MWL Newsletter 5 - Albania Hope · to be dedicated to Child Trafficking. For many of us working in the field of ... trafficked into slave labour, street begging and a life of poverty

MWL Newsletter 5

December 2016

Introduction for Christmas Newsletter

This is MWL’s fifth newsletter and we hope that it will brighten your Advent season with news from MWL up and down the country. We tell stories from the areas, share best practice and new initiatives which have taken place since our last newsletter. It is Christmas time and may this news inspire you to join with us in our attempt to make a small difference in this part of the world, with joy in all of our hearts and a spring in our step!

Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote a story called The Beggar Boy at Christ’s Christmas Tree. It starts in a dark, freezing, miserable hovel in Petersburg. A six year-old boy dressed in rags sits alone next to his mother who has just died. He’s nearly starving, so he goes out in search of food. As he walks through the empty streets he looks into the houses and sees that they are filled with happy children celebrating Christmas. He knocks on several doors, but no one lets him in. Frightened by some older boys, the little boy takes refuge in a yard behind a pile of wood. There, he freezes to death. However, before dying the little boy dreams of the party of Christ’s Christmas tree, a party for all the child-victims of social injustice. There, he’s reunited with his mother, and they both join the festivities and are filled with joy.

The next St Bakhita day of Prayer which soon follows this Christmas season, is to be dedicated to Child Trafficking. For many of us working in the field of human trafficking, the story of Dostoevsky is not far from home. Perhaps this Christmas we can spare a thought and a prayer for the thousands of children trafficked into slave labour, street begging and a life of poverty and neglect. Let us wake up at Christmas to the story of love and open our hearts to those we do not see but whom we care to see on the edges of our own society but hidden in the gaps and cracks of our streets.

Mary Ward Loreto

Wishes you all

peace and joy

deep in your

hearts, as we

unite together at

this very special

time.

Imelda Poole (IBVM)

www.albaniahope.com

Mary Ward LoretoTirane, ALBANIA

www.albaniahope.com

Newsletter 5, December 2016

Page 2

Anti-Trafficking Campaign in Lezha

On Oct 18, 2016 Mary Ward Loreto in joint collaboration with Municipality of Lezhe, the Directory of Social Services and Education Department organized an awareness activity with women, youngsters and local institutions. The Deputy Mayor emphasized the fact that we should pay more attention to fight human trafficking and not only fight against the cultivation and smuggling of narcotics, which although a serious concern, should not detract from this other serious organised crime in the country. The Referring system is functioning well in Lezha region but sometimes the cases of Roma trafficked people are very complex to be addressed. The key MWL women’s worker in Lezhe is the main person to focus on awareness activities as well as providing concrete support to the women in need. This is through vocational training and economic independence initiatives as a means of preventing

human trafficking. About two hundred people joined the march in the main road of Lezha where the youngsters distributed leaflets and talked to the pedestrians about human trafficking. Tropoja: The activity in Lezhe was duplicated in the area of Tropoja (North East Albania) on the 24th of October. In this activity the children of the secondary school “Ali Podrimja” presented an art exposition in the city hall based on the topic of combating human trafficking.

www.albaniahope.com

MWL activities on the EU Day Against Trafficking, October 18th, 2016

In the framework of the E.U. Anti-trafficking Day, on October 18, 2016, the Ministry of Internal Affairs in collaboration with OSCE hosted the National Confer-ence on Anti-trafficking in Persons, at Tirana Interna-tional Hotel. Two members of MWL staff attended this conference. Mary Ward Loreto, was specifically mentioned by the panel, as very fruitful collabora-tors and serious contributors in combating Human Trafficking.

As documents handed out to the audience, there was a Report on the Implementation of the Strategy of Combating Trafficking in Human Beings 2014-2017. Adding to that, a brochure was distributed, reflecting data on the trafficking present situation in Albania and the role of instances in identifying victims and prosecuting criminals.

Violeta history.A dream came true...

