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The Sunrise School is located in Bathore, a squatter community 12 km from Tirana. Bathore was established in the 1990s following the collapse of the communist system. Especially hard hit by the social and economic
changes of the 1990s were people in Albania’s northern provinces, adjacent to Kosovo. 30,000 emigrants from the north came to settle on a tract of land which is now the Bathore community. This community
suffers from a lack of infrastructure (roads, power and water) and from a lack of social services (there is only one government school in this whole community). On top of this unemployment is as high as 80% in some
parts of Bathore. Some residents earn money by illegal means, and some children from Bathore can be seen in Tirana, peddling cigarettes in the sidewalk cafes. The Sunrise School is located in Bathore’s Sector 6, the poorest part of this settlement. In this sector 100
families still live in the converted cattle sheds which were part of the collective farm which covered Bathore prior to the arrival of the present inhabitants. The children in the
school come from both Christian and Muslim families. Below are some of the children who are presently in the school.
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