Our collaborative initiative with HP to establish Digital Community Hubs in Albania is empowering young beneficiaries to transform their family lives by equipping them with essential digital skills for the future.
The Kuçi family lives in Velabisht, a village in the Berat region. Afërdita (the mother), and her twins Dionis and Danai, were among the first rural people coming and frequenting our hub in Berat since May 2023. They had a dream- to turn their home into a guesthouse- and they needed our help to support them in preparing promotional material and advice on how to reach more people, using online and offline means.
Their father Ilir, was an emigrant in Greece, working there for about 30 years, in the (seasonal) sailing/ fishing and tourism sector. For a long tie he was pondering about opening a restaurant named “Ilir Fisherman”, enabling him to have a steady revenue and return home to his family in Albania.
The greatest challenge for the family was familiarizing themselves with online platforms and the requirements of the competitive market.
Together with the team at the YMCA Hub, they worked on starting and running their family business. For this business to be successful, they had to begin advertising, using digital tools of marketing, promotion and social media.
This is how they started to frequent the hub in Berat. Travelling every week from their village to our hub in the city, they started to work on online platforms, such as booking, Airbnb, and social media Facebook and Instagram. After this, they noticed an increase in tourists and clients frequenting their guest house and restaurant. Dionis and his sister worked on the preparation and printing of the “Menu”, business card and other promotional materials.
The team at the Hub in Berat is very proud to have had the chance to work with the family as their success story is a model to be replicated in other regions. There are other families, from Velabisht and other neighbouring villages of Starovë and Drobonik.
This is how our digital hubs are making a real difference in the most vulnerable communities they are working in.
More stories from the West Balkan Digital Hubs, here
Digital Community Hubs in the West Balkans is a YMCA initiative, powered by HP to accelerate digital equity in the regions, by helping YMCAs in Kosovo, Albania, Serbia, and North Macedonia to expand existing or create new digital community hubs.
The project aims to expand existing digital hubs and create new ones to enable young people, including those from marginalized communities, teachers, and youth workers, to access greater opportunities for education and employment.
