Tag Center for Teens

When the government no longer provides for children who have completed the 8th grade, they have to either go to the "streets" to live, try to find a "family member" somewhere who will take them in, or go and just barely survive in a dorm facility provided by the government. This is one of the worst places for these teenagers to live (especially the girls). It use to break our hearts to send these kids away from the orphanages when we knew what deplorable conditions we would be sending them to. We prevailed upon the Albanian government to let us have an old delapidated part of the Tirana orphanage to repair and use for these teens who are past 14 and who want to stay under our supervision and direction. They agreed and a businessman, Fred Tag, came to Albania and saw the need for the building and wanted to do something to help raise the money to repair the building. He rode a bike across America and raised over $50,000 for the center. We named the center after him and for the extreme sacrifice he have for the work there. It is now known as the tag center for teens. The center now provides a more home-like atmosphere for these teens. They have their own kitchen, cook, and educator to help with the school work. They have very nice family style rooms, their own living room for girls and one for the boys. We provide all the expenses for htis place. We hire all of the workers, we provide all food, clothing, heat, electricity, medicine and help them with their education and in finding employment. Our housing is very limited in this facility and the rules are stringent. We require them to attend church regularly.

We would like to help many of these kids, but just do not have the space. This is why we need the HFTW Center so desparately.