Terre des hommes Albania has called upon social service workers, psychologists, coordinators from One Stop Centers, and law enforcement officers from Shkodra and Fier for a two-day workshop, six months after the approval of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare’s Directive 564/2022 for setting up One Stop Center's services for severly abused children. The multidisciplinary approach to child protection and inter-institutional collaboration in their protection was the focus of this two-day training. The Head of Country Office, Ms. Enkelejda Kallçiu, emphasized:
“Terre des hommes have enabled the best international expertise from the Promise Network, and our European interventions in according with the national team have raised the model and the best training program, which starts today. We are going to offer continuously our technical expertise to meet the standards of one-stop services and to support multidisciplinary work throughout the practice challenges.”
The support of UNICEF Albania is key to the success of this process. The Child Protection Officer at UNICEF Albania, Ms. Ada Shkurtaj, addressed the participants with a call:
“Let’s look at this new service as a developing practice that aims to be improved step by step. This is an opportunity for all of us to use this resource, enrich it with best practices and adapt it to the environment where it will be implemented, ensuring its sustainability. This is the only way to ensure that we can protect these children together!”
Ms. Alma Tandili, Head of the State Agency for the Rights and Protection of Children present on the first day of the workshop, highlighted the need to work with all links of the system, starting from schools:
“Aware of the inadequate capacities in relation to needs, but this challenge can be won through a proactive approach, awareness through reporting of any case of violence to the relevant mechanisms, starting from schools. Let's all be together to strengthen the system through awareness: Violence cannot be part of our lifestyle.”
During the two days of this workshop, trainers Alketa Lasku and Valmira Greca presented the Barnahus model, from which best practices can be taken and adapted to the Albanian context. With the support of Terre des hommes Europe, this model is currently being implemented in Hungary and Romania. The workshop was held as part of the project "Raising Resilience as a Preventive Instrument and Immediate Response Services for Trafficked and Severely Abused Children", implemented by Terre des hommes and UNICEF Albania with the financial support of the British Embassy in Tirana.
