History of the center

“The way to…”

The whole world today is going through extremely difficult moments, both health-wise, economically, and psychologically, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the hotbeds of wars around the globe, as well as the damage to the media, school systems, and the damage to the family, which are leading society towards a degradation where norms and values are turning into anti-norms and anti-values.

The “The way to...” center was created quite by chance, stemming from a charity initiative organized in July 2021 by the “Goethe Institute” in Tirana, where my eldest daughter Kamila joined them, since she was learning German there at the time.

The great desire to bring real change to people not only in their daily lives, making them more qualitative and healthy, both in the spiritual and mental and psychological aspects, by showing them a different way of thinking and conceiving / seeing things, intrigued my mind to do something more concrete than donating “used items” to orphaned children.

In collaboration with the “Zyber Hallulli” Children’s Home, in Tirana, as well as thanks to the help of many German, Albanian-German, Kosovar and local friends and businesses, the creation of a playground for orphaned children aged 6-10 was made possible.

The project was called “Santa Donates the Steps of the Future for Orphaned Children”, where various characters (friends from different professions, architects, artists, business managers, etc.) uncomplicated and with a great desire to lend a hand, dressed up as Santa and his Elf helpers in every fundraising campaign as well as at the inauguration to donate this playground to children on the eve of Christmas 2021. All this in order not to ruin the childhood dream of Santa in children, and to awaken the little child within us adults. This also gave the message that this playground was not made by a single individual, but by all people together.

This project was not just a playground, but an impetus towards improving the mental health of children, a help to increase their self-confidence, to preserve their dignity, it was a way to learn how to coexist and interact in a group, to solve problems, as well as to have fun as they deserve.

Since the desire was for this project to come to life within these months, the delay in the deadlines for applying to the court for the registration of the center did not become an obstacle, as this project was implemented by “Quality Matters – Marsida Ndreka Physical Person” with no. Registration L91703054K, based on a preliminary contract with the informal group of the board of directors of the “The way to...” Center that was being registered. Therefore, this project remains the property and idea of the “The way to...” Center.

The project ended on 30.12.2021, while the Center was registered on dt. 07.01.2022 with Court Decision No.: 1668.

On October 25, 2021, “The way to...” established the “Code of Ethics and Conduct”, where honesty, integrity, transparency, confidentiality, equality, human rights and religious freedom are the core values of our organization.

Subsequently, in 2022, the Center collaborated with the organization “Save the Children”, in a joint project “Schools for Health” from the “Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC” (Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft), where supportive supervision in classroom teaching was enabled, covering health topics in schools, mainly in schools in Berat, Durrës and Lezha.

In June 2023, the center focused on the field of art to give people a strong awareness-raising message: “The heavy stone in its place!”.

“The way to...” brought back the well-known Albanian singer-songwriter and singer Adhurim Demiri after 20 years in exile, in an Electro-Acoustic Concert (unplugged concert), at the Cultural Center Hall, Orthodox Cathedral, "Resurrection of Christ", Tirana, where the elite of Albanian singers and musicians such as Elton Deda, Aleksandër Gjoka, Redon Makashi, Eneda Tarifa, Renis Gjoka, Bledar Sejko, Arjan Gjici, Ergys Myftari Sokol Shehu, Einar Nelku etc. performed with him.

“People do not need help, but help” is the norm, guiding force and spirit of every gear of the center as well as every individual who becomes part of the realization of common objectives for the good of humanity.