TIRANA, JANUARY 28, 2015—Today, more than one hundred people showed up for the screening of a new documentary, “Economic Empowerment of People with Disabilities through Employment,” a film about a unique program that has helped people with disabilities in Albania overcome isolation and prejudice and enter into the country’s labor workforce. The film was introduced by USAID Country Representative, Marcus Johnson, the Minister of Social Welfare and Youth, Mr. Erion Veliaj and Blerta Çani, ADRF Executive Director.

Since October 2010, USAID has supported the Albanian Disability Rights Foundation (ADRF) to identify issues related to lack of employment for people with disability, roughly 6.2%[1] of the population, and to work on creating opportunities of employment especially for young disabled people with special focus on women in Tirana, Elbasan and Shkodra.

Among the projects achievements are: 1) creating a specialized service for job-seeking persons with disabilities and efforts are ongoing to mainstream it in the National Employment Service and its Regional Labor Offices; 2) publishing the country’s first assessment of Albania’s employment policies and legislation, including measuring the level of implementation in both the public and private sectors; and 3) assisting 61 job seeking people with disabilities to become employed/self-employed, 20 others to find internship opportunities, and 99 to attended vocational training courses. Based on the aforementioned assessment, Albania’s State Labor Inspectorate issued in July 2012 a mandatory directive to all regional inspectorate offices that requires inspectors to begin enforcing Albania’s quota on employing people with disabilities, i.e. four percent of all employees.

“USAID encourages the respect for human rights of people with disabilities in Albania and their full inclusion and participation in society,” said Johnson in his remarks. “USAID is very proud to work with the dedicated women and men at the Albanian Disabilities Rights Foundation. It is important to highlight both successes but also continued needs.” Although Albania has a law “On Promotion of Employment of Persons with Disabilities,” and has adopted the law “On Protection from Discrimination,” there are very low figures on persons with disabilities who are employed.

The documentary is part of the project’s focus on raising awareness and underscores the need for a progressive, inclusive vision on disability and employment, and the concerted and cooperative efforts on the part of government, civil society, business community, and people with disabilities to overcome all forms of societal barriers to inclusive development.

For more information on the project, please visit: http://www.adrf.org.al/en/