When Violeta was still a young girl she had a dream - tailor-ing. She married very young in her native village in Rajc, Tropoja in northern Albania. In her village there were some nuns who taught girls and women the tailoring course in which Violeta enrolled. Soon, however, she was pregnant and left Tropoja to be placed in another village in southern Albania in Fier, leaving her dream unfulfilled. Hard living, and economic problems and the bringing up of children, forced Violetta to lose her dream of nearly 20 years.

MWL Women’s center in Fier offered a tailoring course to women and girls with the desire to learn and benefit from professional skills. Violeta enrolled at the center and started the tailoring course. She learned and is learning to cut and sew clothes with supervision from a very talented trainer Elsa. Little by little Violeta began the repairing of clothes, gaining incomes.

By saving these incomes she bought herself a sewing machine to work in her home. She is still learning tailoring at the MWL center, and continues to work in her home repairing clothes and increasing the income little by little for her family. A dream extracted from the drawer for 20 years has become a reality. She did not believe she could ever realize this dream.

Her words were: “Watching my own sewing machine in my house is incredible and I could not believe that I managed to come to this day, I am very happy”.


www.albaniahope.com


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Mary Ward Loreto Youth, in the framework of the Anti-trafficking Month in October, hosted a Workshop on October 11th, 2016, at the Youth Centre, Tirana. The aim was to raise awareness amongst youngsters on the issue of Modern Slavery, by providing useful information and open discussion. This training was addressed to all interested entities and individuals and combined theory with interactive activities. Although a small group of 10 participants, the intellectual level of the debate was high. The Workshop, led by Sara Çapaliku and Zana Guri, tackled various aspects of trafficking. It was attended by a very interested and motivated, mainly student, audience. The psychological aspects of the phenomena which were presented included victims/traffickers’ profiles, and this led to an animated discussion. The feedback at the end of this event was very positive.

“Awareness-raising on Modern Slavery” Tiranë, Albania, 11th of October 2016

URAT Network: "UN.Gift" Box Campaign in Albania- An Anti-Human Trafficking Campaign.

On October 15th the opening of the UNGift box, in honour of the month’s activities against trafficking, in Albania, was led by the Minster of the Interior, the Deputy Minister of the Interior and the Deputy Minister of Education. The ministers had become aware of the value of this tool in raising awareness against trafficking. The UNGift box campaign had been launched in Albanian, in Durres in June and since that time had been travelling to various towns in Albania. It finished in Shkodra. The URAT network, who led this campaign, included the NGos D&E, SHKEJ, Peace Corps, The Roma National Organisation, Mary Ward Loreto and four congregations, Little Company of Mary, Good Shepherd, Little Sisters of Jesus and IBVM. Each of the many volunteers from all over the country received a certificate after their sustained, hard work. It was a great collaborative effort. 16,000 people were made aware of this crime. Thanks to everyone for the great work accomplished. CF UNgift Box film and pictures on www.albania-hope.com


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A photo

Human Anti-trafficking Trainings

The first Human Anti-trafficking training in the recently started working year for MWL Youth, was held in Kukës, on 22nd of September. The training was hosted at the "American Corner" and thirty teenagers from High-schools of the city and surroundings, as well as representatives from local public institutions participated in this event. Present at the training was Imelda Poole.

The next awareness-raising session on Human Anti-trafficking was held in the High-school of Këlcyra, on 13th of October. A large group of 50 pupils from that school took part, with ages varying from 15 to 18. There was a good mixture of boys and girls and despite the high numbers in one tiny classroom, the training went smoothly. Due to the big number of participants, the training was mainly focused on interactive activities and therefore the interest was kept high.

The third event during this time was Human Anti-trafficking training in Saranda, at the High-school, in November, with 30 pupils participating. The feedback was great from their part and the professors asked for further collaboration with the same topic. We continue reaching out in Kelcyra, through our trainings, due to its high levels of vulnerability and considering the network we have already built there.

Other 12 trainings on Human Anti-trafficking will be conducted during this year and we are really looking forward to committing ourselves to making a deep impact in these communities suffering from difficult social and economic background. Therefore, it would be fair to say that these trainings have been a really good start for our awareness raising work since the summer.

