YANA: Marking the National Day of Service and Remembrance

CRIS Studiorium, SWT Alumni Macedonia and the Youth Council of the US Embassy in Macedonia, supported by the US Embassy in Macedonia, organized the first humanitarian action as part of the project You Are Not Alone (YANA). On September 7 (Saturday) simultaneously at 3 locations – Berovo, Strumica and Kavadarci – groups of volunteers from our organizations spent a day with the kids from the small children’s homes in Berovo and Kavadarci, and the children with special needs in Strumica.

The goal of this action was to mark 9/11, the National Day of Service and Remembrance, the day when the American president Barack Obama called the youth from the whole world to help those who need it the most.

In Berovo, the volunteers beautified the garden of the local Children’s home, and together with the kids installed a wooden fence. In Kavadarci, the kids had the opportunity, together with the volunteers, to decorate their rooms while in the afternoon, thanks to the Creative Documentary Film Festival MakeDox, they watched a short thematic documentary film and joined a film-related moderated discussion. From 12h00 to 14h00 on the main square in Strumica, 20 children with special needs had the opportunity to express their creativity through drawings on the subject “In my world”. During the event, the passers-by donated money and other things which will help “Message”, a partner organization of this project, to provide technical equipment for the Day care center in Strumica. The drawn artworks will be offered to Macedonian companies that would be interested to support this initiative.

Press clipping of the humanitarian action