Association for Help and Relief - AAR, Japan 

Help for the Macedonian Health 

The Japanese organization " Association for Help and Relief - AAR" has been operating in our country from 1999. The headquarters of this international organization is in Tokio, Japan and it was established in 1979.
-"At the moment in Skopje there are five locally employed people, me and another colleague from my country. The local personnel are constant and we change in every six months"- said Mrs. Jasuko Kikuci, Director of AAR office in Skopje.

The help that the AAR gives to the Macedonian society mostly consists of medical equipment and medicines supply, although in the previous years, they realized several projects for distribution of food and other necessities for Kosovo refugees.

Mrs. Jasuko Kikuci adds: -At the moment we are working on two projects. One of them is related to the Roma population in Macedonia, with vulnerable groups and social cases. We provide these people with basic medical help, including the supply of medicines. At the moment, we are doing this in Shuto Orizari and in Kumanovo, and previously, the project covered the Skopje settlement Gjorche Petrov and Tetovo. With the other project, we provide university scholarships for five people of Roma nationality in the country.

AAR have been implementing their projects in cooperation with the medical centers in Skopje, Kumanovo and Tetovo, as well as with local NGOs such as "Homos" and "Lipa" from Kumanovo, "Kam Sonce" from Skopje, The Association of Serbs, Macedonians and Montenegrans from Tetovo, etc. AAR have also helped in the reconstruction of the Special School for Children with mental disabilities "Iskra" in Stip, and it has also been donating school materials at the Center for Rehabilitation and Education of Children with mental disabilities "St. Naum Ohridski' in Skopje.

-By the end of this year, AAR will have finished their activities in Macedonia. However, we have yet to realize two new projects: supply of mobile X-Ray (Roentgen) machine at the Medical Center in Kumanovo, so people from this region will not have to go to Skopje; and supply of rehabilitation equipment for the Institute for rehabilitation of hearing and speaking impaired children in Skopje, as well as its departments in Negotino and Valandovo - explained Mrs. Kikuci.

Daniel Medaroski