A story of Achievement...

Since the first interview, F, declared that he would like to become a mechanic. While I was asking what might be another vocational training preference, he said that it cannot be any other, , except the mechanics course.

I was really surprised that a 19 years old boy could be so clear about this decision for his life and what he wanted to do. When I asked why he had not already done this he said that he couldn’t afford the costs, because the closest vocational training center was 60 km far from his town and the transport costs totalling 500 ALL (about 4 euros) per day. His family couldn’t pay the expenses. His father is the only one who works as a guard for 22 000 ALL (approx. 162 euro) per month which is not even enough for their living without having extra expenses. Almost, half of his father’s salary would be spent for covering his travel to the vocational training center.

With the support of the MWL Youth project, he was registered and followed the vocational training course. The instructor was impressed by this young boy because of his eagerness to know more. F asked the instructor if he would accept him to stay longer and the instructor accepted happily. He used to spend hours in the vocational training center’s car service after the lessons. At the end of the vocational training course, we asked the instructor if there were any possibility to do a work experience. He recommended a car service in F’s town. He contacted the owner and directed us to meet him. The owner was happy to receive F, due to the recommendations of the instructor.

After a month of work experience, he employed F, and now he is happy to have on board a really passionate young worker who wants to know more and more by exploring and working.


www.albaniahope.com


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Towards a more ethical and higher standard of education for all Research project:

In order to contribute to systemic change in the Education System in Albania, Mary Ward Loreto is focused on issues of values and beliefs by addressing issues of ethical behaviour, tackling weaknesses, and exploring opportunities to strengthen selected aspects of the education system. For this purpose, a study has been designed that will analyse the perceptions and attitudes of pupils, students, teachers, parents, and lecturers, on their perception of ethics in education and the reasons for unethical behaviour, the types of its occurrence, and of corruption cases in schools all over Albania. It is because of the utmost importance placed on values development, by Mary Ward Loreto Foundation, that it has been decided to research in the field of Education, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education in Albania, as a focus to work for systemic change. The whole public education system will be included, starting from Kindergarten until Masters’ level at the University (from 3 year olds until 25 year olds) nationwide. Teachers, parents and children nationwide will be included based on the above-explained methodology. The results will be then shared widely, so that we can encourage systemic change in all levels of education. The Action Plan is now being fully implemented for this project.

New Beginning: Leadership Program

The Leadership Program for Youth is a new initiative by Mary Ward Loreto Youth Project. It was launched in November. Work started with a psychological assessment of the possible youth groups and we are in a process of consolidating one group of 10 young boys and girls. The target area is Durres, a vulnerable part of the city, with particular social and demographical characteris-tics. The families are from poor areas of the North who have migrated during the 90s for a better life in one of the biggest cities of Albania. Yet, they continue to live marginalized from the rest of the city and they lack easy access to many services.

The leadership program will be developed with children from these families, and will tackle social issues that have been neglected. This will empower these young people and work on human development for each one in the group. The aim of this program is to make these youngsters aware of the fact that they can be part of action for change in their communities. This opportunity will be implemented later in the year. During the first 6 months, they will be “learning by doing”, with topics on Leadership followed by organized workshops and small social actions, which will serve the final aim. The second 6 months will be focused on highlighting what was identified as a real need for them as a group in that area. That could be, for example, a youth center in their community.

We will also learn a lot, as a team, during this pilot project and we hope to achieve what is the best for these young people to empower them to become leaders of their lives and of their communities.


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Mary Ward Loreto Men’s project and the MWL Men’s Conference

The right time and the right place for The Mary Ward Loreto Men’s project, was finally going to happen on September 16th, after a huge job collecting the data throughout the country, and an amazing job accom-plished by the researcher Steve Coryelle, a research shcolar and Peace Corps volunteer, who analyed the data and wrote up the research document. At last this research was presented in a onference in the centre of our capital, Tirana.

The conference presenting this research was attended by more than 150 guests, mainly men, from all districts of Albania. Participants were free to discuss in round tables the proceedings of the day. Their ques-tions were responded to with great interest by the panel. The Minister of Social Issues and Youth was present and gave a short input. The conference was also covered by the media.

