Albana Nurce, a mother of 3, who lives in the area known as Kombinat in the capital city, told us about her daily struggle with extreme poverty.

With the recent rise in prices, living costs have become even more unaffordable.

Baby milk has gone up by 30-40 ALL (€0.24- 0.37 euros).

Albana is unable to work because she needs to look after her daughter of 1, who has also suffered from an illness since birth. Her other costs are covered by other family members.

Their family is made up of 6 members. Their entire income rounds up to 40 thousand ALL or €326 euros. Now that prices are up this family has to considerably bring down costs and take away several essentials from their monthly groceries.

“We get around 40 thousand ALL per month and that’s from my husband and my mother-in-law’s retirement benefits. Prices are going up by the day and our living has become impossible. Diapers have gone up, everything has gone up. We need to eliminate fruits and things of the sort because 1 kg of cooking oil is now over 300 ALL and the same goes for rice, sugar, etc.,” – she said.

So far, this family hasn’t benefited from any bonuses from the government. The mother of 3, said that in order to save up on electricity she hasn’t turned on her shower by using a wood stove to heat up the water instead.

“It’s not like I use a lot of electricity because I use a wood stove for heating. I don’t even use the shower,” – she said by adding that during the winter she has to shower with a bucket and warm water.

Her house has also suffered damages from the 2019 earthquake, but so far, no one has come to inspect it.

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