Albania Mission Against
Human Trafficking

MARY WARD LORETO is planting hope with a human rights approach to combating modern day slavery. This challenging mission is implemented through works of justice, education, grass roots action and systemic change.
The aim is to eradicate poverty, the prime cause for human trafficking.

The fifth Anniversary of MWL Foundation in Albania.

On January 11th Mary Ward Loreto celebrated the fifth Anniversary of the Foundation in Albania. Don. Marjan Lumci was invited to celebrate in the morning for all those who wished to come.  Together we expressed our thanksgiving for the work and mission of the past five years. Throughout the day the MWL staff gathered for training and to prepare the rest of the year’s events.  In the evening we celebrated with much fun and laughter during a meal followed by singing and dancing. It was a great day. Thanks again to everybody who stayed close to us throughout these five years.

 

MWL Upcoming Events:
  1. Mary Ward Loreto Foundation in collaboration with the Arise Foundation will organize, a two-day training workshop on fundraising for grassroots organizations engaged in anti-slavery work. This workshop will cover all aspects of the grant cycle, from researching funders, to proposal writing, to building and maintaining strong relationships with donors. The training will take place on April 10th – 11th, 2018, at Tirana International Hotel.
  2. MWL Education Project will present the published research work called: “Ethics in the Education System in Albania”, in Shkodra city, on May 19th, from 10.00-13.00 a clock. At this conference teachers, students, parents, government, NGO-s, mainly form the north of Albania and who are interested in the Education system, will be invited.
  3. To mark the 5th Anniversary of Mary Ward Loreto Foundation and to contribute to systemic change in Albania, events will be organized reaching a wide range of the public. MWL hopes to engage women, men and youth, statutory and non-statutory bodies the media and the ministry in these events, raising awareness against human trafficking issues and the ways to combat it. We hope to identify our mission strongly in the public arena during this time. To mark the 5th Anniversary of Mary Ward Loreto Foundation, we will organize three events during this year:
  • The Volleyball marathon will take place during the first week of June, 2018;
  • A MWL film festival, at which will be transmitted a new MWL Documentary. This will take place on the last week of June, 2018;
  • A MWL Gala night will take place on 12 of December, 2018.

At all three events we will raise funds for the work against human trafficking. The exact dates and details of the above events will be published soon on the MWL website: www.albaniahope.com and Facebook page MaryWardLoreto. Stay tuned!

Emotional Intelligence from theory to daily life.

On February 21st MWL foundation organized a training on Emotional Intelligence for the staff members of the MWL Foundation. This training was held at MWL office in Tirana and lead by the MWL staff trainer, Zana Guri. Working on Emotional Intelligence is part of an investment process for the MWL foundation in order to enable its employees to reach their full potential, increase their capacity and improve their leadership abilities.

An introduction related to the role of emotions in our daily life was one of the dimensions that initially opened up the dynamic of the group. This training was characterized by strong self-reflection and self-awareness moments. Feedback from the MWL staff, during the training session, was very energetic and they showed a curiosity to know more about this subject. They showed a desire to improve their emotional intelligence on a personal level and also as a leader to help in their professional development.

 

Women, leadership and Ministry.

Women, Leadership and Ministry- a 6-week short course offered by the Catherine of Siena College based at the University of Roehampton, was offered to a member of MWL staff.

This course examined the role of women in Christian leadership with a particular focus on recent developments in women’s formal and informal church leadership roles. Issues of gender and leadership, “Toxic Masculinity” was included as one of the topics, another included the topic: ‘How the role of women has shifted over time and what are the factors that influence these changes’?  The dominant role of male leadership across many centuries has been part of everyone’s history. The course treated the emergence of Feminist Theology and the role it is playing in helping us re-think history. As part of this course, participants were invited to do an assignment to help them to integrate the learning from this course into their experience.