This Summer our youth center has been busy like a beehive: the local volunteers have worked on developing the concept for youth clubs focused on various topics of interest to the young people in Kumanovo, while our dynamic international volunteers organised arts workshops and language workshops for the restless youth who wanted to learn something new and have fun in summer. All this topped up with regular workshops hosted by our youth workers and by those thrilling moments when we all tasted delicious baklava or celebrated youth on the main square.
Summer party: on the 25th of June the local volunteers gathered in the youth center to celebrate the end of yet another school year and to plan the summer activities. The agenda of the event included a presentation of the youth clubs, musical performances from talented volunteers and informal hanging out with snacks and drinks.
Youth clubs: for several months now the local volunteers are working on establishing local youth clubs. The topics that resonated the most with young people were journalism and media, hiking and outdoor activities, tutoring and peer support, and theater and arts. The hiking club has hosted several meetings and has organised a hike outside of Kumanovo on the 7th of July. The hike was coordinated by members of the Mountaineers Club ”Kozjak 2013” and gathered local and international volunteers, in an effort to encourage young people to be more physically active. The journalism club has decided to re-launch last year´s initiative which published an online magazine titled ”Are you lost yet?” in Macedonian, Albanian and English. This year´s edition will gather stories, poetry and paintings from talented youngsters in Kumanovo in another online publication. More details available soon!
Girl guides visit: one of the highlights of the summer was the 1-week youth exchange in which 13 girl guides from Belgium joined local youth in the youth center and organised activities together, while learning more about intercultural dialogue by discovering the local reality. In 7 days the group has developed a board game, has joined the hike, watched the world cup together and had a lot of fun teaching local youth some international games. Both the international and the local groups have found creative ways of overcoming the language barrier by using the language of fun and by learning from each other.
EVS volunteers: as it is a longstanding tradition in CID, this Summer CID hosted 3 EVS volunteers, plus a Peace Corps volunteer and an international intern. Together, they have prepared a thrilling programme for the permanent visitors of the youth center: Turkish lessons, arts and crafts weekly workshops, board game nights, movie hangouts. The volunteers have formed a strong bond with the local youth and proved an admirable willingness to learn the basics of youth work and to create workshops and activities that take into consideration the needs of the young people.
International Youth Day 2018: another highlight of this hot Summer was the celebration of International Youth Day, which was done on the 13th of August on the city square of Kumanovo. The event brought together members of CID, volunteers, local youth and their friends and featured a bright agenda packed with musical performances. It is always a good idea to bring together diverse communities through the language of music.
Baklavijada 2018 edition: yet again, diverse communities are being brought together through our common love for Baklava. Following the celebration of Bajram, we gathered in MultiКулти to taste delicious homemade baklava and to share the joy of being able to appreciate this element of the local culture.
While saying good-bye to Summer, our crew is preparing more thrilling activities for this Fall. More details will be available at www.multikulti.mk.