Documentary about Nehemia Foundation in Albania - From 2005

We accompany the lawyer Manjola, coworker of NEHEMIA Albania, on her tour through Pogradec. NEHEMIA, a Christian aid organization, helps people on the fringes of society, in a country which stands at the edge of Europe itself. These Roma are going to be moved, forcibly. There is great bitterness; much was promised to them but only few promises were kept. The new homes are hardly habitable. Another family with difficulties is the Maxheri family. Manjola and NEHEMIA's leader, Arnold Geiger, bing wood and food to them. the family sold its house in the village for an amount equaling a three months salary. In town the dreams of a better life evaporated. Everyday life is hard here in Albania. Everyone battles his way through as best as he possibly can. There is not much extra time to care about the poor, the week. There it is, the NEHEMIA Center of Albania. Nehemiah was the prophet of rebuilding and practical help. I think he would have approved because here we can see the building that will be converted into a medical clinic in the future. Over there, the administration building. The church building, behind the Mission House, and the containers are going to be house workshops for the youth. The guest house, and here in the front the fine school building for 400 pupils, and further schools are planned to be built. NEHEMIA considers the children to be the key to a new future. In spite of problems in the beginning and a setback in 1997 when pillaging devastated the entire country and the mission organization as well. Now everything is running well. The private school for Albanian children is the beacon project of NEHEMIA. Not only do they want to impart an education but also a foundation of life skills that will last a lifetime. We try hard to raise responsible leaders. This includes not only learning specialized competencies and knowledge but also character-building, where great importance is attached and if they have to clean from time to time, that's a service still very commendable. Computer lessons. Those children are privileged. The teaching follows the Albanian standardized curriculum but on a higher level. Teachers are highly motivated. There are many more applicants than spaces available for a place in the school. A typical Albanian school is very different - Albanian schools generally are in a state of disrepair. There is often a lack of necessary teaching materials, of desks and benches and the teachers are unreliable and corrupt. That's Pogradec. located on a beautiful lake, the largest town of this region in the south east of Albania with 50,000 inhabitants. After being suppressed by fundamentalist communist rule for half a century there has now been democracy in this country for fifteen years. Since then certain things have taken a turn for the better the markets are full of goods but not every Albanian can afford to buy them. There are no supermarkets but they still have the cheese, vegetable and fish dealers. Everyday life is often difficult, for example there is electricity and running water only a few hours each day, an estimated unemployment rate of 30 percent. No, that is not a lawn mower without a lawn, that is Albanian everyday life. We are having once again a black out here in Pogradec and so all those generators are running everywhere to supply the small shops with electricity. It stinks, but that's how it is. In spite of all those problems there was a determination to take the initiative and push ahead. Everywhere something is being built though not always legally. A partner organization of NEHEMIA is running an orthopedic practice here in Pogradec. It is the only one in Albania with Western European standards. Anke Nikolaus has worked here for two years and wants to stay for another 10 years in order to help these people A big day for Anxhela. The six-year-old girl was born without legs. She will walk for the first time in her life with those bendable prosthesis. Until now the shy girl didn't have much contact with other children. Without the prosthesis she was confined to the house. Now freedom is calling. How did Anxhelas life change since she got her prosthesis? Do you want to answer? Maybe the mother wants to answer. Life changed unbelievably, because she now has the possibility to walk, it was not possible before. Otherwise she was simply on her stumps in the house and was able to maneuver but she didn't have the possibility to go outside on her own and now yes life has changed and there's a lot of hope. On tour with Arnold Geiger to Peshkepi. Over the bumpy roads it takes the Jeep more than one hour to go the 15 kilometers to the village. The street takes us directly back into the Middle Ages. There are no cars, not one single shop. The families care for themselves as well as possible. By foot we explore the village. Peshkepi has grown traditionally that makes work you easier. However, immigration to the cities is depressing the young people don't see a future for themselves. Deceptive dreams of an easy going live in luxury lure them into the city. NEHEMIA wants to take measures against it even though it is a hard and stony way. A home care team from NEHEMIA visits the mentally handicapped Nikoletta once a week. This is the high point of the week for the 23-year-old. There are hardly any institutions for handicapped people in Albania so nurse assistant