Run like catching the last bus to Sauk i Vjetër (Old Sauk)
The project was focused in Sauk i Vjetër, a rural zone with public transportation problems . The beautiful landscape of hills offers trails for walking, not forgetting the abandoned military department, artillery and bunkers built in the communist period. Together with local citizens, volunteers and activists we addressed the problem to the proper institutions, focusing on the community concerns and also the natural and historical assets of Sauk i Vjetër as tourism attractions.
Local
Albania
Sauk i Vjetër and Kodër Sauk, rural areas in municipality of Tirana.
Mainly rural
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-11-15
As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: Oksana Last name: Duqi Gender: Female Nationality: Albania If relevant, please select your other nationality: Albania Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Ferit Xhajko street 63/2, apartament 7. Town: Tirana Postal code: 1057 Country: Albania Direct Tel:+355 68 443 5392 E-mail:oksana.duqi@yahoo.com
Run like catching the last bus to Sauk i Vjetër is a initiative implemented by an informal group of three girls (GS), focused in vivifying the rural area of Kodër Sauk and Sauk i Vjetër, through advocating for improving the service and quality of public transport of that area. Sauk i Vjetër is located in the city of Tirana.
From April 2022 to November 2022 community meetings were continually organized, a group of youth from the rural area of Sauk and also young people from Tirana were committed in catalyzing the use of democracy tools by the community. This project was supported by Leviz Albania and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC.
People in this area face the problem with public transport that consists of rare timetables, exclusion of late transportation possibility, lack of access to a major part of the neighborhoods (Kodër Sauk, lake of Xhabrahimsëve). The barrier to their potential to integrate in employment opportunities, social activities that need to be accessed by everyone, considering the elderly, women and girls, students, the workforce and everyone else.
A quantitative research in the field was developed that served as a strong argument attached to the petition addressed to the municipality as a tool to improve local democracy. The improvement of public transport would also lead to a positive nature effect, as it would replace other means of transport that use gas and oil fuel.
An important part of the initiative by the Secret Group was a collective exploration in marking a hiking path of the nature and historic importance of Sauk i Vjetër, attracting a great attention to the trail, nature lovers and vivifying the potential to create more community activities.
Community activism
Catalyzing democracy
Accessibility in public transport
Vivifying rural areas
Informal education
In terms of social sustainability the empowerment of girls has a major importance in the initiative by organizing and leading the community with the approach of involving the community by having a gender balance, including 300 girls and women and 207 boys and men in the activities implemented. We also believe that being a group of girls is a great empowerment for ourselves, consequently for the entire society. Empowered girls and women are empowered people that have the possibility and the skills to positively influence societies and social change.
Youth empowerment is also present in the initiative, increasing understanding in democratic procedures of addressing a community concern or problem. Getting trained how to be active citizens and motivated volunteers, by transforming that theoretical knowledge into practice through activities, leads to competence on how to create a petition, gather and discuss other steps that can lead to consistent activism.
Referring to environmental sustainability, activities implemented in nature, such as marking a trail from Sauk i Vjetër to Kombinat, community gathering in nature for creating art content as a form of expressing the community needs are significant in promoting the connection with nature. Creating positive collective memories in healthy navigations through nature, serves as a way to be in balance with natural resources and lean towards that balance.
Young people from Sauk i Vjetër, Kodër Sauk and Tirana were part of the volunteering group collaborating to create change in the area, socializing with each- other, creating and having fun, inviting parents, grandparents and friends to be an active part of activities.
Community gatherings and discussions to share concerns, ideas, ways to explain and address the problem of public transportation. The meetings took place in Ibrahim Brahja school, in a green field in the area, through inviting people that live in the area to be part of these gatherings.
The art activism was organized to create posters to express the rare schedules of the public transportation, the lack of early in the morning and late dinner hours transportation, lack of bus stations and bus signals, the lack of access for elderly people living in the hills (Kodër Sauk and near Xhebrahimi lake) that had to walk for more than half an hour to access the bus station. The posters were stuck to one of the bus stops of Sauk i Vjetër transportation.
