Building digital resilience for children without parental care

Building Digital Resilience For Children Without Parental Care

Ilir, 15 years old, has been separated from his family since 2010. His mother died and his father was an alcoholic with limited means to

support his son which obliged him to ask for Residential Care services.

Albania has a long history of children residing in various large-scale residential care institutions. Around two-thirds have one or both biological parents alive, and the vast majority are separated from their families due to economic hardships.

Locked up with a bunch of boys and girls, life at the institution was not easy for him. His days are pretty much structured. Wake up, hygiene,

meal-times and bed times. During the day, some recreational activities with the facilitators but nothing different, no excitement.

Until one day, Nisma – ARSIS team, UNICEF’s partner in the implementation of the National Plan on De – Institutionalization, knocked on the institution’s door. The team conducts regular visits to children in the institution and assesses their needs.

Currently, the services provided in residential care institutions are mainly focused on physical care rather than individual development, not

surprisingly the assessment showed a lack of individual and development plans, in conformity with their age, development, talents, skills

and dreams. Due to immutable and rigid routines, children in the institutions cannot actively and healthily

explore themselves and their abilities.

“Among many children, we’ve met with Ilir, a small boy that avoids communication with other and withdrawn. He barely could talk to us. It took

us months to cool him down and understand about his life, his hobbies on music, dreams and hopes”

said Ana Makjo, Executive Director of Nisma ARSIS.

Children living in residential care they receive some basic life skills training but are not sufficient to meet the demands of living independently.

Nowadays, digital literacy is the universal language that connects children and emerge new talents. UNICEF was approached by the Ministry

of Health and Social Protection which together with the private sector (American Albanian Development Fund (AADF)) has created a lab space

for children, called TUMO.

TUMO Tirana is a Center for Educational Technologies. It’s learning program is madup of self-learning activities, workshops, and project labs around 8 learning targets (programming, animation, game development, graphic design,

filmaking, robotics, music, 3D modeling).

Together with the government and partners, we managed to enroll children living without parental care in this creative lab. Building children’s

resilience is at the heart of the De- I plan.

Through this center, we introduced children for the first time ever to a new world, quite

unimaginable for them. For a period of one year, UNICEF is paying a monthly fee to twelve children from institutional care to attend

TUMO Center. Afterward, in the private sector, AADF will support these children with dedicated scholarships to follow up their preferred

workshops and increase their skills in the chosen areas of development.

Ilir’s dream to record songs in a professional studio seems not far away. The TUMO center has idealized his dream into new achievable

vision, coming from a constant state of apathy and doubting.

“I like hip hop music and I recorded songs on my friend’s phones. When I joint TUMO center, had no idea how things would work for me,

now Im in a self-learning stage and in the process of how to use professional equipment’s. But staff here helped me a lot”

said Ilir, while his eyes shone with excitement.

“I hope one day I will be able to learn more about music, as I want to be a famous singer”.

UNICEF will continue to support the dream of Ilir, and his friends to attend centers, like TUMO, to develop creativity which is so important

for children’s psychological and emotional well-being. They will have the prospect to explore and advance new skills and talents and embrace innovation, art, and technology like their

peers. Moreover, this opening will positively influence social skills improvement through establishing new contacts and youth networks,

empowering them gradually towards independent living.

Building Digital Resilience For Children Without Parental Care

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Building Digital Resilience For Children Without Parental Care