In Germany, the country with the largest Albanian community in Europe, thousands of compatriots have, for years, shared the same untold story: loneliness in the crowd, fear of asking for help, and the sense that no one truly understands the world they come from. Out of this everyday need, "You Are Not Alone" (Nuk Je Vetëm) was born, a campaign by the Mendje platform that offers online sessions with Albanian-speaking psychologists.

From the diaspora's silence to the birth of the campaign

The idea, says Arbnora Kllokoqi, did not come from a market analysis, but from conversations and gatherings with the community in Germany, where they kept hearing the same stories from people "who felt lonely in the middle of the crowd" and were afraid to tell anyone. Many of them had tried therapy in German, but felt misunderstood, not linguistically, but culturally: a psychologist who does not know the pressure of the diaspora, or the sense of guilt toward those you left behind, however professional they may be, cannot help fully. Mendje connects Albanian speakers worldwide with licensed psychologists who speak the language and understand their context. "You Are Not Alone," Arbnora says, is not a marketing slogan but a promise: there is space for you, and Mendje is the bridge that leads you there.

The Kosovo Embassy, an institutional ally

The partnership with the Embassy of Kosovo in Berlin has been one of the pillars of the campaign. When a state institution supports such an initiative, according to Arbnora, it sends the community the message that mental health "is a national priority, not a taboo subject." For a new platform, the presence of a well-known institution opens doors that a startup could not open on its own, especially for sceptical people who have never tried therapy. This support has helped organise in-person events in Berlin and place mental health on the institutional agenda. She hopes this practice will be repeated with other Albanian institutions across Europe.

The loneliness hidden behind success

Through her work with the diaspora, Arbnora identifies several emotional challenges that recur with "painful regularity." The first is loneliness, not the ordinary kind, but the specific feeling of the emigrant who feels it even when life looks organised from the outside, because the natural network of family and friends disappears with relocation. The second is the pressure of success: the expectation to "always look fine" creates a gap between what is shown outwardly and what is felt inside. The third is the loss of identity, the feeling of being between two worlds. On top of these stand the classic barriers: language, cost, and stigma, which often keep a person away from help even when they know they need it.

According to her, Albanian culture has, for generations, tied strength to silence: admitting to loneliness is seen as failure. The paradox, she says, is that the more people stay silent about loneliness, the more isolated they feel, believing their case is unique. In reality, there are thousands who share the same feeling in silence, which is why Mendje has made it a priority to speak openly about the topic, because "normalisation begins with words."

Emigration, she adds, is usually measured by money, homes and jobs, but rarely does anyone ask how you really feel. This cultural absence of open conversation about anxiety and exhaustion has concrete consequences: people functioning at reduced capacity, reaching a crisis point before seeking help. Research and data gathered by Mendje itself clearly show that the lack of a physical support network is one of the main causes of anxiety and isolation, something digital social networks cannot replace.

From personal experience to the Mendje platform

Arbnora's own story is, as she puts it, the "DNA" of the platform. As early as age 15-16, people would turn to her to talk, and she had always been drawn to psychology, but at the time of her studies, she thought it had no future and pursued business instead. Mendje was born later, out of her own experience with anxiety, and out of the difficulty of finding resources in Albanian: "when my friends wrote to me that they weren't doing well, and didn't speak English, I understood that something was missing." When she herself sought professional help, she found good psychologists who nonetheless did not fully understand the context, the dynamics of the Albanian family, the pressure of the diaspora, the guilt toward those left behind. That was when she realised she was not alone, and that thousands of Albanians shared the same problem.

Speaking openly about these topics was not easy. "We grew up with the idea that problems are kept inside," Arbnora says, adding that her own silence would have confirmed the false narrative that she alone had problems. Every message of gratitude from someone in the diaspora has convinced her that this decision was the right one.

The responses that have moved the team

The first responses were not just comments but stories from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the USA, and Australia. Many had gone to local psychologists but spent their energy explaining the Albanian cultural context instead of focusing on themselves. One message in particular moved the team: someone wrote that with two psychologists in Germany, they felt as if they were "translating" their own life, while with the psychologist at Mendje, for the first time, they didn't have to translate anything.

What comes next

Albanian and Kosovar institutions, says Arbnora, have an underestimated role: when an embassy organises an event on mental health, it sends an official message that the topic carries national weight. Equally important are public figures, athletes, actors, and entrepreneurs who dare to speak about their own struggles, because stigma "is broken with human stories," not statistics.

Looking ahead, Mendje plans to expand its network of psychologists with more specialised specialisations (migration trauma, second-generation diaspora challenges), extend its geographic presence beyond the current 9 countries to Switzerland, Italy, the United Kingdom, the USA, and Canada, and build a cultural movement through open stories and conversations. Initiatives similar to "You Are Not Alone" are also planned in other countries with large Albanian communities.

Her message to those going through the same thing in silence is clear: what they feel "has a name, and it is not your fault" a human response to objectively difficult circumstances, not a weakness. And seeking help, Arbnora stresses, takes just as much courage as going to a doctor when you have physical pain: "You are never alone."