Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Through this site, I'm hoping to raise money to support the summer education programs run by the Balkan Peace Park Project (B3P) in the remote mountain villages of northern Albania. In August, I will be volunteering as a teacher in the village of Vermosh, which lies on the border with Montenegro in the so-called Accursed Mountains.

The B3P teaches the young people and adults a mixture of English and Environmental Studies, with the aim helping them develop community based tourism and create sustainable opportunities for economic growth in the region. The program was established last year, and a video of the efforts of volunteers in 2012 can be seen here.

B3P is a British charity that was started to support the creation of the Balkan Peace Park, a 'transboundary protected area' including parts of Albania, Montenegro, and Kosovo, and the people living in the region. The area is under threat from environmental destruction from illegal logging and a declining population. B3P aims to unite the existing communities of the region and enable local people to continue to live in the valleys through the support of sustainable tourism.

While the Vermosh project is relatively new, the organization has been successfully operating a summer school in the nearby village of Thethi for several years now. The children of Thethi have limited educational opportunities as the school in the village does not operate for much of the year and is often in a semi-derelict state with no resources, desks, electricity or teachers.  This, coupled with poverty and poor infrastructure has pushed many communities like Thethi to the brink of survival.  B3P is helping to reverse this situation, and its summer education program has been at the centre of this process. English language skills are helping the younger generation to participate in eco-tourism which has been vital to these communities  economic survival.

I hope to use my experience as an English teacher and my knowledge of community based tourism projects to help improve the ability of people in Vermosh to take full advantage of the potential for tourism in their region, and to encourage an approach that is both sustainable and growth-oriented. 

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