Nehemiah Gateway USA

Nehemiah Gateway USA provides support to Nehemiah Gateway University and Nehemia School in Bucimas, Albania. The university offers a three-year bachelor's degree program in business with the possibility of minors in tourism management and entrepreneurship. A two year master's program in leadership prepares leaders in education, business, and international development. In 2023, the university had just over 40 students enrolled from Albania, as well as 2 international students. The university holds three institutional and/or program accreditations: in the U.S. by TRACS (Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools), in Albania by APAAL (Public Agency for the Accreditations of Higher Education), and in Germany and the EU by FIBAA (Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation). International students receive scholarships, inclusive of room, board, and travel expenses for the three-year duration of their bachelor's degree studies. Instruction at NG University is provided in a seminar format in English, with both in-house professors and guest lecturers from universities and industry in North America and Europe. NG USA helps to organize and facilitate some of these international instructors. The NG University program follows a slightly modified German dual study model, which consists of 50 percent academic study and 50 percent professional experience. NG USA provides scholarship assistance to NG University bachelor's program and scholarship students are nominated by partner organizations or businesses in their home countries. They typically work for or are connected to those organizations. While enrolled in the university, three months per year are spent in their home countries interning with the partner organization that nominated them and maintaining their community connections. Additional professional study takes place in Germany, Albania, and other Western European countries. As a condition of their scholarship, international students are required to work in their local community for a minimum of two years upon graduation. NG USA also helps provide access to start-up capital and robust mentorship programs to help these students maintain their momentum once they return home upon graduation. After graduates return home, they are empowered to help others learn to serve, thrive, and prosper. NG USA's financial and monitoring investment in these young leaders ultimately brings benefits to entire communities, in a manner that is led and determined by those communities themselves. In 2023, NG USA also provided scholarships to students of the Nehemia School, a K-12 institution located on the Bucimas, Albania campus. The school has an enrollment of over 470 children, some of whom are keen learners yet underprivileged, well-deserving of tuition assistance.

The Amaro Tan program includes a school for Roma, Albanian Egyptian, and at-risk Albanian children. Three percent of Roma youth complete high school, and very few of those who graduate are girls. Lack of education contributes to an intractable cycle of poverty in their communities. The Amaro Tan school provides a safe space for low-income children living on the fringes of society, helping shield them from trafficking and abuse while offering education, including after-school tutoring, from kindergarten to secondary school for 130 children. NG USA provided funds for day-to-day school support for children enrolled in the Amaro Tan school throughout the year. Support includes meals, school supplies, afternoon programs and homework help for children enrolled at the Amaro Tan school. During 2023, in the after-school program at Amaro Tan, 23 students were trained in basic carpentry and paperwork and 33 students in tailoring. In furthering this professional training, two students from Amaro Tan were enrolled in a vocational school in Pogradec. Eight out of nine of the students who finished ninth grade at Amaro Tan have enrolled in further education. When the school year is over, many of these children will spend their time in the streets or in potentially unhealthy home situations. Amaro Tan offers two summer camps to provide an alternative for these children. With a lively mix of sports, games, educational activities, and more, the children are given an alternative way to spend their summer. In 2023, the funding for these camps came through NG USA for 50 children to attend each camp. In the southern Albanian city of Gjirokaster, ongoing fundraising by NG USA supports an after-school program for Roma children, providing needed supplies such as food, clothes, shoes, backpacks, and school supplies to attend the public school. The children are transported by our team to the NG Gjirokaster center after school every day for a hot lunch (in Albania, the biggest meal of the day), homework help, and social time with friends - which includes games, songs, or even birthday celebrations, after the completion of their homework. In addition to necessary school supplies, funds from NG USA were used to provide shoes, clothing, bags, firewood, and more for the families of the 15 Roma children who are enrolled in the Gjirokaster program. The families of the children receive monthly food parcels as long as the children stay enrolled in school. This approach has led to a remarkably low attrition rate, with most of the children staying in school and learning basic skills, such as reading and math, that will help them build better lives for themselves as adults.

NG Albania has a well-established aid delivery program, in addition to two soup kitchens in the cities of Pogradec and Gjirokaster. These programs provide food and other material aid to people in need. Material aid included food packages of about 25 lbs each, clothes, travel ticket refunds, medical prescription refunds, medical supplies, wood for heating, construction materials, and other financial help. In 2023, NG delivered more than 1400 food packages, as well as around 150 meals daily at the two soup kitchens. In addition to food aid delivery, NG also provides a variety of physical and behavioral therapies both at its clinic in Bucimas and through home visitation. Few services are available for children with special needs, and as a result, most of these children never go to school. In 2023, final grant funds were secured by NG USA to finish the expansion of the Children's Learning Center to increase free services for children with special needs. Another grant sponsored a two-week summer camp for the children of the Children's Learning Center in summer 2023, during which 30 children were able to learn and play with other children like them in a safe and supervised setting. A Christmas activity was also organized in Pogradec, with funds coming from NG USA, for the children of the Children's Learning Center and their mothers. Funds were used for food, game materials, transport, and gifts for the children and women. This is a yearly event in the program and has an obvious impact on the livelihoods of the children who participate. NG USA also supports a monthly program for over 200 at-risk children in Sunyani, the capital of the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana in West Africa, including the 4th edition of summits for boys and girls. The support from NG USA also includes outreach into the villages in the region, as well as the mentoring of the children in the program. Continued support from NG USA in 2023 has allowed a number of young people to successfully complete an entrepreneurship program, teaching skills such as sewing and beading, providing tangible skills for employment.