Albanian Election monitoring project by IPWG and AEGEE-Shkoder
This summer, in July 2005, national elections will take place in Albania. Albania is a country on the Adriatic coast, next to Montenegro, Macadonia and Greece, and foresees EU membership in 2014.

At the moment, political awareness among youth is small in Albania, and attention for youth and higher education is nihil in the election campaigns. AEGEE-Shkoder, together with MJAFT movement and NDI would like to change this. MJAFT and IRSH (AEGEE-Shkoder) already cooperate with Citizens Forums. Since earlier elections have proven that elections are a key moment for democracy, the International Politics Working Group (IPWG) of AEGEE supports this initiative. The IPWG will assist in training of students in order to monitor the elections in a neutral way, and encourage people to take part as international observers.

For this reason AEGEE-Shkoder (part of the Albanian NGO "IRSH" invites AEGEE-ans from all over Europe to come to Albania and assist in the electoral process by:
· Share experiences about your national political system and electoral process
· Stimulate Albanian youth to active participation in the electoral process
· Attending debates with Albanian politicians, and give "European" feedback
· Train fellow students on monitoring elections
· Monitor the Elections
· Report your experiences

And have after the elections some a relaxing day near the lake of Shkodra! Moreover there are possibilities to hike in the mountains or visit the Adriatic coast.
Check the draft programme and the powerpoint (3MB) prepared by AEGEE-Europe and the IPWG.

So would you like to:
-get an idea of Albanian politics by attending a debate with candidates?
-train a selected group of young observers or participate as observer?
-observe elections and give your comments?
-see some touristic sites of Albania?

React!
Please email apply via the AEGEE Calender of events and tell us if you would like to come and if you have had any training or monitoring experiences before, and if you can help training Albanian fellow students!

We have moral and technical support of the OSCE, we hope to get financial support from the Dutch Embassy to cover accommodation & meals, since its hard to get grants.
If you have any idea's for funding, please send us your suggestions!
A visa is not necessary for Albania, but you have to pay 10 Euro tourist tax by entering the country, and when leaving by plane, 10 Euro departure tax as well, to be paid in Euro's.

Feasability visit AEGEE-Europe to AEGEE in Albania
In the first weekend of April 2005, Contact-Shkoder was hosting a Feasability visit, which means students from different AEGEE bodies come to Shkoder to make contact with Albanian Youth NGO's, present their structure & activities, and promote the YOUTH programme and other fundraising possibilities. AEGEE-Tirana members particpated as well. Pictures at www.aegee.org/photo

Trekking for peace: a hiking journey trough the Albanian Mountains
Since the promotion of sustainable visitor activities is one of the stated aims of the project it is good to be able to give news of plans for 2004 and last year’s 2003 ‘inaugural trek’. This 11 day trek, in July 2003, took 36 people from 8 different countries, from Peæ/Peja in Kosovo/a, through Montenegro, to Vermosh, the valley and village in the north eastern corner of Albania, and then on to the valley of Theth. There was transport for the 65km from Theth to the city of Shkodër, where 80 people attended a full day international conference on the proposed Balkans Peace Park. The purpose of the trek was to engage as many local people as possible in the enterprise, as guides, interpreters, hosts or accompanying general helpers, and to demonstrate what this kind of eco-tourism could bring to the communities en route and what facilities would be needed for such activity in the future. We had to use transport to cross frontiers this time, but in future it should be possible to walk the whole way.



Next AEGEE Shkoder event: Vermosh and Theth: July 17th – 25th 2004
This trek is being organized from Shkoder by people from AEGEE Shkoder/IRSH. It will journey to Vermosh by road and spend two days on walks of varying length in the valley and mountains of the area. Then the group will travel by road round to Theth for two more days of exploration in the surrounding mountains. The trek will end with dinner together at a restaurant in Shkodër. The IRSH organizers for this trip are Vildan Plepi and Blendi Dibra. Anyone interested in joining in can contact them best by e-mail: shkoder@aegee.org.



Another summer event: Cycle tour: August 14 – 27th 2004
The general idea is to revisit places seen by last year's cross-border trek but on two wheels this time. The tour will start and finish in Podgorica and visit Murino/Plav and Cakor in Montenegro and the Rugova valley in Kosovo/a before returning to Plav. From there it will head for Theth in Albania, either by pushing bikes from Gusinje over the Qafa e Pejës (hard work!) or pushing over the border to Vermosh and then riding round to Theth. We expect a group of 10 to 20 people to do this tour and if more than that are interested there would be a second group following on. As on the 2003 trek we hope to have maximum involvement by people living in the area. Further information is available from Howard Boyd howardboyd@gn.apc.org or Richard Hargreaves on strandho@aol.com