Men from different cities, villages, and very remote areas, who participated in the interviews or focus groups, attended the conference to know the findings and the ongoing process. Other men who attended the conference were men who didn’t participate in the previous processes but were driven by curiosity or the desire to know more from this new and unique project in Albania. This research and project also drew the attention of women, who are working in different NGOs or institutions, and in their daily work have to deal even with men’s issues.

The panel was composed of professionals from MWL, the Ministry of Social, and othe partners. A surprise visit was made by Bishop George Frendo, who also gave a message to the assembly and assured all of his support. In order to give voice to all the participants, time was planned for questions and comments from everyone. A lot of questions were raised: important issues such as patriarchy, gender inequality, domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse and the needs of the men for training and work.

This research has led to the making of an action plan and now the project is being launched in four areas of Albania where the action plan is in its first steps of implementation and led by the manager, Alfred Matoshi. In order to fulfill the recommendations of the research, this project will start with a process of a Human development program with many trainings such as: dependencies, anti-trafficking and good parenting. These trainings will be followed by concrete action in the community to solve problems. Part of the action plan includes trainings and activities for economic empowerment.

To read the research please click below: http://www.albaniahope.com/wp-content/up-loads/2016/09/Mens-Research-in-English.pdf


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The latest project of Mary Ward Loreto Foundation is the opening of a MWL Advice Centre for women and girls, to provide advice related to the needs and problems they face, and to improve the policies and practices that affect people's lives in the region and city of Tirana, Albania. The MWL employee, Irena Kraja had a week to visit the CAB-s in the UK to acquire helpful information and gain good practice from the experience and performance of advice services in there. This experience is a guide for us to establish a good service and to accomplish our objectives. Representatives of Advice Service in Newcastle, Citizen Advice Redcar & Cleveland responded very positively and were willing to support with any kind of information that would help us in our initiative. A meeting at Guisborough CAB was arranged as well. Hilary Cashman, a very good friend and supporter of MWL mediated the contacts with the CAB-s and arranged the appointments, and provided a warm hospitality at her home for the week.

First steps for opening the MWL Advice Centre for Women (ACT)

Mary Ward Loreto aims to work in a network, in order to establish a system of referral of women’s needs, who can access the services and improve their lives. It started with mapping a database of NGO-s operating in Tirana. Next step is the conducting of a research assessing the needs for services in the municipality centres of Tirana, with a deeper information base on the NGO’s services and for establishing an active network. A new member, Arveda Baholli, joined the staff as a volunteer who is in charge of deepening the research of the NGO-s services already begun by another member of staff, Zana Guri.

In coordination with the logistics, the MWL Women ACT centre is going to get fully furnished in order to be warm and welcoming for the clients to enable them to feel comfortable in this environment.

The progress of businesses in Tropoja

MWLW project in Tropoje, has implemented 8 mini-busi-nesses this year to support the empowerment of women. These mini-businesses are: opening the shop in Valbona for the sale of handicrafts made by 20 women, the imple-mentation of 2 businesses for breeding bees, 2 mini-busi-nesses to raise goats and produce milk, a business with cows, an economic activity with sewing and mini-busi-ness to produce postcards. Businesses with artisan characteristics have been successful so far, such as tailoring, and postcards. These were sold in the Valbona shop. For the first year (July - September 2016), the value of craft products sold was 331,320 ALL.

New livestock activities showed progress in the rearing of cows and goats, and the opening the beehive business, but income takes time since they are not in the production period until later next year.

Broad Based Organising (BBO) Group in Tropoja

The strategy proposed by MWL, in organizing the community to address issues of concern, has been well received in the area of Tropoje. MWL began by leading the organization of the community of Raja. The Group is made up of 9 members, identified as key people in their community, where the groups interact. These members are representatives of the church, women and girls in the MWLW representative group, the headman of the area and active men in matters that concern the community. After training in BBO, the listed group addressed the issues for resolution. An easy problem to solve, but the most immediate in time, was to provide transportation for their children to attend school in Dushaj and to make a walking path to Raja. Transport for these children was achieved for daily school attendance and the State is reimbursing the families for the transport of these children. The group managed to organize the community thus achieving the first success in solving problematic issues in the area.


