MACEDONIA
In this section:
Roma Children Get Help
Small Grants for Farms, Schools, Fishing Unite
Communities
Macedonian Shoes Now Hit Australian Pavement
Civic Education Counteracts Socialist Legacy,
Ethnic Hate
Madagascar Battles Against HIV
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Roma children in a Macedonian school program supported
by U.S. foreign aid.
Kristina Stefanova, USAID |
KUMANOVO, Macedonia—Secondary and university
students of Roma background are getting tutoring and scholarships
under a U.S. program, in an effort to improve education of
this country’s Roma or Gypsy community.
The program also works with tutors and teachers at kindergartens
and primary schools.
Some 280 freshmen in secondary schools and about 50 freshmen
at three state universities are receiving scholarships as
of December. The younger teenagers received $600 per school
year; university students get $100 per month while in school.
While secondary school pupils competed for the scholarships,
all Roma freshmen enrolled in state universities are automatically
awarded scholarships under the USAID-supported program.
Mentors and academic support are provided to secondary school
pupils through the Roma Education Program (REP), which began
July 2004 and runs for three years.
Most Roma children start the first grade, but only 50 percent
finish the 8th grade. Of those 50 percent, only 35 percent
go on to the 9th grade. Only 5 percent of all Roma students
ever make it to a university.
REP places emphasis on the early levels of education, in
part because most Roma children are behind their peers in
Macedonian language ability.
Tutors are available at five centers throughout Macedonia,
where children from preschool to the 8th grade spend a couple
of hours a day doing homework and getting help with their
studies.
Some 240 children attend the center in Kumanovo. Most are
in primary school, 32 are younger, and several are in secondary
school—getting help catching up with other students so
they stay in school.
“Without the preschool help, many of the kids have
no chance to compete with Macedonian students,” said
Ramis Osmanovski, director of the center. “We also work
with the parents because many of them are not motivated, and
that has an effect on the children.”
REP, in which USAID is investing $2 million, links the centers
with local school administrators, psychologists, and social
workers.
Often, when a child skips school, the teacher reports the
fact to Osmanovski, who then pays a visit to the family. Social
workers are meanwhile dispatched to visit all parents so they
can ensure that children have a home environment where they
can do homework and get help with their studies.
At seven primary schools, REP also works to help them better
integrate Roma children. Some 300 teachers and administrators
are taught to identify and change their prejudices about the
Roma.
REP was designed based on lessons learned from previous
USAID-funded projects working with Roma communities, including
- community centers that helped identify immediate needs
of the Roma
- community volunteer and cultural programs
- job skill-training programs
Small Grants for Farms, Schools, Fishing Unite Communities
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A man stands next to a potato picker paid for by a
U.S. aid project in Macedonia.
Kristina Stefanova, USAID |
STOBI, Macedonia—Girls in colorful traditional
dress sang and danced to Macedonian music on a sunny day in
October as the visitor center to Stobi, one of the country’s
largest ancient archeological sites, opened its doors.
The historical attraction is just off a major road, but
until recently there were no markings for it—no visitor
center, no traffic signs.
Then a neighboring community contacted the Community Self-Help
Initiative (CSHI), a five-year, $14 million program that gives
grants to communities for quality of life, economic development,
and small infrastructure projects.
A year later, the Stobi visitor center became one of more
than 300 projects completed by the USAID-funded program.
Other projects:
- funded the installment of public lighting
- helped school renovations throughout the country
- provided farming equipment to a local agricultural cooperative
- supported an education center for Roma children
- provided a local fishing association with fish breeding
technology and enough funds to organize fishing competitions
“Some people think it’s done for the money, but
really it’s just for the pure passion of fishing,”
said Joshko Micoski, president of the Sport Fishing Association
in Vratniza, near the city of Tetovo. “And we want to
leave something for the younger generation.”
When it was started in 2000, CSHI picked regional representatives
who advertised the program at schools and municipal centers
throughout Macedonia. News traveled fast, and soon representatives
were being approached by various community members about different
projects.
“Although this is a small country, people from the
different regions are different—they have different cultures,
different accents,” said CSHI Chief of Party Dianna Wuagneux.
“Our regional representatives are from the different
areas, so when they talk to the villagers they know what the
issues are; they grew up with them.”
