Through the donations of this campaign Beyond Barriers Association wants to build a new greenhouse for 127 pupils at Luigj Gurakuqi Special School. The greenhouse will serve as an educational space where children with special needs can gain skills in horticulture and floriculture, can practice daily life skills of care and interaction, and can fight the isolation by interacting in a new environment. The school used to have a small greenhouse, build with very basic infrastructure which has been ruined and is now completely out of function. For this purpose, after consultation with the school administration, we want to build a new and bigger greenhouse with measurements of 264 square meters. The greenhouse will serve as a small farm where children with special needs can farm flowers, garden crops like fruits and vegetables and will effectively include them in the process of planting and growing.
The main aim of the action is to create a safe and better environment for children with special needs and in addition to crop cultivation, it will also help them to build skills for life and the labor market. After the age of 18 the children must leave the school and continue the independent life, so the greenhouse can this way hopefully provide them with some more skills that they can use after they leave the school. Gardening as a process will also provide therapeutic benefits for the children by helping them to improve fine motor skills, language and communication skills, interaction and association. We would like to take a step forward in order to contribute to European policies by promoting creation of jobs for youth with special needs and promote farming and innovation. With crops and flowers from the greenhouse, we will be able to access the local markets for a fair price and use the earning to organize activities for the children at Luigj Gurakuqi School. Re-building the greenhouse will provide enormous potential to overcome the lack of job opportunities for children with special needs.