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Traning crafts with Vincent

From 24th -29th October at MWL Women’s centre in Fier ,Vincent, a crafts specialist, led a training in craft mosaics with a group of girls. A 6-day intensive training for girls,after school hours, took place and despite the hard work at school, they came to the centre to continue the program with Vincent. Four girls attended this training. This time, Vincent had brought quality and unique raw material teaching the girls to make a unique mosaic product for the project of Apollonia. Vincent has realized a symbol for the Apollonia mosaic to be sold at the Heritage site called Apollonia Park which attracts many tourists. The girls have learned to do the Amphitheatre of Apollonia framed with small tiles of glass. Anyone who visits the park and is impressed will love to take with them this beautiful mosaic as a souvenir. After completing training with Vincent, the girls will continue to work in the centre once a week every Friday after school. Other products made by the girls include home decoration products such as colourful wall mirrors to give a home a unique style. This and other

crafts made by the handmade jewellery group and from the tailoring workshop, will enrich the range of handmade products of MWL women’s group of Fier. All of these will be part of the sales for the new handmade gift shop to be opened by MWL in the National Archaeological park of Apollonia.

Developing the markets and crafts, Hot I Ri

In the MWL Centre of Hot Ri the women are becoming more and more proactive, not only in the increase of quality and designs of the embroidered cards, but also in becoming more engaged in finding new markets to sell. They have already established a collaboration with the Shkodra Post Office who has agreed to help sell 100 cards each month. Finding new markets is the biggest challenge. Other businesses have been contacted, especially the big commercial centres in Tirana, and they will continue to network here till they have confirmation.

But above all the most important is the change that this centre and particularly this activity, has brought into the women’s lives. This centre has become their place of comfort, stress relief and hope. Antone-ta, is one of the women that frequently visits the centre. She works as a sales woman in a market in the village, has 4 children and the other women say that she is an excellent cook. She was feeling very lonely, so she started to come to the centre to learn to embroider cards. It was hard for her in the beginning as crafting was never her forte, as she would say, but she was determined to be part of the group. She took part in every activity developed at the centre, never missing one. The positivity of her interaction and her willingness to help other women in finding work, made her one of the best models that we have in our centre.

I believe in role models to encourage successful actions in people’s lives and community approaches


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MWL Strategic Planning Workshop 2017 – 2020

On November 18th, 2016 the preparatory phase of the Process for the Strategic Planning of MWL 2017-2020 began in earnest. This process was facilitated by the Business Consultant and Trainer, Fatmir Gjoni. His expertise has been most valuable for MWL in recent years whilst developing many aspects of the organization and in the previous three year’s with the strategic planning, which MWL has successfully accomplished by December. The Workshop involved all staff members and started with an introduction to the strategic planning. The process will continue to analyze both the internal and external environment of the organization. Typical steps in the strategic planning will include an analysis of the current state by all the staff members, as a preparation phase for the MWL Staff Week in February 20th -24th 2017. In this week the work will be focused on defining the future state, developing objectives and strategies to achieve the mission and vision, and achieving the MWL Plan for at least the next three years.

Investigating and Prosecuting Human Trafficking: International Perspectives

Mary Ward Loreto (MWL) was invited to attend the third Medaille Trust International Conference 2016, ‘’Investigating and Prosecuting Human Trafficking, International Perspec-tives’’. The conference was held in Bled, Slovenia on July, 2016. Irena Kraja, represented MWL Women at this conference. Other Albanian delegates, were from religious congregations in Slovenia and Croatia, ‘Different and Equal’ and the State Police.

22 delegates attended the conference from five police forces in the UK and three representatives from East European police forces. The aim was to develop greater collaboration amongst the participants across border. The conference gave a wide picture on the organization of human anti trafficking operations, and it highlighted the role and contribution which NGO-s can give in this process. The main outcome of the event was the commitment given to strengthen partnerships between police forces and NGO-s cross border.

