My Story

Hello! My name is Marina Cenolli. I am a 6 years old girl and my birthday is on December 19^th. I am doing well and enjoy good health. My favorite color is pink and my future dream is to be a hairdresser. Since I was a little girl. I have enjoyed playing with dolls and combing their hair in different styles. I like all the girls to look pretty and beautiful and I like to fix their hair to look so. Another of my hobbies is coloring. I like to color all the drawings that I can find and use bright colors. I have completed the preschool kindergarten on June and I will be starting school on September for the first time. I am all happy and excited for this new experience. I can’t wait till my parents will buy for me the new school books and school bag. I will see on September who will be my first-class teacher as well as my new class friends. Schools are closed till September for the summer break and I am using this free time to get together and play outside with my friends. We usually play on the mornings or before it gets dark. We have many games that we play and have a lot of fun. Activities for us children are missing even that I live in the town. We get to see only a few puppets-shows or concerts dedicated to children but they are very few. Walks in my town during the evenings are a tradition and almost every night the people get out walking. We also go for a walk to the park as family and I enjoy these walks. My parents don’t have enough income to bring us as family for summer holidays but rarely or with special occasions my parents take us to Pogradec and spend a night there. At times we take the minibus and go to Pogradec to spend the day and return again during the evenings.

My family and I live in Elbasan. My father’s name is Arvenol and my mother’s name is Xhulieta. I have a 12 years old brother whose name is Mateo. He has completed the seventh grade at school and is also registered in the programme of Adopt a Child. He takes me along with him and we both frequent the church activities. Our mother comes along as well. My father is working in construction. He is not working full time therefore when he is not working, he can’t bring income in our family and we face financial hardships. My mother is working full time in a sewing company and there they sew blouses and other staff for export. She is as well earning too less and her job is the less paid one of all. I am happy that they are both working and provide for us food that we consume for a month till they get the next pay, but they don’t have much to offer.  We live out of very low income and I am thankful to the sponsorship programme for the packages of food they are delivering to me and to my sister every six weeks. Thank you for supporting me in my needs. God bless you richly!

The schedule of our weekly meetings at our new church and Adopt a Child program in Elbasan is as follows:  On Monday the church has a youth Bible study meeting. On Wednesdays, the church has prayer meetings and afterwards a Bible study meeting. The church service in Elbasan is on Sundays at 10:30 AM and in the same time the children take the Bible classes. Since the program started to take place, we are asking the parents to come along with the children and be present. The children are being blessed and supported physically with a package of food and are constantly frequenting our church meetings being this way feed spiritually with the Word of God.

Translated by Martin Rucolli

Adopt a Child Albania