Speaking during a visit to the Jorgji Dilo nine-year school in the central Albania city of Elbasan, Spahiu said the programme would initially be piloted in the central Albanian city before being rolled out to 12 regional hospitals.

The programme is part of broader government efforts to strengthen healthcare and support services for children with disabilities and their families, with a focus on prevention, early diagnosis and access to specialised care.

An agreement with the University Dental Clinic has been finalised, and implementation of the specialised dental screening and treatment programme is expected to begin by the end of the year, Spahiu said.

The service will be provided by teams including dentists and anaesthesiologists and intensivists working at regional hospitals across the country.

Training healthcare professionals will also be a key component of the programme, aimed at ensuring that dental care and treatment are adapted to the specific needs of children with disabilities, she said.

Spahiu also highlighted the National Child Scoliosis Screening Programme, saying a priority would be to establish a unified national protocol covering not only screening but the full care pathway, from referral and diagnosis through to treatment of identified cases.

The measures form part of efforts by the government and the Health and Social Welfare Ministry to expand national prevention and early-care programmes for children.

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Speaking during a meeting with parents at the Integrated Community Services Centre in Prush, Tirana municipality, Health Minister said the measures form part of the government’s “Albania 2030” programme to strengthen social welfare and support families.

Under a government normative act approved on June 30, funding has been secured to implement the measures. Effective July 1, monthly payments for 11,000 children with disabilities have doubled, while social security and health insurance contributions will be covered for 14,000 personal assistants caring for children and adults with disabilities.

Sala said it was the first time the support had been extended to all personal assistants regardless of the beneficiary’s age or diagnosis, ensuring equal treatment and greater social protection for families.

She added that the measures are financed through an 8.9 billion lek increase in the 2026 budget for the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, aimed at expanding social support, continuing wage increases in the healthcare sector and funding new public service investments.

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Mayor Veliaj invited both Albanian and foreign companies to take part in the international competition, saying the winning design would include not only architectural aspect of the project, but also the plan for the facility to provide therapeutic treatment and environment for autistic children and with special abilities.

“Amazing job has been done with the Pyramid building that has been transformed into a space, which is attracting visitors’ interest, but also transformed into a school for children and young people to learn about technology and digital jobs. But the city needs also an infrastructure for children, who need care and that are why we plan to build the largest care centre to provide therapeutic care for autistic children. An international competition will be held for the project,” Veliaj announced.

Tirana Mayor also announced plans for a competition on transformation of the “AquaPark” complex, which will become an extension of Tirana’s Olympic Park.

Veliaj highlighted that Albanian capital had become a major destination for the world’s leading architecture firms that are cooperating with local studios.

Based on the monograph with the same title, the exhibition “Crafting Character” features interrelated topics and design philosophies, ranging from the adaptive reuse, the meticulous design of novel public edifices as icons or the undertaking of large-scale developments.

Crafting Character comprises 14 studio projects in 8 themes ranging from context, adaptive reuse, public actors, prefabricated modularity, affordability, integration, materiality to self-initiated transformations.

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