L. fixes the lapel of her jacket that she usually utilizes for great occasions. Subsequently, L takes M.'s hand to take courage. Together, they walk through the door of the new home and the tension melts into an incredulous smile: "kam shpetuar" proclaims M. "I am saved." L. and M. are two of the eight women who, since Saturday, November 2, have been living in the new family home for mentally ill people, in Kavajë (Albania). It was built by the Community of Sant'Egidio and the Albanian Ministry of Health thanks to an agreement that was signed last March.
The guests come from the Sadik Dinçi Psychiatric Hospital in Elbasan, which is the largest asylum in the Balkans and houses more than three hundred patients who often live in neglect and great loneliness. L. is sixty-five years old and has no family members. As soon as she was born, she lived in an orphanage and, when she came of age, she lived in an asylum. As an adult, she enters a home that is "her own" for the first time. Thus, together with the other women, she reactivates the gestures of everyday life: cooking, setting the table, going out for groceries, and enjoying a long hot shower.
After the "Red Houses" in Tirana, the one in Kavajë is the third structure that is set up by Sant'Egidio. The aim was to give back a house and dignity to women and men who were locked up in the psychiatric hospitals: it is the fruit of faithful friendship, which has been established for long years with psychiatric patients. This friendship is based on visits, Christmas parties, summer workshops, and solidarity actions. However, it is also the first step in a journey to accompany Albania on the path of leaving behind the places of containment for the psychiatrically ill.