Marking a trail from Sauk i Vjetër to Kombinat, has been an unforgettable experience with the resident participants, young children, hikers, exploring the new trail, sharing experiences and socializing. The trail is also published online from Escape With Me, a group of hikers that we collaborated with to create the trail. The link online: https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/liqeni-xhebrahimsave-liqeni-vrap-119048366?fbclid=PAAabkTf0Plqt8Pk88k4KwXP6ow0HSL1AryF9YvBHaw3JhIYbtfsWFk_QKkD0
During the implementation of the project, the media was also engaged to promote the initiative, our activism in the rural area, presenting the information about the public transportation difficulties that people face, and the potential of the area to attract attention for activities in nature.
Creating an environment with space for all ages and genders, so that they would be included in discussions was a key consideration throughout the entire project. The inclusion was present from children (trail marking), teenagers (volunteering), women, men and the elderly (community gatherings, taking their opinion for the mini research report, petition signing).
In the field we have moved from one neighborhood to another trying to include everyone and inform as many people as possible for the initiative, also promoting it online through social media and social media marketing. Persaukun is the instagram page and Vrapo për autobuzin e fundit të Saukut is the page on facebook.
Important for us was also recreating a sense of togetherness and collaboration between people, as a way to empower everyone in having our rights to be put into practice. Consequently, going from indifferentism to awareness and organization. All the activities were supported by organizations placed in Albania: Leviz Albania and Swiss Agency For Development And Cooperation SCD.
Creating a research report to present the level of residents' satisfaction with the service provided by the public transport Sauk i Vjetër- Qendër Tiranë has been an important tool to collect quantitative data about the issue faced, a document that was later on addressed to the municipality of Tirana and the Agency for Consumer Protection in Albania.
This project brought attention to their everyday problems through requests and complaints addressed to the municipality of Tirana and Customer Service Agency. An added attention was in their day life activities and the beauty of the area which got promoted on local television and social media. The whole initiative was implemented based on the community's thoughts and opinions on what is their biggest concern in the rural area.
The contact with the private investor bus line operator to address people’s complaints was also part of the project’s journey.
We collaborated with different NPOs, in the field based organization. Qëndresa Qytetare is a local civil (NPO) that aims to strengthen the role of the citizen in society, through policy advocacy, civic awareness and training of community groups in order to improve governance. They helped us create an online petition format, so that people could easily access it and give their contribution to put pressure on administration to solve the problem. The impact of their involvement has been important, since they had the right information about the procedure and existing laws.
Youth Voice Network has been involved in two trainings organized for the youth group of volunteers. Young girls and boys from Sauk i Vjetër and Tirana took part in these trainings, also learning more about the upcoming activities of the project that they later contributed and were part of.
The impact of this involvement in the project has been quite positive, completing the energy to make a change with valuable information. Consequently, we were capable and competent in our engagement in the initiative, through putting information in practice, learning and relearning.
We had mainly local and national stakeholders.
Through active participation, young people are empowered to play a vital role in our project, their own development as well as that of their communities, helping them to learn vital life-skills, develop knowledge and to promote positive civil action.
Media has been one of our biggest allies, helping us to share community problems, empower citizens' voices and promote the area.
The Municipality of Tirana has the authority to implement and sustain improvements of public services within the community. Surveys and petitions have been submitted to the institution, however, a response has yet to be received.
A private investor of public transportation partnering with the local municipality could enhance the value of this project by taking into account all the requests and complaints.
Hiking can also help to create an appreciation for nature, as well as a deeper understanding of its importance. Through getting out in nature, individuals will be able to observe and appreciate the world around them. Not only can it help to improve physical and mental health, but it also provides a sense of community and connection with others. Through taking part in a hiking group, individuals can learn about nature, create meaningful relationships, and help to combat social isolation and loneliness.
