The first day at school is a big event for any child, but for the sisters from North Macedonia, Samira (8 yrs) and Natalija (11 yrs), it is a true milestone. Loza Foundation has fought for their and other paperless children’s rights for several years.
“Without identity papers, children are denied education, healthcare and other social security measures. The fact that Samira and Natalija can finally attend school is a huge relief and success, even though lots of work still needs to be done. Around 3,000 individuals are estimated to be paperless in North Macedonia today. The majority are children, and the number keeps increasing”, says Sabina Grubbeson, Secretary-General at Loza Foundation.
Loza Foundation has accompanied Samira and Natalija on their journey for several years. Their family was the first family to have their own home in the framework of ‘Families with children in extreme poverty’, a project that started in 2020. Before then, they had had to move between temporary sheds and huts, without proper access to electricity or running water. You can read more about this in our March 2022 newsletter.
With a roof over their heads, a front door that can be locked, and a bed to sleep in, it is much easier to tackle tasks like getting a job and making the kids attend school. The operative staff members of Loza Foundation in North Macedonia have supported the family in this transition. Sadly, the two oldest siblings in the family were too old to start regular schooling, yet too young to attend adult education in the evening, and on the job market, they were not classed as old enough either.
“We have noticed this gap on several occasions, as youngsters between 14 and 18 years old are not welcome anywhere, so early intervention is super-important”, says Sabina Grubbeson.
Samira and Natalija were still young and could make up for lost time, but they lacked identity papers from North Macedonia as they were born in Italy, where the family lived for a short spell. You can find the full story in our newsletter from April 2023.
Since the beginning of 2023, Loza Foundation has supported the girls’ parents in the process of, first of all, getting them birth certificates from Italy and then applying for identity papers in North Macedonia. This process has been time-consuming, costly, and practically impossible to go through on your own if you don’t understand the system, cannot read, and don’t have the money to spend on the required travel and expenses.
“At Loza Foundation, we work long-term and we don’t give up. In September last year, the applications for identity papers could finally be submitted. And to ensure the girls wouldn’t fall behind too much in school, we have also funded homeschooling to teach them how to read and count”, says Sabina Grubbeson.
Education is key to breaking the patterns of poverty and alienation that are passed on from generation to generation. Despite Article 28 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) stating that all children have the right to free schooling, according to North Macedonian law, there is no obligation for children lacking North Macedonian identity papers.
Several attempts to get the girls into school sadly failed during the autumn of 2023 and spring of 2024, and their identity papers had yet to be finalised as the summer months passed. But in August of 2024, the school doors suddenly opened, and the children were welcome despite still lacking their identity papers. Thanks to the homeschooling the girls had received, Samira could join third grade with other children of the same age, and from a knowledge perspective, Natalija was only a year behind her peers, so she could join fifth grade.
“Samira and Natalija are so-called pioneer children, i.e., the first in their family to enter the education system despite living in severe socio-economic conditions. When we talk to the girls’ father a few days before starting school, he is resolute that his daughters will go to university in the future. Parental support for the schooling of pioneer children is crucial but sadly rare, so we continuously work on deepening people’s understanding that this is the way out of poverty and vulnerability.
What we are missing now are the girls’ identity papers. The application was submitted more than a year ago, but there has been no progress so far, and they still don’t have the right to healthcare or legal protection. We are hoping this will be solved in a not-too-distant future”, says Sabina Grubbeson.
She explains that moving forward, the authorities in North Macedonia have to prioritise the situation of all paperless individuals to ensure that more people can get out of extreme poverty and integrate into society. They will also need to ensure that schools across the country accept all children, regardless of their legal status.
“Our efforts on the ground are currently crucial to give paperless children the chance of an acceptable future, but we need your support to reach even more.”
The film about extreme poverty
Loza Foundation has produced a film about what it is like to live in extreme and multi-dimensional poverty, in which Natalija and Samira are featured. We are now planning a sequel where their family can tell the audience how their lives have changed by starting work and attending school.
If you want to know what we are up to, what our work is all about and watch the film, please subscribe to the Loza Foundation newsletter. Link to the video “No poverty”
A brief overview of our project ’End Extreme Poverty’
In 2024, we will start a new project to support families with children who live in extreme and multi-dimensional poverty.
With the help of operational staff in the poorest areas of North Macedonia, our project ’End Extreme Poverty’ will strive to lift the people who are right on the margin of society in order for them to be able to work and attend school and thereby raise themselves above the poverty level that the World Bank has set for extreme poverty, which today is 2.15 USD per day.
Loza Foundation is contributing to the Global Goals of the UN for sustainable development, specifically focusing on goal number 1: No Poverty. You can read more about the Global Goals here: THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development
If you want to support Loza Foundation and help us support more children. Please click here for more information.
