Eglantina Reka

Is been a long time, more than one decade that I have been working in social service sector, and especially with persons with disabilities.
It never crosses to my mind that persons with disabilities can live independently, or maybe it may have crossed to my mind but it was a flash moment thought.
There are so many needs unfulfilled for People with Disabilities in Albania like basic need as food, shelter, clothing, medicines and other vital services for everyday life so not much was been doing in terms of independent living.
Living independently, it is not easy task for a person that have disability but if we as a society can empower them to live independently is a win to win situation for everyone in the society.
When a person that have a disability need care or a personal assistance from another person, Albania government pays extra money for the person with disabilities which the status was entitled to have a care giver. The care giver is there only to help with everyday need of the person, not to give any professional help, or to help with skills so the person with disability can do things by her/himself in everyday life. The care giver is mostly a member of family.
Taking part in the training Tools for Social Development made me thinking why not to empower persons with disability to have a proper education, training courses or other trainings that will help in getting a job. Lately in Albania, the parliament passed a law that obliged private and public institutions to hire persons with disabilities and if they do not that have to pay 10 times more salaries to social funds for not hiring them. But wait, do we have persons with disabilities prepared to do the jobs in public or private institutions? Unfortunately, the number of persons with disabilities skilled to fill the requirements for the jobs offered it is very low.  
Working it is great opportunities for persons with disabilities. It is good for their own personal development, and for the society to benefit from their work force. Persons with disabilities can have their own job and maybe a house too. To have a living as everyone else.
Not much has been done so far. And not much either is being done nowadays with inclusive education. Or to build something for the future. Some little thing is being developed in this direction but not anything sustainable for the future and independent living of persons with disabilities.
It is time to take an action, to start doing something, to build some facilities to help the independent living of persons with disabilities.