A civil society organization, Qendresa Qytetare, has been offering assistance in administrative procedures in institutions. With their expertise in the field of advocacy and law, they have presented us with an online petition.
The project Per Saukun was supported by Leviz Albania and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The activities were funded by the SDC and implemented by a consortium of three successful Albanian organizations: the Open Society Foundation for Albania, Partners Albania for Change and Development, and Co-PLAN.
This project was rooted in many fields of knowledge, including geography, history, social science, public transportation, activism, reporting, fact-checking, civil society organization, advocacy, laws, volunteerism, training, communication, scientific research, social policy, social work, legal field, protest art, and creativity.
-Geographical and historical knowledge were included in the last activity, marking a hiking route to go from Sauk to Kombinat with a hiking group.
-Research in the rapport created in collaboration with an expert in this field, social science and public transportation field, Lorela.
-Volunteering/activism from Andi as a communicator mentor part of a youth organization in Albania.
-Reporting and fact checking by the media, collecting information.
-Civil society organization, Qendresa Qytetare helping in administral procedures in institutions. Field of advocacy and laws, knowledge in that field presented to us.
-The representatives interlaced with each other as a process. In different activities and at the same time having an impact in all of them, because for example: we did the training wit volunteering information in order to keep the volunteer group engaged and informed, serving for the rest of the project. Study was also done in a certain phase and it was a great start to collect data and then continue with the petition.
- Social work in community meetings and discussions.
The added value of this project was the attention brought to a rural area Sauk i Vjeter, even though it is really near (only 2 km) from Tirana center. Kind of isolated for the simple people, with no private means of transport and the right to have a public transportation that serves them. That would also have a positive impact on nature, less pollution.
The results achieved:
⇀ Meeting the people of the community in the field, right where they live, accessing different neighbors and categories of people. In the beginning our informal group met young people, people at work, in their houses, elderly people, children at school.
⇀ A group of 25 volunteers were created, inviting them from the community and also online. Some of them live in the rural area and the others in Tirana.
⇀ Two trainings in different days were held in Ibrahim Brahja school in Sauk i Vjetër to get to know each other, orient and coordinate them about the upcoming activities of the initiative.
⇀ Meeting with 30 people of the community were held to create the right formulation of what the citizens wanted to address to the municipality as a problem.
⇀ Addressing the problem to the municipality of Tirana by creating a petition signed from 215 users of public transportation, and a report measuring the satisfaction level for the service offered by this mean of transport, 200 opinions included.
⇀ An art protest was organized to create posters about the problem and its solutions.
⇀ Marking a trail from Sauk i Vjetër to Kombinat with a group of hikers, people from the community and people from Tirana.
The outcomes of the project:
⇀ The volunteers used their training to inform other community members about their rights to organize in addressing the public transport problems.
⇀ A video was created to represent all the project and the implementation of it.
⇀ The media was engaged in publishing the problem of the community, community member thoughts, and the activism to improve democracy.
The impacts of the initiative:
⇀ Young people and the community are more aware of their human rights and how to address a problem concerning them.
⇀The contacts held between volunteers are helping to continue activities in the field, like picnics, cleaning the rural area, exploring.
The entire project had the inclusion approach: with the community, not just for the community. Field based activities were organized all in Sauk i Vjetër, including different people living in Sauk i Vjetër, Kodër Sauk and also from Tirana. Focusing on what was considered as the biggest concern from the community in the rural area, the problem with the public transportation, with the approach to empower them, focusing beyond bringing training and theoretical information to them, it has an innovative approach compared to most of the projects in the field of local improvement of democracy in Albania.
Creating nature friendly activities in local democracy activism is an innovative form of approaching a problem, as it goes beyond the administrative procedures, including a wider view by appreciating what the rural area already has. The marking of a trail in the rural area of Sauk i Vjetër started from the lake of Xherbrahim to lake of Vrapi, creating a potential tourist attraction in the area. This exploration included nature and interest for the abandoned structures, forgotten passages in an area holding history of previous years. The abandoned military bases offer a fascinating window into Tirana's past, placed in Sauk i Vjetër.
