About the project:

Discrimination based on gender, ethnic and religious origin occurs often in the rural areas in Municipality of Struga. People living in this areas do not even recognise that their discriminative behaviours or when they are discriminated. Very often they accept it or perpetuate it as part of their tradition and it is justified by the others. Children growing up in such communities, take discrimination as normal way of behaving without even trying to think about other proactive ways to eliminate the discrimination. The main goal of this project is to help inhabitants from rural communities in Struga develop awareness about their own or others discriminative behavior. If young people have access to information about the concept of discrimination at early age, they will develop in mature human beings who can show empathy and take appropriate action in support of justice, equality and human rights.

Timeframe:

July 2011 – November 2011

Partners:

Primary schools from rural areas in municipality of Struga, Helsinki Committee – Skopje and Committee for interethnic relations between communities

Results:

• Delivered training on topic “Discrimination and Human Rights” with 20 representatives from rural communities
• Drafted 4 scenarios about different forms of discrimination adapted for puppet theatre
• Created 4 puppet theatre stages and 20 dolls that are given as gift to 4 primary schools from “Braka Miladinovci”-Struga, Draslajca, Labunishta and Radolishta
• Performed 11 theatre performances in Vevchani, Draslajca, Moroishta, Frangovo, Oktisi, Delogozhda, Zagrachani, Radolishta, Labunishta and Struga
• Created DVD with the recordings from the puppet shows, promoted on www.youtube.com/StrugaLDA

Supported by:

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the United Nations Development Programme “Acting Communities Together.” This project is financed by the Government of Spain through fund for implementing the Millennium Development Goals

See photos here