If you ever find yourself passing through Cërrik—that small city just outside Elbasan—and you catch the rich, savory aroma of roasting meat and caramelized sugar, stop. Follow your nose to a modest little restaurant. Order the döner or save room for the künefe. And if Umer is behind the counter, ask him how he ended up here.

At 24, Umer looks back on a youth shaped by systemic obstacles. Growing up in a Roma household of six, his mother was the sole breadwinner. School cut short after the ninth grade—not by choice, but because his family simply could not afford the luxury of further education. So, at 18, he did what many young men from places like Cërrik do to survive: he left.

He headed to Turkey. For four and a half years, Umer worked in the bustling, traditional kitchens of Istanbul. He wasn’t managing or owning anything; he was on the line—watching, learning, and absorbing the precise geometry of Turkish cuisine. He mastered the art of marinating meats, the delicate layering of kadaifi, and the exact butter temperature required to perfect an İskender kebab. He got good at it.

But when the Turkish economy shifted, the quiet homesickness he had been carrying in his chest grew too loud to ignore. He returned to Albania in 2021.

What awaited him was a heavy landscape: unreliable seasonal work, no stability, and no clear path forward. For a few years, he fell into the category employment agencies call NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training)—a clinical acronym for a young guy with specialized skills that nobody in Cërrik knew he possessed.

The turning point came without fanfare. The Regional Directorate of the National Agency for Employment and Skills (NAES) in Cërrik directed him to an Employment Counseling Cycle implemented by the Joscelyn Foundation-a grantee of the EU for Labour Market Inclusion Programme funded by the European Union and implemented by UNDP Albania, in partnership with the Swedish Public Employment Service and the Albanian Disability Rights Foundation.