My Story

Hello! My name is Mateo Topi. I am 14 years old and my birthday is on February 17^th. I am doing well and in good health. My favorite color is blue. I enjoy sports and I like to play football. I like to get a good training and good skills and join a team to play this game. When I am at school, I like to go especially to our sport trainings that we take there from the teachers in football, basketball and other games. I have completed the ninth grade at school and have received the premature graduation certificate. Schools close in my country for the summer break till September. After the summer break, I will start the high school and study for three more years. This means, I will move to a new school and there I will get to know new friends and take lessons from different teachers. At present, I am enjoying the free time that we have for the summer break from school. I get together to play football with my friends and we also go to swim in the lake. During the evenings we take walks by the lake and visit the park of our town. There we stay for a long while chatting and fellowshipping. There are no activities that we can join as teens here in the town during the summer but from time to time, we see concerts or performances of different bands that come to visit our town and perform their music.

My family and I live in the town of Pogradec. Our house offers to us appropriated living conditions. My father has passed away a few years ago and we are at present living in the house of my grandparents. I have my mother as well as my brother and sister. My brother is four years old and he is frequenting the kindergarten. My sister is 13 years old. She is at school and she is a big help to my mother when my mother cooks, cleans and does the housekeeping. My brother and sister are both registered in the porgrame and we benefit help and care frequenting the activities regularly. We as children are raised from a parent and for this reason, the government gives to my mother a special amount which she uses to cover our basic living needs. My mother uses the amount to buy food and clothes for us three. This amount is the only amount available in the family. My mother is jobless and she is doing the housekeeping only. We are living with low income and I am thankful for all the benefits that I receive from the sponsorship programme of Adopt a Child.

The Living Water Adopt a Child church in Pogradec meets for the weekly service on Saturday. The children who are registered in our sponsorship programme join the Bible classes on Saturday and they come to join Bible studies for small groups during the other days of the week. The staff of the church in Pogradec is organizing Bible study meetings in small groups dedicated to men, ladies, teens and children. Every child that is registered in the programme receives a food package every six weeks. The food package contains items as flour, pasta, oil, sugar, etc, and is a good food provision for the whole family. The children are receiving physical and spiritual help constantly and recently they have also joined a summer camp for two days at our church center. The staff of teachers and pastors have organized the camp in format that contains many games, songs, and sport activities, paintings. These activities are based on a Biblical subject. The children enjoy such camps because these camps might be the only activity that they join during the whole summer. Thank you for choosing to support a child. God bless you richly.

Translated by Martin Rucolli

LW/Adopt a Child Albania