Anila Kaja and the social educationalist Kerstin Seiffert make the long journeys into the villages. What condition was Nicoletta in when you started to work with her? Was she already doing okay? Well, she is making progress. For example exercises to recognize structures in the beginning she wasn't able to do that at all. Or rows of numbers, or that she's able to write something on her own now, that's all progress Here in Peshkepi, NEHEMIA has also invested in education, in the village school building. Over the course of half a year the totally dilapidated structure was renovated. Now the nine students, classes 1-8 are taught together, are warm and dry again and they proudly show us how well they can learn in here. By the way, for Middle Europians, Albanian is a really complicated language, hardly one word is recognizable to us. How can you win people's hearts so that you won't be seen as an irritating foreigner? I would simply say with service. It's very difficult with words and it seems so superficial "How are you - Sieni?", and so on. But when you spend a long time together with people and you simply try to do noticeable things for them, to adapt yourself to their needs, to help, that's how you gain their trust and then there's confidence and I'd like to say on both sides. It will increase on our side as well. Another freshly renovated building, the village's outpatient clinic. Modern solar panel technology on the roof. All is well up above, but there's a lack down below. We are not waiting for Godot but for the sink. For one year now there has not been any running water or electricity in the clinic. That's why sometimes patients had to be treated in candlelight. But treatment is available as you can see. Thanks to the reconstruction help of NEHEMIA the villagers can get basic treatment in the outpatient clinic again. Most of the other mountain villages have no medical care at all. Again and again breathtaking scenery. It's not always easy for Kerstin Seiffert to find out where there are handicapped children because many parents hide them out of shame. That's how Ersiola also fared badly, too. She had to stay inside the house for years. Playfully, the therapist tries to establish contact. A tender approach from one moment to the next the child can withdraw again. Up here, in the Albanian mountains, we meet a big fan of bubbles. 12 year-old Ersiola. She is autistic and has been treated by Kerstin Seiffert for half a year. What does it mean to Ersiola when you stop by? Well, according to her mother, she shows that she's pleased to see me. This is very rare for people with autism because they hardly ever exhibit feelings but there's always a smile and also some curiosity and that's the point to motivate her to discover something new and to try new things. Unfortunately, there's not only Lower Trebinje where we visit our patients, but also Upper Trebinje. That isa as the name already describesa a bit further up the mountain and here our country road, if you can call it a road at all, suddenly has those stone bumps. The road is blocked even for our jeep, and so we continue on foot, of course. The sunny weather lured ten-year-old Klejdi outside the front door. The boy suffers from muscular dystrophy, a type of incurable muscular atrophy. With physiotherapy exercises, Klejdi could stop the progression of the illness but his parents don't allow it. They believe only a big operation in Germany could help their boy. That's why Kerstin Seiffert is restricted to only playing games with him. With physiotherapy Klejdi could maybe become older than 20 years, but without the training, he'll probably die earlier. Today, the bright boy's feeling well after all, he has visitors. Kljdi's relationship with his parents is not that positive because he's the only boy in the family and he's suffering from this illness. Boys are highly valued in Albanian families, it's very hard for his mother to accept the illness. Just not having a healthy boy, she's pretty ashamed about it. In the next place the next young patient. In the village of Malin immigration to the cities has left its mark. Unoccupied houses everywhere. Feridon's parents remained. The hydrocephalus patient suffers from an extreme bend of his spinal column. He sits in the buggy. He's not able to sit in a wheel chair anymore Anila Kaja brings some relief for the totally twisted limbs. Feridon likes to joke with Kerstin Seiffert. He's nothing but skin and bones but his mind is awake and playful. Nobody knows how long his malformed body is going to continue. You can only help people if you are here, if you're together with them. I was so frustrated after my first visit because never before I experienced something like this. On one hand this never-ending boundless hospitality in which they invest basically everything and on the other hand when it's about relief supplies, about common property, people are so greedy and also brutal and so uncontrolled. In the beginning I was unable to comprehend this discrepancy. But I have learned to understand it more and more over the years. Do you have hope for Albania? Absolutely. We wouldn't be here anymore without hope and we have had hope from the very first day. It's a dynamic country, a developing country and a country that also learns from its former mistakes. Even the people learn. No matter what happens, we don't want to make those dreadful past experiences again.