The Albanian Alps Institute came slowly into being as a result of Steve Cook's work helping Albanian village school children. Steve first traveled to Albania in 1992 as an "enlightened tourist" and found a post-Communist country that was barely avoiding chaos.

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Many changes have occurred since Steve first visited the Albanian Alps in 1992. Village populations have declined, schools have been consolidated, but there are still many impoverished families living in Northern Albania. Our work supporting village education continues to be vital. Families are still poor, work is scarce, but students want a chance at a better life. Our support is crucial to these schools.

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In 2022 AAI expanded its operational area to include the schools in Kelmend and in 2025 we expanded further, adding Rec and Zagore from Shkrel. In Shkrel School District, we now serve Boge (kindergarten only), Dedaj (K-12 year), Rec (K-12 year), Zagore (K-9 year) Vrith (K-9 year), Bratosh (K-9 year). And in Kelmend School District we support Tamare (K-12 year), Selce (K-9 year), and Vukel (9 year).

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A note from the President:

In 2003 AAI began working to improve the education of students in Shkrel. Now students in both Shkrel and Kelmend are reading books, using our supplies, accessing the internet, and receiving our university scholarships, dreaming of a future unimaginable to them or their parents before AAI. We are most proud that girls are now attending high school from "our" villages. And many of these girls have gone on to university and received bachelor and in some cases master degrees. Most years we sponsor a competition among schools including art, performance, English and volleyball. The competition is followed by a cake and ice cream social. In 2025 there were a hundred and fifty students having a gay time at Dedaj school. But even more impressive to me were the number of former AAI university scholarship students who are now teachers and were helping with the competition.

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I started supporting schools with my own money in the Albanian Alps in 1993. Professor Doctor Marash Rakaj (University of Shkoder), my wife Terri and I established the Albanian Alps Institute in 2003, we said were in it for the long term, which we arbitrarily set at ten years. If we helped the schools in the Abanian Alps for that long, we’d call it a success. It’s now been over twenty years and due to our singular focus on education we continue to be very impactful in the schools we serve.

Thanks to our generous donors we have invested around $300,000 into education in Northern Albania. No other entity is doing the work we’re doing.

-- Steve Cook