Meeting with the City Councillor for Social Services of Shkoder

Author: admin 5 October 2015

On the 2nd of October Operazione Colomba volunteers went to the City Hall of Shkoder for a meeting with the City Councillor for Social Services, Mr. Filip Vida, and his assistant, Mrs. Rudina Kruja. The meeting followed several reminders sent to the newly elected Mayor Voltana Ademi, in order to receive answers to the questionnaire about the blood feuds phenomenon.

The meeting was a good occasion for introducing one another. Indeed, Operzione Colomba told about its project by explaining its activities and goals. The institutional representatives replied by proposing a possible cooperation in the fight against blood feuds. In terms of substance, part of the conversation was about the quantitative criteria for pinpointing the rate of population affected by the phenomenon. In fact, depending on the definition used in order to identify the victims – persons in self-reclusion (ngujuar) or persons belonging to the familiar clan (fis) – numbers significantly change. The municipality of Shkoder itself has emphasized its own difficulty in finding exact and unambiguous data, even from the specific institutions that deal with the phenomenon on the ground. Such a conversation, in an implicit manner, confirms the existence of the phenomenon in the municipality of Shkoder.

Referring to the questionnaire, Operazione Colomba looks forward to receiving the answers from the Mayor Voltana Ademi, as promised by the representatives. Although the campaign is already expired, Operazione Colomba volunteers hope to be contacted by the Mayor as soon as possible and wish to start a worthwhile cooperation between the civil society and the local institutions.