Donor: Canada Fund for Local Initiatives

Duration: 1^st November 2015- 26^th February 2016

Observatory for Children’s Rights have implemented the project “Prevent early marriage in Albania” over the period 1^st November 2015- 26^th February 2016, an initiative supported by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives.

The project goal was to address the enhancement of child protection mechanisms and services to effectively reach, support and refer the cases of children and families in the situation of such particular vulnerability as early forced marriages.

Objectives:

• To raise public awareness about the phenomena of child early forced marriage (CEFM) by focusing on the empowerment of young girls and by mobilizing families and communities, by covering all the regions of the country.
• To identify and monitor the phenomena of early forced marriage in children covering all the regions of Albania, and focusing mainly in sub urban and developing areas.
• To disseminate the findings of the project and all the process involved in it, with all the local and central stakeholders who have contributed throughout the process of the project implementation.

Some of the main activities that were realized are:

• Informative meetings to inform general public about the causes and consequences of CEFM, and will be organized with all local stakeholders and the engagement of parents, men, boys and other members of the community.
• Public relation (PR) materials.
• Evaluation and documentation of the actual functional mechanisms working over child protection (law, sub legal, agreements, protocols, etc).
• Consultative meetings with representatives of local and central public institutions from education, health, police, justice, maternal care, etc, in order to share information/ experience/ practices and disseminate knowledge with managers and decision makers, about the phenomena of CEFM.
• A research study methodology.
• National Conference.