For the third year in row, we partnered with Down Syndrome Albania to organise for the 3rd year in a row the campaign "Race/Support as a Maratonomak DSA", as part of the Tirana Marathon, which was held on October 22 2023.
Official Campaign video
This awareness and fundraising campaign was conceived in 2021 by our managing director Daniel Nikolla in collaboration with Emanuela Zaimi, the founder of DSA.
Down Syndrome Foundation Albania (DSA), is a non-profit organization that provides therapeutic services (such as speech therapy, ABA therapy, developmental therapy, physical therapy, etc.) for children with disabilities.
Currently, 42 children (0-13 years old) receive specialised services at the PRO PAK Services center of DSA, of which 15 have Down syndrome, 24 are on the autism spectrum and 3 children with other medical diagnoses (such as hearing loss, children with cochlear implants who need speech and language therapy).
These services do not find support from the state and many parents find it impossible to afford the cost of the service since the economic support for the disabled is minimal, against the need). Only 5 of these families are able to pay the full service fee of 2000 lek / for 1 hour of therapy, and on average 1 child needs at least 15 hours of therapy per month. The other 37 families need support for free or reduced-fee services.
For these reasons, DSA organizes various campaigns to raise funds from the business community or donations from citizens.
Daniel Nikolla, said: ''This year, we managed to bring together 320 marathon runners to compete for the cause, and collected 32,000 euros of funds, through donations from the business community and individuals from Albania and the Diaspora.''
The marathoners come from Albania, Kosovo and the diaspora (England, Germany, Norway, Greece), the latter engaged themselves in raising funds from their friends or clients in the countries where they live.
Last year the #VrapoPërDSA #RunForDSA team also grabbed the "Largest Group" award, and aims to win this award again on October 22.
Thank you to all the runners, sponsors, volunteers, Down Syndrome Albania and their team.
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