Work Experience in the Shelter of the Medaille Trust

A partnership has been developed between Mary Ward Loreto (MWL) in Albania and Medaille Trust (MT) in UK since 2013, for combating Modern Day Slavery. Consequent to this, staff from MWL, were invited to the Medaille Trust to have a work experience in the shelters for trafficked victims. Two of the staff, Irena Kraja and Sara Capaliku, were volun-teers in the shelter homes between July and September, 2016. for two weeks.

Individual and group meetings were developed at the shelters in order to build trust, to help the girls with information about Albania, and for psychological support. Even though none of the girls expressed the desire to turn back to Albania they are aware that one day they might be repatriated. They asked many questions about services for victims of trafficking, opportunities and rehabilitation, safety and protection in Albania, the attitudes of Albanian society towards VOT. They have been provided with all this information. MWL representatives also helped with the translation between the services offered and the clients.

As a result of these visits, one of the MWL staff who is a psychologist is conducting online Counselling sessions with 3 of the Albanian clients and will continue with 4 girls who have already started online sessions before this time. MWL is grateful to the Medaille Trist for this great opportunity.


A children Story...

F. is a 7 year old child, born from a mother in normal health, but left into care at a Children's Home in Elbasan until the age of 5 years, when is mother took him back again. The Mother has not registered the paternity in the civil state and he has never known his father. F lives with his mother and his older brother L. (10 years), who is not registered either in the registry due to the negligence of the mother. F. has not attended any formal educa-tion institution since he was taken under the care of his mother. They live in very difficult conditions, in a rented place, and often they have to change residence. The children live with their mother and a man whom the children say is their father or a "friend" of mom. Paying rent is relatively high for their income and conditions are not relative to the rent. The family does not receive any money from the state, because they are not residents of Tirana.He and his brother spend the day collecting different materials in garbage bins or by begging. They eat a poor diet at home, eating only one meal a day or none. Also, the children's physical appear-ance leaves much to be desired, having a total lack of hygiene and dressing is inappropriate for the season, which influences the health of the children. Neglect of children and the amount of time spent alone in the streets is a danger to the children's lives. These children were identified by the Little Angels Community Center in October 2015 and since then they have received services from this center. They have been providing medical support, psychological support, food and education support because of the fact that they have never been to kindergarten or school. The purpose of the work of Little Angels is directly connected to the needs of these children as they are at high risk of being trafficked and exploitated by others. So far the result of work performed with these children has been quite satisfactory and the objective is to enroll these children into the education system as soon as possible so that they have another chance in their lives.

“I choose to live without violence!”

Participation of MWL in the launching of the campaign and strategy against the violence of women. Led by the Ministry of Social Welfare in Albania, Tirana, 24th of November 2016. This launching event began with a focus on the promotional banners of the campaign, 2016. The next moment the lights went off and a victim of violence appeared on the scene, sitting in a chair, with her back turned away from us. She started to tell her story with a faint voice initially... some-times she had to stop as her horrible memories of being beaten, malnourished, made to feel worthless, and losing her baby as a consequence of this violence, was still haunt-ing her. It seemed as though there were no real words to express the deep pain she had to endure. But her voice become instantly more powerful as she said “Do not stay in Violence, ask for help!’’. She gave this message and a call to her fellow sisters, who might be suffering as she did. Full report:http://www.albaniahope.com/i-choose-to-live-without-vio-lence-participation-of-mwl-in-the-launching-of-the-campaign-and-the-strategy-against-the-violence-of-women-led-by-the-ministry-of-social-welfare-in-al/

5th September: The Canonisation of Mother Teresa - St Teresa of Calcutta.

9th October: Dom Ernest Troshani, Declared Cardinal by Pope Francis.

5th November: Beatification of 38 Martyrs in Shkodra.

December 2nd: The 25th Anniversary of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between Albania and the Holy See.

December 3rd: Bishop George Frendo, OP is enthroned as the Archbishop of Tiranë-Durrës.

