According to the Report of the Council of Europe published in January 2024, Albania ranks among the European countries with the highest percentage of people in 'detention': namely, 5,300 people out of a population of approximately 2,500,000 inhabitants, which is steadily decreasing mainly due to the emigration of young people and families.
Sant'Egidio's attention is therefore particularly focused on people detained in psychiatric facilities: i.e. psychiatric hospitals in Elbasan and Vlora and psychiatric wards inside general hospitals. There are 620 patients for whom the Community has been caring for years: in Elbasan, in the Sadiq Dinci hospital, which with its 320 patients is the largest 'asylum' in the Balkans; the 'red houses' in Tirana and Kavaje, the beautiful family homes for psychiatric patients set up on the Community's initiative. The summer of solidarity activities in Albania addressed to them, have involved again this year people from various Italian communities (Rome, Genoa, Novara, Livorno and Naples ) and a few dozen Youth for Peace from Genoa and Pavia.
The activities are the simple but joyful ones of any family on holiday: outings, picnics, visits to historical sites, days at the beach, meals together. Plus, moments of prayer, and sewing, art and carpentry workshops.
Yet what makes the difference, more than the activities, is the personal relationship, made up of sincere friendship, affection and hugs that break the harshness of confinement with gestures that, even though they may seem simple, are extraordinary for those forced into isolation. Mrs Leda, an elderly inmate of Sadik Dinci Hospital for years, expressed it in one sentence: 'No one dares to touch us, you are the only ones who are not afraid to embrace us. This is what gives us back our freedom'.
