In the beginning of the second year

“Civic World” begins the second year of its publication. Last year in February, the MCIC promoted the pilot-number of the new magazine about the civic society in Macedonia. Slowly, but surely “Civic World” has been building up its rating with its readers. The indicator of that fact in the last year were our readers’ calls and requests to put new addresses on the list for distribution of the magazine and of course, the information from the civic organizations arriving at the editorial office.

When we started to plan and publish the “Civic World” we hoped that we would fill part of the gap that exists within the civic society informing. When I say this, I do not only have in mind the informing about the civic organizing outwards, on the contrary, there is also a gap inside the sector, the actors of the civic organizing themselves are not informed enough about who they are and what are the activities of other civic organizations. We certainly had in mind all attempts of the civic organizations to inform about their work in their own publications, however we felt it was necessary to have a space where activities of many civic organizations will be presented. We tried to overcome the limited circulation by putting each number on the web-site www.graganskisvet.org.mk, and we present part of the contents in the daily newspaper “Utrinski Vesnik” every first Friday of the month.. After a year, I can state that we are satisfied from what we have done so far. The “Civic World” has been a real medium presenting information on the events taking place within the sector of civic organizing to the wider reading public. The “Civic World” has also tried to encourage opinions on certain subjects through the “Forum”. We were debating on issues such as: do we lobby, do we cooperate, how can we help in overcoming the crisis in the country, how the consequences of war reflect on our work, volunteering, are we able to self-finance, are the civic associations present enough in the media, do we make good public relations, do we cooperate with the associations in the region and do we need education.

On the other hand, in the year that passed, we were rarely dealing with theoretical questions concerning the civic society, with its concepts, with views that can be of great use to some of us to improve our work and performances and finally, we were rarely dealing with the people who stood behind all the events we presented in the last 12 numbers (including the pilot-number). That is a stimulus for us to make some changes and improve the “Civic World”.
The first change is of quantitative nature. Starting from this number, the “Civic World” is going to be published in 20 pages. The four new pages will be given to the questions and problems I have mentioned above. On the pages of this number of “Civic World” you can read the text about the institutional development and the organizational strengthening. The “Civic World” has also made an interview with Zvonko Savreski, president of the “Polio Plus” association. You can also read about the start of the Children parliament in Kriva Palanka, the establishment of the Private Electronic Media Association, the opening of the Information Center for Education and Legal Advice for the Women in Transition, the preparatory seminar organized for the Reference Group participating in the implementation of the MCIC Program for the Applied Education of Young Roma People, about the mutual project for the internally displaced people of the Regional Development Community and the Babylon Center, etc. The “Civic World” presents the new civic association “Vizianius” which deals with research and cultural monuments’ protection. In this number you can also read the “Civic World” reportage from Bangladesh, about the conditions in which the civic associations operate there and the challenges they face with, as well as the meeting of communicators of the global network that took place in Bangladesh. In this number, the “Civic World” invites you once again to participate in the debate through the forum, presenting your opinions on the following subject: “Do we have leaders?”

We hope that this time, too, you will find useful information on the pages of the twelfth number of “Civic World”.
Gonce Jakovleska