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In Albania, although disability inclusion is mandated by law, schools are not accessible, and specialized instruction and support are not generally available. As a result, many people with disabilities never go to school nationwide; in Pogradec the number is even higher. In most cases, if a family has a child with special needs, that child's primary caregiver is a parent. A small stipend from the government partially offsets the cost of medicine but is insufficient to pay for additional care or activities, or to offset the loss of income. Nehemiah Gateway (NG) Albania is a longtime, trusted partner to these families. It is one of the only places in Pogradec offering services such as speech and physical therapy to children with special needs, free of charge.
For summer 2025, Nehemiah Gateway will be providing a three-week camp for children with special needs.
The first week will be with children under 16 years old. There will be approximately 10 children that have mental disabilities. All of whom are children who frequent the Nehemiah Gateway speech therapy program.
The next two weeks will be 18-20 children that are up to 16 years old.
The goals are:
• Should be independent in self-care
• Socialization
• Communication ...etc.
For summer 2025, Nehemiah Gateway has prepared a program with games and different social activities and dancing. Also, the plan is to have more field trips to different places around the area:
• Pheasant forest
• Drilon
• Beach
• Lakeside walks
• Desserts in a restaurant
• Bicycle training ...etc.
This grant application is requesting $3,400 in District grant matching funds, to go with $1,700 from the Rotary Club of Estes Park to sponsor a camp for children with special needs. See budget for breakdown of the costs.
NOTE: This is a different summer camp than the summer camp the Rotary Club of Estes Park sponsored in 2024 (District Grant P-5145). While the 2024 summer camp focused on at-risk Roma children and is run by teachers from the Amaro Tan School, this project serves children with special needs. It is a different group of children, and the camp will be run by clinicians and social workers from the NG Children's Learning Center. Goals and objectives of the camp are also substantially different.
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