Success Story in Macedonia:
Media Bridges for Regional Cooperation by Ibrahim Mehmeti (page 8)


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Macedonia

In 1994, Search for Common Ground began work in Macedonia to strengthen interethnic relations and help prevent violence. In 1999, our efforts were put to the test when war erupted in neighboring Kosovo. Nearly 400,000 refugees poured across the border, intensifying ethnic tensions and making worse an already bad economy. Many observers have said that our projects made an important contribution to weathering the crisis. After the tensions subsided, Search for Common Ground Macedonia (SCGM) continued working toward cooperative solutions, resolving conflicts, preventing violence and expanding activities to the regional cooperation. Today, 10 years later, SCGM is focusing on media, education, arts & culture. We are planning to enter the second phase of the Bridges for the New Balkans, a regional interethnic media projects with print, television and radio broadcast components. Our objective for 2004-2006 is that Mozaik, a unique model of multilingual and multicultural pre-school education, be integrated formally into the Macedonian public education system. Additionally, we continue developing various outreach activities based on Nashe Maalo (Our Neighborhood), a nationally broadcasted television series for children. These activities include live theatre, puppet theatre, magazine, parent-teacher guide, music CD and knowledge quiz.

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Active Projects in Macedonia
1. Bridges for the New Balkans: Regional Media Project
2. Mozaik: Model for Multicultural Pre-school Education in Macedonia
3. Nashe Maalo: Television, Theatre and Outreach Projects
Completed Projects in Macedonia (Historical Summaries)
4. The Balkans Forum
5. Conflict Resolution in Kosovo
6. Conflict Resolution Games


1. Bridges for the New Balkans: Regional Media Project
Bridges for the New Balkans aims to promote the media, television, print media, and radio, as a means to illustrate the interdependence of the Balkans peoples while still recognizing their differences. This program spans Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Montenegro, Serbia, and Kosovo. [more]

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2. Mozaik: Model for Multicultural Pre-school Education in Macedonia
SCGM initiated Mozaik in 1998 to support Macedonian educational institutions in bridging the gap caused by linguistic, cultural and ethnic segregation in schools and kindergartens. Mozaik is a unique model of multilingual and multicultural pre-schooling in public kindergartens. During its first phase of implementation, the project included six groups of Macedonian- and Albanian-speaking children ages 3-7. More recently SCGM has reduced the number of groups but increased the diversity of participants by expanding the model to Serbian- and Turkish-speaking children. [more]

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3. Nashe Maalo: Television, Theatre and Outreach Projects
Nashe Maalo was the first children's television program in Macedonia created to promote intercultural understanding, to encourage conflict prevention in a multicultural society, and to impart specific conflict-resolution skills that children can use in their everyday lives. This unique series, co-produced by Common Ground Productions and Search for Common Ground Macedonia, presents a timely opportunity to influence an entire generation of children in Macedonia in the direction of mutual tolerance and respect. [more]

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4. The Balkans Forum
In 2002, SFCG convened a series of meetings in Washington, bringing together Balkans experts from different fields. As interest in the Balkans region decreased, the meetings were discontinused after 2002. [more]

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5. Conflict Resolution in Kosovo
SCGM began implementing Conflict Resolution Games and Video Dialogues in Kosovo to expose members of Kosovo society to alternative viewpoint, to inspire the process of constructive community dialogue, and to lay the foundation for a more peaceful society by providing the people of Kosovo new models of conflict resolution. This project was completed in 2000. [more]

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6. Conflict Resolution Games
As a tool designed to help kids identify what conflict is, how conflicts grow, and how conflicts can be resolved, the Conflict Resolution Games Project, promoted by SCGM in partnership with the Ethnic Conflict Resolution Project, operated in nearly 100 schools and involved a yearlong curriculum of games. This programme is now run solely by the ECRP. [more]

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Search for Common Ground in Macedonia
Albert Svajcer 6
1000 Skopje
Republic of Macedonia
Phone: (389) 23-118-517, 118-572
Fax: (389) 23-118-322
E-mail: sfcg@sfcg.org.mk