SOS Social Centres in Macedonia

In Macedonia there is currently one Social Centre for children and the local community, in Skopje.  Many SOS Social Centres operate via Family Strengthening Programmes, which aim to support the wider community.  Below is some information about the Social Centre that SOS Children runs in Skopje:

SOS Social Centres around Macedonia: In-Depth

Skopje

Description of SOS Social Centre/FSP:

The family strengthening programme offers access to essential services for children’s development (eg. educational, nutritional and health support, social skills) and supports families to protect and care for their children. The programme also aims at linking families with income generating activities and offers help to improve the parents’ parenting skills.

Work and Achievements:

In the Family Strengthening Project Gazi Baba, by the end of 2009, the planned number of children and families had been achieved. During the entire year, new families and children were included in the project activities. Also, some of the families, supported by the team, achieved the foreseen goals and the team occasionally contacts them, if needed.

By the end of December 2009, a total of 123 children and 72 adults, i.e. 39 families have been included.

This year 13 families have become independent, comprising 16 adults and 27 children, whom we occasionally visit and advise according to their needs.

Many efforts have been made in order to achieve the planned number of children included in the project. We have contacted a large number of institutions, organizations and individuals, such as: the Social Work Centre, local schools, local NGOs, the Day Care Centre for Children from the Street and other individuals, all in the favor of introducing the project and our target group, so that they could refer to us families that are in need of support. Through a series of meetings and presentation by the project team, the SWC team has started referring families at risk.

All of the included families have signed family development plans, which were created in cooperation with the family itself and possess full documentation prepared by the project team.

During the year there was a continuous series of meetings of the Parents/Caregivers’ Club and the Youth Club. On those meetings, people had the opportunity to obtain new information and knowledge on several subjects: Communication and communication skills, children’s rights, sexual and reproductive health, contraception, family planning, prevention of HIV / AIDS and sexually transmitted infections and other topics according to their needs and interests. Some of the meetings were held by the project team and professionals were called for the rest of the meetings (psychologists, pedagogues and health care workers). During the year, some of the families, where seen as necessary, received material packages (food and hygiene supplies), support in medicines. We worked with children and parents on motivating children to sign up children to school. Most of the children received educational material, a student's monthly bus ticket etc. Children going to school for the first time in September have received donations such as school bags and school materials