Empowering young people to take initiative is one of CID’s main goals. This purpose is covered by the project “Implementation Of The Convention On The Rights Of The Child In Macedonia”, which is currently being implemented in schools in Kumanovo as well as in several other cities around the country. Florim Rexhepi is pleased to present us the details of the project.
Q: Please give us an overview of the project you are involved in.
A: It is a project coordinated by SEGA on the national level with CID as a local partner for Kumanovo and aims at encouraging youth participation among high-school students and raising awarenes about the Rights of Children. Through this project we want to build youth capacities that will help youth participation in schools. For the moment we collaborate with two schools in Kumanovo, and one of them already created a youth board on their own initiative, which is an important step in building the foundation for future actions.
Q: What kind of activities are scheduled to take place?
A: The main activities involve meetings with school students and mapping local realities, training them to learn about ways in which they can be active, to do research and to come up with initiatives and encourage to work on their rights in their schools. Another important task is to facilitate the creation of the position of the childs’ ombudsman, who will be in charge of investigating the complaints of young students related to violations of child rights. The final step will be the development of a strategy aimed at bettering the process of youth participation, which will happen by the end of this year.
Q: What is your contribution to the project?
A: I facilitate the processes by helping with the logistics for events organized in schools, as well as train the involved students to acknowledge their rights and by contributing to the creation of the strategy for future action.
Q: How would you assess the development of the project?
A: It is going well; we are satisfied with the fact that the school administrations cooperate and are responsive to the new ideas, and the young people seem to be energetic and excited about it, too. At this stage of the project we already have positive development and examples of efficient management of problems by the students themselves, and this gives us the strength to continue to oversee the process of youth empowerment.