Families in poverty
Protection and direct support for poor families and those struggling for daily survival across the north and peri-urban Tirana.
For more than twenty years, SHKIZH has worked across northern and peri-urban Albania — supporting women, children and people with disabilities through training, employment, education and care.
To bring vulnerable people fully into society — overcoming the difficulties life has placed in their way, and reducing extreme poverty in the communities that need it most.
Practical support delivered in the field — alongside families, women, children and people with disabilities.
Protection and direct support for poor families and those struggling for daily survival across the north and peri-urban Tirana.
Qualification, fair employment and the economic empowerment of women and their families.
Schooling for children who have dropped out, courses for orphans, and help with scholarships, books and care.
Legal, psycho-social and medical services, and training for families caring for a relative at home.
Awareness on nutrition, family planning, breastfeeding, and care for the chronically and terminally ill.
Reviving the traditions of weaving — products such as the Kukës çerga — and connecting them to markets.
SHKIZH was founded in Kukës in December 2002 as the association “Kukësi for Development and Integration,” and renamed by decision of the Tirana Judicial District Court in October 2010, carrying the same purpose nationwide.
We have long experience running qualification and management training, coordinating field projects, and bringing legal, psycho-social and medical services within reach of the people who need them.
Today we work across Tirana, Kamëz, Laknas and Bathore, and the rural north, in partnership with local and central government and a wide network of organisations.
Training and employment financed by MADA with the association of Working Invalids, in the rural villages of Shemëri, Surroj and Allen — forty working invalids qualified and employed in medicinal and aromatic plants and nuts. Health-awareness sessions ran with Lapraka Health Centre No. 7; the World Food Programme supported “Qualification–Employment–Food” for women and children; Handicap International and Share-See supported disability care at home.
Centred on the Kombinat area and financed by local businesses. We helped women who had lost work to set up social enterprises, took Albanian-made products to international markets with AKF-Tirana in Malmö, and ran “Cultural Heritage of Generations” — reviving the Kukës çerga with the Ministry of Culture, the Centre for Competitiveness and the European Union. Business workshops followed with REA Prishtina.
Our social enterprise Art.Zan.Al places people first — connecting social innovation with business innovation to create lasting change for women and girls.
An enterprise carrying cultural heritage through the loom — bringing girls and young women into the profession, 80% through real work, toward a sustainable business with its eye on international markets.
Through “Folk Fair,” green carpets and the GEA project, the work reaches across Tirana, Peza and Krrabë — strengthening family economies with healthy, hand-made and environmentally sound goods.
Your support funds training, school materials and home care for families living in extreme poverty.
Make a donationWe work with businesses, institutions and organisations to deliver projects on the ground.
Start a partnershipEvery purchase from Art.Zan.Al puts income directly into the hands of the women who weave.
Shop ArtZan →