Considering the importance of creating a community feeling to keep going we experienced activities that also had the intention to have fun and play, as a fuel for energy, the trail marking mentioned before, a picnic in the zone, the art activism activity. We see this as a way of existing in the whole spectrum of the being alive experience. Finding the balance between activism and enjoying being alive.
The project used a mixed methodology of both observational and survey-based approaches in order to gather data from Sauk i Vjeter residents and bus users. The project began with days of field observations, which were conducted largely to better understand the problem and to get to know the local people. Through physical contact and social media, volunteers were recruited and were trained by a communicator trainer.
A meeting was held at the Ibrahim Brahja school, which was organized through contact with local residents, with the help of the community facilitator and social media. A group of volunteers then worked on the timeline of the bus through visual observation in the bus stations.
In order to gather further data, a questionnaire was created with a range of questions to survey the experiences and opinions of bus users. These questionnaires were distributed both in person and online through social media. Furthermore, signatures were collected for a petition, which was created in collaboration with an NPO and was widely shared online.
Finally, when the petition and survey received a delayed response from the multiplicity of Tirana and AMK, a small art protest was organized in which volunteers created posters and, together with residents and activists, posted them at the bus station in a sign of demonstration.
In the aspect of methodology, it can be replicated or transferred:
⇀ Collecting data for the satisfaction level of a certain public service offered to the people, creating a study report. This collects real information and can be presented as a strong argument to raise people’s voice to address their collective concerns.
⇀ Leading an initiative by girls as a form of empowering them. Creating opportunities for girls and women to be in leading positions is an element of creating equal opportunities for everyone and giving positive examples of inspiring people.
⇀ Involving marking/ exploring a trail in activities based in nature, that widen the viewpoint on local democracy activism, by making it more holistic.
In the aspect of processes:
⇀ Initiating a project by first asking the community what their biggest concern is, in this way involving them from the first phase of the project.
⇀ Readjusting planned activities taking into consideration what suits best for the people participating too.
In the aspect of technology:
⇀ Creating online petition to access more people from everywhere, as a practical way to approach addressing a problem in developing countries.
In the aspect of products:
⇀ The questionnaires and the mini study report to present give facts for the community problems.
⇀ Creating a video to present an abstract of the initiative. We created the following video with the help of a professional videographer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpLnqstRpDk&t=1s&ab_channel=EdvinRushitaj.
In the aspect of learnings:
⇀ Having more community meetings and less on the field information session, being more productive and more inclusive. People potentially enjoy and engage more in the activities where they are able to express themselves then the ones that only include information given to them.
Democratization as a global challenge, especially in developing countries, is addressed by local activism in this project by addressing the public transport problem. The lack of a quality in service of public transport brings isolation in rural areas by making it hard to access the other parts of the city for basic needs but also for integrating in society.
The focus on vitalizing the rural area by improving public transport also gives a focus to the rich and poor gap, as the activities included a target group of the society that has difficulties in accessing their jobs, their schools, health care services and much more. Improving the public transport or the intention to go there, also affects in lowering the gap between the rich and the poor, or better say lowering the gap between people that own private means of transport and people that usually use public transport.
Sustainable development and climate change are global challenges that the world is facing right now. By improving the quality of service in public transport, people can use less of their private means of transport and will not be obliged to buy new ones to add up to everyday pollution. Also, organizing activities in nature, in a rural area, getting interested about the old building and the history of that place is a way of bringing people closer to nature, and promote the need to keep, restore or create new areas that offer air quality improvement and stronger community connections.
Education and learning in this project was mostly focused on the youth, by using informal learning activities such as training- to lead to a better understanding of their potential to commit actively in the places they live. The training about motivation, active citizenship, volunteering were continually put into practice by the activities the girls and boys from the rural area and also from the urban area took part in.