An exciting time for the Catholic Church in Albania:


www.albaniahope.com


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Festival of FilmsTo mark the EU Anti-Trafficking Day, October 18, 2016 Mary Ward Loreto Foundation, in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior, Religious in Europe Networking Against Trafficking and Exploitation (RENATE) and United Response Against Trafficking (URAT), was pleased to present a film festival focused on human trafficking. The festival took place at the Cultural Centre at the Orthodox Church in the center of Tirana and lasted two hour.

Those who participated in this Festival were our collab-orators, partners, beneficiaries, volunteers, students and representatives from the Ministry of Interior. Four films were shown during the evening, and all of these films as indicated below, reflected the work against human trafficking in which we are all engaged:

“Called To Give Voice to the Voiceless”- RENATE; “Two Little Girls” - Animage/Tandem Production, Comic Relief and Tudor Trust;“Passport” - Mary Ward Loreto; “UN.Gift Box - Anti-Human Trafficking Campaign in Albania”- URAT Network

Meetings with Sponsors and Fund Raising

During September our main donors visited MWL to assess, monitor and support us in the development of our work. We are grateful to Markus Janzen for his tireless support of MWL in Albania and of our partner organisations. During the summer months opportunities were taken to fund raise in the UK in the parishes and with friends and local communities. Successful outcomes resulted from these efforts and the work in these small ways is always on-going. The showing of the RENATE film in the NE of England led to an Advent Camapign hitting the press and the BBC news, thanks to the committed work of Mr John Hinman from the Justice and Peace group in the Middlesbrough Diocese. We are gratfeul to all those who have sponsored this and other events for fund-raising at this time.

Two meetings took place in August with two separate potential funding bodies in London, one in relationship to building a hub to aid the work against trafficking European wide and then globally and also to look at the involvement and participation of MWL and RENATE in the global notice board managed by the same Foundation, Caritas Anchor Housing. A successful meeting also took place with the CEO of the new Foundation Called ARISE which hopes to support grass roots projects working against trafficking and led by Religious across the world. From July through to September MWL has ventured into new work of fund-raising with a contact in the UK who came to Albania in September and gave an initial formation on how we could work together in this massive task of fund-raising and in making MWL sustainable. We learned many new skills which could immediately be made effective. We are hoping for better results from our work in this field over the next financial year.

Leadership Training: ERSTE Foundation

Two members of MWL staff and two members of RENATE participated in the first course offered by the sponsors for the ERSTE Foundation training course in Leadership and Teams. This course was held in October, in Sarajevo, and was led by Professor Michael Meyer from Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Today, leadership means leading in and with teams; the leader as “lone wolf” or “great person”-theories are outdated. The focus now is on social processes within teams. Leaders will continuously have to prove themselves within teams and be prepared for the dynamics of such teams. Meanwhile, leadership behaviour and its impact on organizational success had a prominent position within theoretical and empirical management research. However, there is not only a considerable lack of understanding of the knowing-do-ing-gap, but also a deep gap between academic logic and common sense. Both of these gaps need to be bridged.

The main topics of this course were separated into 4 sessions: Team Work & Group Dynamics, Problem Solving and Leadership Theories. The course was attended by 17 people who are working in different organizations in Albania, UK, Romania, Croatia, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and also Austria.


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Organizational Design for the 21st Century

The training brought together about 15 people engaged in the work of social change through different NGOs from Eastern Europe. Present were Ngo’s who had over 10 years of work experience in human development and other NGOs whose work had just begun. All had gathered for a purpose: innova-tion for new services and products, with access to new target communities and groups with whom they work. Many of the NGOs present had a few years’ experience in the field of social services and organizations. Most had gone through changes and are constantly struggling to find new things, new approaches, to stay in the market.

