Albania.

On the outskirts of the city of Puka, in a house full of moisture and ready to collapse, Qamile Demushi Murataj, the second woman in Albania who worked as a driver, lives between poverty and the hope that someone will help her.

"I worked as a driver for 28 years. I had four children and raised them as orphans, with hardship and suffering. You have reached a pension of 5,000 lek. The time and place seem to be here. These are our opportunities".

Among the beneficiaries of the "No one among us without celebration" initiative is Mark Bardhoshi, a disabled person who leads the association of para-tetraplegics in Pukë. He says that their difficulties are many and that they need more support.

"Infrastructural barriers, health barriers, often prejudicial barriers. But what I think, after all, life should be lived as decently, as beautifully as possible. Even if you are in a wheelchair".

Like other municipalities in the northern area of ??Albania, Puka has many natural assets, with forests, mines and water sources that operate the hydroelectric plants of the Cascade of the Drin. However, the level of poverty here is greater than in the rest of the country, a contrast that is noticed by the volunteers of the "No one among us without partying" initiative.

The coordinator of the initiative, Armir Mehaj, says that, in addition to the Albanian-American Fran Gjoka, other compatriots are also supporting their initiative so that no poor family in Pukë and Fushë-Arrës is left without celebrating Christmas and New Year.

"This year, we have planned that our action "No one among us celebrated" will knock on the doors of about 250 poor families in the territories of Pukë and Fushë-Arres municipalities. And, Fran Gjoka is the main donor and the initiator of the financing of the action that we undertake. But in recent years, the help and generosity of other Albanians living in the USA has also increased".

Like all the beneficiaries of the "No one among us celebrated" initiative, Mark Bardhoshi also congratulates the people who supported him at the end of the year./ VOA