Photo Credit: Nancy Brannaman   USAID and U.S. Embassy volunteers worked side-by-side with children and community members of Goriçan to re-build the school's playground and sporting fields.

Volunteers Help Community Rebuild School’s Sports Fields, Donates Computers

Volunteers Help Community Rebuild School’s Sports Fields, Donates Computers

Goriçan, October 18, 2008   Thanks to USAID and volunteers from the U.S. Embassy in Tirana, the Meleq Gjozi School has a new computer lab, a soccer field with goal posts and nets, basketball and volleyball courts, and a tree-lined walkway that students will enjoy for many years to come.

In the spirit of volunteerism and with broad participation from the entire U.S. Embassy community (representatives from the Consular Section, OPDAT, the Marines, Fulbright program, and spouses), Albanian and American alike, this effort helped celebrate a long and fruitful partnership between the U.S. Government and the people of Goriçan.

USAID has had a long, friendly, and productive relationship with the farmers and community of Goriçan, located in central Albania. To celebrate this friendship, USAID, the US Embassy, and the Hortigor Farmers Association organized this community volunteer day to support additional rehabilitation and investment needs in the community.

“We hope that this effort today will serve as a model of working together to pool resources and energies in a common effort, for a common good,” said the USAID Mission Director, Roberta Mahoney, to a crowd of a hundred cheering students. “Every citizen can play an important role, by virtue of the fact that they live and work here, in contributing to this community’s current needs and future development.” 

Over the last decade through USAID, MercyCorps, and the U.S. Cochran program, the U.S. Government has helped this community build roads (2003, 2006), health clinics (1999), and greenhouses to support the community’s economic and development needs (2007).

Today, USAID’s Albanian Agriculture Competitiveness Program is working with the Hortigor Farmer’s Association on ways to adopt new technologies like the energy-saving inflatable greenhouse to facilitate early planting so that farmers can receive premium prices for their products. The project is also developing a Market Information System that will provide farmers with timely, reliable market information and support better farm management techniques.