Where Change Begins: Inside a Mother’s Everyday Life
At a community centre in Kombinat, Adivije Kaza is one of the 30 mothers who joined parenting classes. Her participation changed how she sees herself and her children. As the initiative expands across multiple community centres through municipal support, it is opening new pathways for more balanced parenting and stronger communities.
Date:
25 April 2026 - The journey to the “Let’s Stick Together” Community Center in Kombinat, a suburb of Tirana, is not easy. For 32-year-old Adivije Kaza, it means a 30-minute walk along a rough dirt road, past stray dogs, with no available public transport. She makes the trip anyway, for her 9-year-old son, who has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
The Center, run by the Tirana Municipality, provides therapy services for children with disabilities including support for their parents. This is where Adivije Kaza learned about the positive parenting classes that she attended.
“I am always open to learning new things,” she says. “We mothers lack support and opportunities to share similar experiences.” For Adivije, caring for a child with special needs has required constant adjustment. For a period, her husband worked abroad, leaving her to manage the children and the household on her own.
Learning through positive parenting
The parenting sessions took place weekly at the “Let’s Stick Together” Community Center while her son received therapy down the hall. They focused on communication, emotional development and adolescent sexuality, while also creating a space for parents to share their experiences.
“I understood where I stood in my parenting,” Adivije says. “Especially when you have a child with special needs, it is even harder. I feel almost reborn after these classes. I’ve grown and discovered new abilities in myself.”
Among the most tangible changes is the way she responds when other parents say unkind things about her son. “Before, I had a tendency to experience it badly or stay silent,” she explains. “Through the parenting classes I have learned to react. I am not afraid, because they are violating a right.”
The changes extended into family life. Adivije and her husband now share responsibilities, discuss any disagreements away from the children, and take turns to care for their son so he will not be dependent on his mother alone. In addition,, Adivije enrolled in and is attending university studies in early childhood education. Now in her second year she is determined to enter the job market. None of it, she is sure, would have been possible without her husband’s support. But the parenting classes helped give her the language and the confidence to claim her place, in her home, and beyond it.
Blerina Lika, the social worker and trainer who led the parenting classes at the Center, describes the sessions as a deliberate gentle space. “We always left the parents free to express their opinions,” she says. “We tried to carefully select and provide information that could be useful for parents.”
Expanding support through local action
Between 2022 and 2024, 30 mothers participated in parenting classes at the community center in Kombinat. To strengthen and expand the service, the municipality has trained 47 community center employees and 27 needs assessment and referral workers, including child protection workers and social specialists, enabling parenting classes across multiple centers.
These efforts are part of the implementation of the Local Action Plan for Gender Equality, supported by UN Women through the European Union-funded “EU for Gender Equality” initiative. While the intervention promotes shared parental responsibilities and challenges traditional gender roles, fathers’ participation remains limited. This is not just a logistical issue – it reflects persistent gender norms that continue to place caregiving responsibilities primarily on women.
“Despite our efforts, work-related constraints and prevailing mindsets made it nearly impossible for fathers to join parenting classes,” explains Blerina Lika, emphasizing that meaningful change cannot take root if fathers are not part of the process.
This concern is also echoed at the municipal level. Migena Ismailati, Head of the Gender Equality Sector at the Municipality, does not sidestep the challenge.
“The absence of fathers from positive parenting classes is a central concern as the municipality begins drafting its next Local Action Plan for Gender Equality.” This new phase is being developed with the technical support of UN Women through the European Union for Gender Equality II project, as part of broader efforts to strengthen gender-responsive local governance and promote a more equal sharing of care responsibilities.
For Migena Ismailati, the parenting classes are not a stand-alone initiative but one strand in a broader approach to gender equality. When the sharing of parental responsibilities is unequal, she argues, everything else is harder to change. “Positive parenting classes promote healthy family relationships and the equal sharing of family responsibilities between women and men, challenging traditional gender stereotypes.”
For the next Action Plan, increasing fathers’ participation in these sessions is both a concrete target and an ambition. Adivije Kaza continues to make the same journey to the Community Center. But the way she carries herself has changed. She has gained something that may not be that visible at first sight: a stronger voice, a clearer sense of who she is as a woman and a mother, and the confidence to shape her children’s world differently.