Unnecessary bureaucracy is preventing vulnerable members of the community from accessing social canteens, set up by the Municipality of Tirana.
In 2016, Mayor of Tirana Erion Veliaj said that no needy citizens would spend the day without a meal.
“What sets us apart from other cities is not the asphalt, construction and infrastructure, but humanity and the fact we do everything for each other. We have to keep up with this social canteen scheme and in other areas of Tirana to make sure that in this good and solid city, no one goes to bed at night without a warm meal.”
Unfortunately, investigative show “Boom” on RTV Ora found that excessive red tape was hindering access to these services. It was discovered that Veliaj’s social canteens were only giving meals to people whose names appeared on a list.
To get on this list, citizens needed to send a request to the social center and then wait to be evaluated by a commission of social workers to ascertain whether it is a family or an individual in need. They also need to provide a means of identification, a medical certificate to indicate health status, a certificate of residence status, and a certificate to state whether or not the individual is receiving financial assistance.
This exhaustive list of documents would prove near impossible for many who live in poverty, do not own, rent, or even have a place of residence, are not registered with a doctor, or do not have identification documents. This applies notably to Roma citizens who struggle to get identification documents and often live in unofficial residences.
This means that a great number of those in need of meals would be left unable to access them.
