In Kamza, every grocery store has a “poverty book” with customers’ debts

The municipality of Kamza in the outskirt of Tirana, has a population of 120 thousand inhabitants, of which about 600 families are treated with a meagre economic assistance.

Food items’ lists is a phenomenon that we encounter in the neighborhoods of town, a few kilometers from the capital Tirana.

“What I’m holding in my hand is the debt book of Feriz, the gentleman who has a fruit and vegetable and grocery store in Kamza”, reports Top Channel’s Juli Ristani.

“I received a pension of 10,000 ALL. I pay 7000 lek for electricity, 2000 for water and have 1000 left. I got groceries listed here, and at the store across the street as well.

“Today I am buying 5 eggs and 1 kilogram of flour. So far, the debts I have in stores have reached about 15 thousand ALL. Children cannot help us, as they have none for themselves. I buy bread, oil, salt. I am 85 years old, and poverty has overtaken me now in old age, for I have never been so poor”, says Feriz.

Mother Bajame also tells the seller “mark my name on the list”.

“Here in this store I have not yet taken food by the list, but in another place I taken almost 25 thousand Lek for food. We work to eat a piece of bread. If I had the chance, I would run away in a raft to England”, says another citizen.

The owner of the store says: “There are about 15-20 people a day who buy eggs, flour, sugar, oil by the list. They owe me about half a million lek so far. As this year, it has never been so bad, in 4 years that I have owned this store”, says the seller.

“I rented this grocer and I deleted the list of debts that thay had before me. But at the end of the month I will also have to leave, it is not worth it, it is not worth it”. says another.

This is not just a notebook of debts, but a book of poverty, the pages of which are written every day in the shops of our towns and villages, reports Top Channel’s Juli Ristani.

Top Channel