Makedónía

Fyrrum Júgóslavíulýðveldið Makedónía, eða einfaldlega Makedónía er land á Balkanskaga í suðaustur Evrópu. Landið á á landamæri að Serbíu, Búlgaríu, Grikklandi og Albaníu og er landlukt. Landið er um 25þúsund ferkílómetrar og því tæplega 4 sinnum minna en ísland að flatarmáli en samt búa um 2 milljónir manna í landinu. Fæðingartíðnin er um 12 á hverja 1000 íbúa en dánartíðnin um 8.8 á hverja 1000 íbúa og er fólksfjölgunin í landinu ekki nema um 0.26% á ári en á Íslandi er hún um 0.82% á ári. Meðalaldurinn í Makedóníu er um 34 ára en lífslíkur við fæðingu er 74 ár. Landið varð til við upplausn Júgoslavíu árið 1991.

Þó svo að það eru yfir 300 spítalar og heilsugæslustöðvar í Makedóníu finnst um 90% af íbúum landsins erfitt að nálgast og fá aðgang að læknisþjónustu.

 

SOS Children's Villages' activities in the country

SOS-Kinderdorf International started its work in Macedonia in 1995, following years of war in the country. It was possible for talks to be held with the government with the assistance of Macedonia's UN representative, Henryk J. Sokalski. One year later, a government agreement was signed. The cornerstone-laying ceremony for the first SOS Children's Village, in a suburb of Skopje, took place on April 14th, 1999. Representatives of Macedonia's both religions (Orthodox and Muslim) attended the ceremony. Construction work on this first project was completed by the end of the year 2000.

The Macedonian SOS Children's Village Association, "SOS Detsko Selo Makedonija" was founded on November 17th of that same year. Because a number of small plumbing jobs still had to be carried out and outstanding approvals from the various ministries had to be obtained, it was only possible for the first children to move into SOS Children's Village Skopje at the end of May 2002. Since 2002 the Macedonian SOS Children's Village Association has been supporting a child and youth centre (Nadez = hope) located in a very poor area of Skopje. Due to a high rate of illiteracy, unemployment and violence the centre offers school support for the children, workshops and counselling for women and families.

In 2007 SOS Children’s Villages Macedonia started to operate a Family Strengthening Programme in the municipality Gazi Baba, in the vicinity of the SOS Children’s Village Skopje. This programme enables children who are at risk of losing the care of their family to grow within a caring family environment. To achieve this, SOS Children’s Villages Macedonia works directly with families and communities to empower them to effectively protect and care for their children, in cooperation with local authorities and other service providers.

At present there is one SOS Children's Village and one SOS Social Centre in Macedonia.

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• (CIA: Macedonia)
• (Wikipedia: Lýðveldið Makedonia)
• (SOS Children's Village: Macedonia) 
• (Unicef :Macedonia)