MACEDONIA

INTERSOS has been operating in Macedonia since 1999, when it first established a mission to assist with the refugee population from the Kosovo crisis. At the initial stages of the Macedonia mission, Intersos managed one of the largest refugee camps in the Skopje region, while balancing its operations to assist the most vulnerable and poorest Macedonians. In the following phases, INTERSOS assistance was enlarged to include vulnerable Macedonians all over the country and to Roma communities living in rural and suburban areas, where levels of poverty are more significant.

Today INTERSOS is continuing its work on improving the conditions and integration of vulnerable Macedonians, particularly of the Rom minority.

The adoption of a balancing approach supporting multiethnic co-existence and the consequent inclusion of Roma groups, as the poorest and most marginalised minority, have therefore become the main reason of INTERSOS current presence. In this post conflict recovery phase, the Roma community is the most disadvantaged population in Macedonia. The Roma community has been considerably affected by poverty and "ghettoization" and is subject to constant discrimination in housing, education, health and welfare services, being largely more disadvantaged than ethnic Slavs or Albanians.

INTERSOS has chosen to accompany Macedonia in assisting this marginalized segment of society. The disadvantage of Roma has also been emphasised by the international community, which initiated the Decade of Roma Inclusion in 2005. It represents a political commitment in order to reduce disparities, through implementing policy reforms and programs designed to break the cycle of poverty and exclusion.

The ongoing three year project in Macedonia, started on June 2004, " Quality of Life of the Roma Community and Start-up of their Social Integration in the Neighborhoods of Štip and Prilep (Macedonia)", is funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Through the current project, INTERSOS is participating in decreasing disparities between Roma and other ethnic groups in central-eastern and western Macedonia (Stip and Prilep), where activities are focused on improving access to social structures, assisting in the educational process, improving of hygiene and fostering interethnic dialogue, while urging direct participation of local representatives of civil and institutional society and the Roma community itself. Aiming at reaching these fundamental objectives, INTERSOS has been working in schools involving both Macedonian and Roma children in extracurricular activities such as dancing and theatre and creative image laboratories. One of the biggest challenges that INTERSOS has intended to address was the high rate of illiteracy and high drop out rate among Roma children. INTERSOS has been working on two levels: re-registering Roma children in the regular classes and creating parallel classes to give older children who have never attended classes the chance to go to school. INTERSOS was the first organization in Macedonia that opened those parallel classes which have now been adopted by other international organizations.

In order to encourage cultural exchanges, INTERSOS built two Multicultural Centres where courses have been organized for children and adults concerning education, hygiene, management of the conflicts and extracurricular activities. In order to facilitate the process of nationalization of the Macedonia mission, these two Centres will be led two new local NGOs, RomaSos and CerenjaSos, born within INTERSOS Project

Furthermore, improving hygiene has been carried out through two different kinds of actions in the two towns. In Stip a Health Services Facilities Centre was built on 2005 which includes washing machines, toilets and showers. On the other hand, in Prilep, INTERSOS has involved Roma people in awareness raising through health campaigns in the area and periodically cleaning part of the canal that crosses the Roma area.