Klarisa

Klarisa is a resilient, yet soft-hearted young woman from a small town in Albania, where she and her two older siblings were raised by their parents. Home was a tumultuous place and she grew up in fear. When she was seven, her parents separated; there was a lot of unrest at that time because both parents were trying to take the children into custody, Klarisa’s mom legally and her dad violently. Eventually, Klarisa and her siblings moved with their mother to the large capital city of Albania, Tirana, where she had to re-adjust to a completely different life with no outside support.

The biggest turning point happened when Klarisa’s family started going to church regularly. Little by little, Klarisa remembers feeling like she was a part of a larger family and no longer alone. She shares that, “my whole life changed when I started to believe that God loves me. I started to feel the presence of God and my life changed. God brought the right people to me so that I could grow more in faith and not stay in the pain of my past.” Two of Klarisa's church friends, with whom she was studying the Bible, invited her to Young Life club. From that moment, she got involved as a volunteer leader.

Now a Developing Global Leader, Klarisa is pursuing a social work degree at the University of Tirana. She is learning to not necessarily focus on what she thinks is best, rather is learning to ask what God thinks is best. Klarisa shares that “being a part of the DGL program will help me improve many necessary skills such as active listening, communication, and creating a culture of mentorship in my ministry.” Her priorities are family, faith and school and her goal is to become the first in her family to graduate from university.