With the introduction of the concept of social enterprises, the NGOs attempt to organize themselves as melted into those of a business. For this reason innovation in a business as well as in an organization is as important as a means to find new services, new product, new approaches, and solutions to the problem. The process of innovation is vague from the beginning to the end, a process which begins within oneself and that requires new processes, new skills, and new tools. Some of the key points of the process of innovation are that new ideas need to be associated and crossed with new fields, disciplines, cultures. Network is a key factor in identifying bridges and generating ideas. Constant observation of the surrounding environment is necessary to find new models and trends. From this workshop we took with us the clear idea that innovation is necessary in an NGO as in any other organization. This will help to solve problems, because change happens fast in the society and in communi-ties and all NGOs have to keep up with this through processes that are reflective and real.

Friends of Mary Ward on Mission

The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary invited the Friends of Mary Ward to come on retreat in Vienna in July 2016. Four of the group in Albania took part. It was a silent retreat, directed by Sister Patricia Harriss CJ. She gave us a talk and material for prayer every morning. In the afternoons we went out on pilgrimage to some place in Vienna associated with Mary Ward. This was led by Magdalen O’Neill IBVM. All the retreat was silent except when we went out in the afternoon. During the afternoon we visited:• Mary Ward’s house Stoss am Himmel;• The Hofburg Palace (seventeenth century part);

• Stephansdom (St Stephen’s Cathedral);• Day in Bratislava (Pressburg) the last foundation of Mary Ward. This retreat was a wonderful experience and has made a big difference in our lives and in our understanding of the charism of Mary Ward.

The Friends of Mary Ward in Albania have also had a great retreat day in September in Pogradec near Lake Ohrid in Macedonia, at the monastery near to the border of Macedonia and Albania. We as always, meet together once a month and this meeting involves prayer and reflection to be clear about our way forward. We were asked in Macedonia to bring one idea to look at how we see our future as Friends of Mary Ward. We are a fantastic group. All had great ideas on how we see the future of the friends of Mary Ward. We are a group of volunteers who follow the mission of Mary Ward and we are thinking to do some volunteering work to help people in need. No doubt we are spiritual people, we pray, reflect and we share together our feelings and our thoughts. If you want to join us you are welcome.

RENATE (Religious in Europe Networking against Trafficking and Exploitation) has welcomed 130 members from many European countries, to Rome, for their second European Assembly (6-12 November 2016). Here they reflected, learnt, dialogued and shared best practices to combat human trafficking and exploitation. They were motivated by excellent inputs, workshops, presentations and through the testimony of the survivors of this modern slavery. During the second day of the assembly the RENATE Members had a special meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican and each participant had the privilege of greeting His Holiness in person. This was a joyful day for each of them. Imelda Poole IBVM, the President of RENATE, thanked Pope Francis on behalf of the organization, citing specific ways in which he has raised awareness of human trafficking, especially of the suffering of the trafficked. Pope Francis was also thanked for the tremendous support given to those working to eliminate human trafficking and who support and work with survivors.

In his response Pope Francis began by reminding us that our Assembly was taking place during the Jubilee Year of Mercy, and that he believes that the most troubling endemic fact, leaving an open wound in our society, is the trade in modern forms of slavery. He was thankful to all of the members for doing this challenging work against this phenomenon. Members of the group presented Pope Francis with a St. Brigid’s Cross. This was accompanied by a scroll explaining how the different reeds woven into the cross reflect the 27 European countries in the RENATE network, who work together to eradicate human trafficking. The Pope received also the gifts of the Albanian Women, supported by MWL women project, with joy and gave them his blessings. The media was very active and was all attentive in catching up with the proceedings of the assembly.

This work and sharing concluded with achieving a mandate for the next five years for RENATE which will be developed into a draft Strategic plan by the Core Group of RENATE, in January 2017. cf. www.renate-europe.net

The 2nd Assembly of Renate in Rome 2016 ‘’Ending Trafficking begins with US.’’


Mary ward Loreto wishes you all peace and joy deep in your hearts, as we unite together at this very special time.

Mary Ward Loreto wishes you joy, deep in your hearts, as we unite together at this very special time and may you be blessed with peace and hope throughout 2017.

Documents

MWL Newsletter 5 - Albania Hope · to be dedicated to Child Trafficking. For many of us working in the field of ... trafficked into slave labour, street begging and a life of poverty