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Humanitarian work lasting for 16 years
Funds collected from the “Cake Festival” have helped many people
Sanja Naumovska
The humanitarian organization “Majka” from Kumanovo has been functioning since 1992. Formed as a reaction to the need to help in the times of former Yugoslavia breaking down, “Majka” has organized a number of humanitarian actions for refugees from the wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, the Macedonian crisis. Actions have been organized for displaced people in the regions of Kumanovo, Kriva Palanka and the surroundings, for distribution of food, medicaments and other basic things and part of the activities have included organization for housing the families, reconstruction of the damaged houses, women and children’s re-socialization and after the 2001 conflict, organization of psycho-social workshops for women.
For a long time “Majka” has continuously been working on providing medicaments and medical treatment for socially poor people and everyone in need with a lack of finances. Basically, says Lidija Ilievska, the president of “Majka”, when it is about purchasing expensive medicaments from abroad, or an operation which costs a lot of money, “Majka” has a fund from which it provides single financial assistance for the ill. The fund is mostly supported by organization of humanitarian activities, such as the traditional cake festivals. Some of the cake festivals are organized with purpose, to help somebody. One of them was aimed at a young man from Kumanovo who has a hard disease which disables his moving. He had been tied to bed for many years and with a medical treatment abroad the quality of his life would have improved. All the money collected from the sale of cakes was aimed at his treatment and now he is in much better condition.
Two years ago the money from the cake festival was donated to the Center for people with special needs in Kumanovo. Thus the premises were renovated and equipped with furniture, kitchen appliances and other equipment. Every day the Center cares for handicapped people from Kumanovo and the surroundings, where they learn how to make out in their homes, to cook or do some other housework. Last year in November in organization of “Majka” the 14th in a row cake festival took place where skillful women from Kumanovo prepared lots of cakes with different forms and tastes for sale. With the money collected New Year’s packets were purchased and the women from “Majka” gave them to the children from the socially poor families in Kumanovo and the surroundings.
Cakes are made by women from Kumanovo, proved in their skills in the kitchen and every year there have to be at least 10 different cakes and often local pastry shops donate their products whish are sold for humanitarian purposes. As Lidija says, the biggest amount paid for a cake is 6.000 denars. Cakes are small artistic works and are promotion of their authors. The Kumanovo women until recently also organized humanitarian salty food festivals where different forms were made of dough and the money was aimed at various projects. The most famous is the exhibition of churches made of dough by an author from Sveti Nikole. The ingredients in cake festivals and salty food festivals are donated by “Majka” or other donors.
“Bucen Kozjak” – one of the most faithful helpers
“Majka” has long-years sponsors and donors that we have cooperated with since the very beginning of the organization. One of our most faithful helpers is “Bucen Kozjak” which follows all our activities. The manager Stojka Stojkovska has been donating money for mostly more than 10 years and at the time we organized salty food festivals, she also donated some products from the offer of “Bucen Kozjak”, says Ilievska. She points out that the manager Stojkovska always buys one of the cakes and donates it to the Home for Old People or the children with special needs. She has been awarded a certificate of gratitude by “Majka” for her humanity and unselfish help.
The mill “Mosomel” is Majka’s latest sponsor and it is very important to the women from this organization as the owners of the mill have applied to sponsor their activities. So all the flour from the last cake festival was donated by Mosomel and they say that this humanitarian activity will become traditional.
“In the cake festival of the humanitarian association “Majka” we got involved on our own initiative, due to the high reputation that the association has in Kumanovo and the surroundings where it is famous for its humanitarian activities. Each participant in the cake festival was given a bag of flour and it was our donation for last year. We hope and we want to continue our cooperation in the future”, says Mome Velkovski, owner of the mill “Mosomel”.
Other sponsors that these humanitarian workers have been working with for many years include the ready-made clothing “Maremi trade”, “Foto Plus”, “Elida”, “Candy Shop”, as well as the Kumanovo “Vodovod”, Stopanska banka, “Agrokumanovo” etc.
First and the only mammography in Kumanovo
Apart from the most famous activity of “Majka”, this association has been dealing with some other activities for many years. In 1996 the first and the only mammography in Kumanovo was brought owing to its efforts, as a donation from Germany.
On the organization’s initiative, a Macedonian who has been living in Germany for many years, Flora Kraut, has brought a mammography in the Kumanovo hospital and nowadays it is the only such machine in the surrounding area. “Majka” is a founder of the women center “21st Century Woman”, which is a network of 8 organizations and has been operating for 8 years. It is an informative network of several different organizations which will start working regionally in the municipalities of Kumanovo, Lipkovo, Rankovci, Kriva Palanka and Kratovo. The members of “21st Century Woman” are organizations of women of different ethnicity and it is financed by the Swedish organization “Kvinna Till Kvinna”.
Part of the activities of “Majka” involve functioning of the second SOS-phone for women victims of violence, opened in 1997 and it functioned for five years. “Majka” actively works on strengthening inter-ethnic relations, especially between women in the multi-national environment of Kumanovo and the surroundings. Some of the activities of this organization also cover projects in education, protection against violence, informing and health.
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