Mercy Corps Awarded Grant to Assist Albanian Communities

Mercy Corps International
Thursday, 6 July 2000

Mercy Corps International Administers $7 Million Health and School Rehabilitation Program

The Embassy of the United States announced a $7 million U.S. Government-funded program to provide grants to rehabilitate and enhance the services of health and education facilities affected by the presence of refugees during last year's Kosovo crisis.

The program, funded by a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), will be administered by Mercy Corps International in Tirana. The one-year, $7 million program will be called the Albanian Social Sector Rehabilitation and Support Program (SSRP) and is a component of USAID's $18 million Albanian Refugee Community Relief Program. The program, funded with a special Congressional appropriation in 1999, will provide support to communities throughout Albania affected by the Kosovo refugee crisis of 1999.

SSRP will improve the infrastructure and resources of health and education facilities, strengthen community involvement and participation, improve the quality of service of the targeted health and educational facilities and strengthen local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to respond to priority needs in social rehabilitation and services.

"This grant represents the fulfillment of part of our promise to compensate the people of Albania for the sacrifices they made as hosts to the refugees from Kosovo last year," said United States Ambassador Joseph Limprecht. "Our help in rehabilitating these important local facilities in the communities that were so hospitable to those in need reflects the deep gratitude of the United States."

Mercy Corps will award grants and provide oversight and technical assistance to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) implementing projects through the program. Mercy Corps anticipates awarding six to ten grants to international NGOs. SSRP will also award grants to local NGOs. Mercy Corps will post a request for applications on its Internet site on Wednesday, July 5. Interested parties should visit www.mercycorps.org on that date.

"For over a year, Mercy Corps has implemented programs in Albania, including rehabilitation and food aid initiatives," said Mercy Corps Chief of Party Michael Bowers. "With this program, Mercy Corps will deepen its commitment to Albania and its continuing social and economic development."

SSRP will address one of Albania's most pressing needs. There are over 2,200 health facilities and 4,600 education facilities in the country. About 90% of those facilities have received no rehabilitation assistance to date.

USAID has provided economic and development assistance in Albania since 1991. Its overall goal is to help Albania achieve internal security and thereby contribute as a full partner to achieving regional integration in southeastern Europe. The USAID program assists in Albania's transition with the three-pronged approach that includes stimulating economic growth, building democratic processes, and improving the sustainability of social benefits. While USAID's programs are generally implemented by U.S.-based NGOs, these organizations often develop partnership relationships with Albanian counterpart organizations. USAID Director Howard Sumka said, "These rehabilitation programs, which are designed to repair facilities and assist communities in managing them, will also contribute to our longer term objectives of assisting Albania to improve the quality of life for its citizens."

In its seven years of operations in the Balkans, Mercy Corps has assisted over 250,000 people with emergency relief, economic development and civil society building initiatives.

For more information, or to contact Mercy Corps International, see their website at: www.mercycorps.org