The biggest challenge for CSHI has been to get neighboring
communities and various groups to work together, said Wuagneux.
Under socialism, relationships were built vertically. Now
Macedonians are learning how to work with their neighbors
and cooperate with groups that share their interests, she
added.
Proposals are reviewed and chosen based on need, sustainability,
and feasibility.
“If you look at a beekeeping association in communities
that border each other, a project to certify and bring the
honey together—that’s going to work,” said
Wuagneux. “But a water reservoir for $1 million is out
of our scope.”
In a village not far from the Bulgarian border, farmers
got together and asked CSHI for a grant for tractors and other
farming equipment. Today, the association has nearly doubled
its production of potatoes and other vegetables and has extended
its sales to neighboring Bulgaria and Greece.
The association also continually increases its resources
by renting its farming equipment to neighboring communities.
“What makes the CSHI so impressive is that it provides
immediate and tangible economic and quality-of-life results
to those communities that are willing to bridge ethnic differences
in order to achieve a common goal,” said Donna Gray,
USAID project manager for CSHI.
Macedonian Shoes Now Hit Australian Pavement
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Worker at Kegi Shoes in Macedonia, which expanded production
and exports through a U.S. loan.
Kristina Stefanova, USAID |
SKOPJE, Macedonia—Kegi Shoes, a popular local
children’s shoemaker, now sells its products as far as
Australia, thanks to loans obtained through a U.S. foreign
aid project.
“We are very happy,” said Dobre Todorovski, the
younger of two sons to Blogoja Todorovski, who started Kegi
Shoes in 1995. “Our shoes even have the stamp of approval
of the Australian Orthopedic Association.”
Kegi had exported twice before, to Croatia. But when the
Australia deal came up in November 2003, the company lacked
the funds to purchase the amount of leather needed to fill
the order. They were only able to seal the deal after they
were approached by Sonja Tasevska, a loan officer from the
newly created SME Commercial Finance Fund, and took out a
$30,000 loan.
“I knew about them because I have two small kids and
buy their shoes,” said Tasevska, who, along with another
loan officer, was promoting the SME Fund by visiting potential
clients.
Kegi, which designs and makes its own shoes, repaid the
loan within months and borrowed another $50,000 in May 2004.
Its exports have grown by 49 percent and its staff by five
workers. The business is branching out into retailing, with
a growing number of stores nationwide.
Macedonian companies like Kegi can borrow through the banks.
But unlike the SME Fund, banks require real estate or equipment
as collateral and lend larger amounts, with higher interest
rates and over longer periods.
The fund’s loans range from $10,000 to $100,000, with
an average loan of $60,000 repaid over four months. The fund
lends to about 30 companies, some of which are run by women
and executives of various ethnicities.
SME began in May 2003 with $1.5 million of USAID funding.
By the end of September 2004, the fund had earned $110,000
through fees and interest, and had lent out some $2.1 million
to small and medium-sized companies in the textiles, building
materials and construction, metal processing, and leather
products industries.
Civic Education Counteracts Socialist Legacy, Ethnic Hate
SKOPJE, Macedonia—When kindergarten and primary
children here start the 2005 school year, civic education
will be one of their mandatory and standardized courses for
the first time.
Civic education is needed to counteract negative attitudes
spawned by 45 years of socialist dictatorship and more than
a decade of uncertainty since 1991, as ethnic civil wars devastated
other former Yugoslav republics Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia,
and Serbia.
Requiring education about democracy, civic participation,
and government is the last improvement of a six-year, $2.2
million USAID-funded Catholic Relief Services (CRS) effort
that ended in December 2004.
All of Macedonia’s 344 primary schools and 54 kindergartens
joined the civic education program, which trained 11,196 teachers
and school administrators, published 284,770 student textbooks
and 14,670 teacher manuals, and worked with parents to promote
civic education.
“This is important because it builds the foundation
for the future generation to participate in the social issues
Macedonia faces,” said Sharon Maggard of CRS. “To
do this successfully, you really have to change the thought
process—really have to go to the core of the educators
and the parents.”
CRS operates in 94 countries. The Macedonia team won the
organization’s recognition of the year award in 2004
for its civic education project.
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