At 34, Marija Rrapi knows what it means to rebuild a life from the ground up. For more than three years, since losing her husband, she has been raising her two daughters, aged six and nine, on her own. Social assistance was her main source of income, while occasional jobs helped cover some of the family’s needs. But the work was uncertain, leaving little stability and few opportunities to plan for the future.
“There have been very difficult moments, but I have always thought about my daughters. They have given me the strength to keep going,” Marija says.
For Marija, a new opportunity came through a professional cooking course supported under Lifelong Empowerment and Protection in Albania (LEAP), a joint programme funded by the Joint SDG Fund. The programme brings together social protection, care services, skills development and pathways to employment, with a focus on people who face some of the greatest barriers to entering the labour market.
Marija was among the first to enroll in the cooking course. She saw it as an opportunity not only to learn a profession, but also to build the confidence and skills she needed to move beyond social assistance and occasional work.
“I saw it as an opportunity to change my life,” she recalls. “I learned many things that I didn’t know before. For the first time, I felt prepared to work in this profession.”
Making training possible
Learning new skills was only part of what Marija needed. As a mother raising two young children alone, attending regular training also meant finding someone to care for her daughters. Through the community centre in Lezhë, her children were able to access an after-school service while she attended the course.
For Marija, this support made the difference between having an opportunity available and actually being able to take it.
“Without the after-school service, it would have been impossible for me. It gave me peace of mind knowing that my daughters were safe while I was investing in our future.”
Her experience shows why employment support often needs to go beyond training alone. The cooking course gave Marija professional skills, while the after-school service gave her the time and security to complete it. By responding to these barriers together, the support helped turn training into a realistic pathway towards employment.
From training to decent work
Just a few months after completing the course, Marija is now working in the kitchen of Hotel Riviera in Shëngjin, with full social insurance coverage. Her new job provides a more stable income for her family while allowing her to continue developing her skills and gaining professional experience.
“It is a very good opportunity. Not only do I have more income for my children, but I am also developing professionally. I feel more confident about the future,” she says.
The transition has brought new responsibilities and less free time, but it has also brought something Marija had been missing for years: greater stability. She is earning an income, building experience in a profession and creating more security for her daughters. For the first time in a long while, she can look beyond getting through the next month and begin planning what comes next.
“Everything I do is for my daughters. I want them to grow up seeing that even after the greatest hardships, you can get back on your feet.”
Connecting social protection with opportunity
Marija’s experience is part of a wider effort in Albania to connect social protection with care, skills and decent work. Through LEAP, 864 households have accessed integrated social protection, care and employment services, while 525 vulnerable young people and young people not in employment, education or training have participated in skills development opportunities.
Among them, 357 women and young people have moved from training into employment, including 93 women who entered paid roles in long-term care. These results show how combining services can help address the different barriers that keep people out of the labour market and create pathways towards greater economic independence.
For Marija, those numbers translate into something deeply personal. A professional skill alone may not have been enough if she had no way to care for her daughters while attending the course. The after-school service alone would not have provided a pathway into employment. Together, the services gave her the opportunity to learn, work and build greater stability for her family.
Her story is a reminder that behind every employment statistic is a person with different responsibilities, challenges and ambitions. When support is designed around those realities, an opportunity can become a pathway towards lasting change.
“I won’t give up for my daughters.”
The Lifelong Empowerment and Protection in Albania (LEAP) joint programme is implemented by UNDP, UNICEF, ILO and UN Women in partnership with the Government of Albania. Funded by the Joint SDG Fund, LEAP supports Albania’s contribution to the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions, connecting social protection, care services, skills development and employment pathways to expand opportunities for people at risk of being left behind.
Originally published by UNDP Albania.
Note:
All Joint SDG Fund programmes are led by UN Resident Coordinators and implemented by agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations development system. The Joint SDG Fund gratefully acknowledges contributions from the European Union and the Governments of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the Arab Gulf Programme for Development.
