DONORS: UNICEF

The campaign "Out of the Circle" has also marked the year 2003

The Foundation UNICEF works with government institutions, United Nations' agencies, families and children themselves. Till now, UNICEF has supported projects in 161 countries or region through its 8 regional offices and 125 field offices. The offices in Brussels and Tokyo help to collect material assets, in Florence there is a specialist research centre, while Copenhagen is the centre for supply and delivery of materials. In order to implement its projects, UNICEF has developed a network of 37 national committees that are located in the industrialised countries and serve for gathering material assets and informing on the UNICEF mission. Its funds are enriched with volunteer donations through two main sources: governmental and intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental, that is private sector, which includes groups and individuals.

The UNICEF office in Macedonia was open in 1993 and with its work, it helps the pre-natal preparation of pregnant women at the dispensaries and the patronage system (visits to pregnant women and nursing mothers, by offering advice and care). UNICEF carried out a project, financially supported by the European Union Humanitarian Office for reconstruction of the rooms and toilets and for providing equipment for the maternity halls in all maternity hospitals in the country. Thus, 28 of 29 maternity hospitals in the country, received the status of "Hospitals - Friends to Babies, and in 2003, Macedonia received the certificate for rooting out the birth deficit - a success that no other country in the region of Eastern Europe, the Baltic countries and the Common welt of independent countries has reached.

UNICEF continues to support the process of deinstitutionalisation and so far, 26 children abandoned the Special Institute Demir Kapija and are now living in home-families, which are part of the project whose idea starts from the right of every child to live in a family. The daily centres for children with special needs are also equipped, and in future, UNICEF will work on strengthening the network of home-families. In the field of children protection, UNICEF supports the Macedonian efforts to adjust its legislation with the Geneva Children Rights Committee recommendations and the International Conventions.

In 2003, together with the NGO sector, they implemented "Out of the Circle", a campaign for accepting the children, that were discarded for the fact that they are either poor, belong to a different ethnic group or have obstacles in their development.

The project "I have a right to know" has been realized in the country for two years now, and the knowledge that young people spread among themselves in a creative way, refer to AIDS protection, healthy living habits, premature pregnancy, violence, differences in the development of girls and boys, etc. The young people, without any, or just a little help from the adults, have prepared a TV show, comics, theatre show and journalist texts that they published in the magazine "Patoteka". UNICEF emphasizes that the interethnic teaching has been introduced in all primary schools in the country, and also that in 2003 they carried out the research for crumbling of the school children that will help to make strategies for their return in the classrooms. World famous singers, actors and athletes bear the title of UNICEF ambassadors. They use their name to turn the public attention towards the vents and conditions in the world that refer to the children welfare. UNICEF office in Skopje assigned Tose Proeski a Special Representative of the young people in Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro.

The Children Rights Convention was adopted at the United Nations General Assembly in 1989 and in less than ten years it was ratified by almost all countries in the world. UNICEF uses the Convention as its guiding principle and appeals for its respect and implementation.