BRING ABOUT CHANGE

TOTAL DURATION OF THE PROJECT : 01 SEPTEMBER 2010 – 01 SEPTEMBER 2012

Project Title : BRING ABOUT CHANGE

PROJECT GOAL : To reduce the level of vulnerability of the children victims of economic exploitation in the streets of Tirana,by limiting their working hours, providing them with skills for their personal development and raisingawareness of their parents about children’s rights.

Institutions for children. ARSIS emphasized the gaps in the current Law, gave suggestions onhow to improve the procedures and criteria in relation to the children that are put in care inthese institutions, for the best interest of children.

a. Support to Registration or enrollment in school consists on a) administrative support such as
facilitation of issuance of birth certificates and booklet of vaccination for children that is mandatoryfor the registration at school; b) provision of school text books and school materials that thebeneficiaries otherwise could not afford buying; contacts with the school directors and teachers tosupervise the attendance, enrollment and the performance at school of the beneficiary children.

b. Support to registration in kindergarten consists on issuance of vaccination booklet, health
analyses (if that is required), collaboration and coordination with social services of the City ofTirana (as the local authorities do manage and finance the nurseries and kindergartens).

c. Facilitation of ID-cards consists on: facilitation of birth certificates issuance (in case the
beneficiary does not posses any other ID prior to this), direct contacts with the General Directoryof Civil Status at the Ministry of Interiors asking for assistance in case of technical difficulties,purchase of the ID voucher and going to the Civil Status Offices to assist the beneficiaries.

d. Registration on National Civil Register is often a long and difficult process, varying from case
to case. In the cases of children born abroad, out of medical institutions, the obstacles multiply.The process consists obtaining the birth documents at the health institutions where the deliveryof birth was made, dealing with the respective authorities to correct the data of the parents and/or born babies, and dealing with civil status offices, often with Albanian consulates abroad, withrelevant foreign institutions and in several cases even with the judicial authorities. Obtainingthe documents is often a long demanding and it comes at high costs. There is a long list of thereasons why there are many cases pending.

e. The respective law on how to enroll children in social shelters does not define on who should be
the responsible body that does the follow up on obtaining the set of documents required by law.ARSIS did the follow up to set up the long list of documents required by the law, negotiated withthe State Social Services and asked for help from private specialized shelter on each case for fivechildren.

f. ARSIS refers to partner organizations court cases; facilitates the issuance documents required
per each case and provides logistic support.

g. House tenancy support means facilitating, finding and paying tenancy for homeless or semi-
homeless beneficiary families.