On 20th December 2011, the Youth Association creACTive has organized one not so usual event that happens every day here in Skopje. It was performed twice: one on the main square “Macedonia” and the other one at the VERO Center in Skopje. We are talking about FLASH MOB events that are organized all around the world on public spaces like squares, shopping malls, on the streets etc. The participants are dancing on one unique and recognizable choreography that is performed everywhere the same on the Michael Jackson’s song “Beat it”. This flash mob event is characterized by the massiveness of the people taking part in it, that on first instance it seems that they were there spontaneously. But later, as the melody goes on, group by group is joining the mass and create one synchronized dance all together. That drags the attention of the other “normal” people that were on the spot in that moment and they ask themselves “What is going on?” Most of the Flash Mobs have its own aim why are organized.
The idea and the aim of the young people from creACTive was on symbolic way to mark the week of volunteerism when many similar events and voluntary action have been organized. All together, on creative way, to celebrate the International Day of Volunteerism – 5th December.
All the 130 young people that took part on the Flash Mob event have practiced the choreography one month. They had rehearsals several times in the week. The participants were not only from Skopje, but also from Kumanovo, Kavadarci and Bitola. The participants from Skopje practiced the routine at the sports hall next to the primary school “Nevena Georgieva Dunja” in Kisela Voda. This sport hall has been given to us to use it for the rehearsals, from the Agency for youth and sport and the Municipality of Kisela Voda. The cooperation with these institutions was really great and really helpful. And here is the result from all that:
HUGE THANKS to the coordinators from Skopje (Hristijan Prodanov) and from Kumanovo (Vesna Gjurkovska) who helped a lot to all the participants in order to learn the routine faster. We are also grateful to the Agency for youth and sport, Municipality of Kisela Voda that provide us the space for the rehearsals, to our partner the Center for Intercultural Dialogue from Kumanovo that provide us with sound equipment and of course VERO Center that hosted us where we felt really comfortable.
GREAT JOB guys!!! See you on the next Flash Mob soon.
The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and the Youth Association creACTive would like to invite you to the open floor discussion “Being active in civil society: Developing youth work and volunteering in Macedonia”, which will be held on the 5th of December 2011, from 13:00 – 16:00 at the EU Info centre in Skopje, located in the EU Delegation’s building.
The Open Floor Discussion is envisioned as a platform for discussing the opportunities for cooperation between local self-governments and civil society organizations (CSOs) in Macedonia, particularly in the field of supporting the development of youth work and volunteering in the country. The event is being organized as a part of the efforts for strengthening the civil society in Macedonia and within the celebration of the 5th of December as an International Day of Volunteering. It will bring together representatives from the Macedonian government, local municipalities and civil society organizations; as well as guests from the twinned cities of Skopje: Dijon (France) and Roubaix (France). Thus, the discussion will provide an opportunity for sharing experiences and good practices of cooperation between local governments and civil society organizations in Macedonia and in other countries.
3 board members on Saturday, October the 8th, 2011 visited the Cultural Center kreAKTIV in Skopje and had a workshop about the education system in Macedonia.
As part of the visit Mara Foundation also donated 2 computers and about 300 English and German books for the Cultural Center.
More about Mara foundation:
Mara Foundation is a studentorganisation that supports education for youngsters in the Balkans. For youngsters in the Balkans, studying is not as common as it is for us in The Netherlands. This fact was the incentive for us to put effort into creating chances for youngsters in the Balkans.
We believe in self-empowerment of people. That is why we aim at stimulating youngsters in the Balkans to invest in their own future. We try to reach this aim by supporting educative youngster projects. Our support exists of donations of educative materials, such as books and computers. We prefer to do our donations in combination with a knowledge-exchange activity, such as a workshop, a debate or a quiz.
We travel to the Balkans four times a year. During such a journey, we usually visit projects we supported in the past, projects we might support in the future and projects we will support during that journey. The donations are paid with fundings of donators. Most of our donators are students. With the combination of donations from students and our target group being students, we have created the wonderful construction of students for students.
Besides our journeys to the Balkans, we are occupied with promoting our activities and we organise the background program of the annual Balkan Snapshots Festival, organised by Balkan Buro.
Please take a look at our website www.amsterdam.stichtingmara.nl
On the 2nd of October 2011 at the general assembly of the South East European Youth Network, creACTive was voted to become a associate member of the network.
The South East European Youth Network (SEEYN) is a network organization involving 15 member NGOs from 8 countries in an attempt of overcoming differences among societies that have recent tradition of conflicts through gathering young people from entire South East Europe region to work together on global issues.
The vision of SEEYN is to achieve a stable region with developed mutual understanding without prejudices among young people through their mobility, co-operation, and active role in society.
SEEYN aims to promote pro-social values, youth employability, peace and understanding through development of volunteering grassroots and exchange programmes, supporting youth initiatives, advocacy and capacity building.
Or maybe a bit more: two years ago, in this very day, the first issue of Libertas was published, but history goes some two or three months back. In those months, not only the idea appeared, we also brought together the courage to start this – quite crazy – project. After all we can resume tale to two people from different sides of the world needed a place where young people could discuss and be heard, but creating a global magazine is not an easy feat.
Anyway, how did it change me? ….
By Daniel Nunes
Read the whole article in the September 2011 issue of Libertas.
