For Samira and Natalija, starting school was a huge milestone. The Loza Foundation has been working for the rights of undocumented children for several years. But much work remains. Around 3,000 people are estimated to be undocumented in North Macedonia today and most of them are children.
Imagine the delight when Faik, Ramiza, and their ten children could finally leave misery behind and move into a warm home with water and sewage. Faik and Ramiza are also the first parents to commit, through the Loza Foundation’s donation agreement, to ensuring that their children go to school.
Since 2016, Loza Foundation has worked tirelessly to ensure that all the disabled individuals living at the Demir Kapija institution would be allowed to move. Over the last two years, 110 of them have been moved to well-functioning group residences, and now there are approx. 60 people with severe disabilities and illnesses left at the institution.
Watch the documentary film about the development of people with disabilities in North Macedonia.
Tome lived in the Demir Kapija institution for 26 years. Now he has moved to a group home thanks to the EU-funded TIMOR project. No one can tell the story better than those who have experienced life from the inside.
Today as many as 3,000 people are estimated to be living as paperless citizens of North Macedonia, most of them children. Not having an identity makes it impossible to attend school, which effectively is a crime against Article 28 of the , where it is stated that every child has the right to free primary education.
“This is nothing short of a violation of these rights. Parents face unfeasible demands to prove their own and their children’s identity in order to have the right to schooling, health care and social security. This means children miss their chance to learn how to read and count, which, in turn, leads to them being stuck in poverty and social exclusion”, says Pär Rylöv, Chairman, Loza Foundation.
Loza Foundation has been part of EU project ‘TIMOR’ since 2019. The goal is to create group homes in North Macedonia, into which disabled people from the institution in Demir Kapija can move and have a dignified life as part of the local society. Unfortunately, at the end of 2022, this successful EU project will […]
While the eyes of the world turn towards Ukraine, the energy crisis and high inflation, the poorest people are even worse off. The situation is beyond desperate for many of them. Loza Foundation is working to improve the living conditions of families with children currently living in extreme poverty in North Macedonia and is increasing its efforts to deliver humanitarian aid before the winter.
Suzana is 33 years old, and together with her husband Emran, 34, she has six children ranging from three to fifteen years old. Up until the 3rd of August 2022, the family lived on blankets under a bridge in Veles, North Macedonia, and all they collectively owned, apart from their youngest son’s pram, could easily […]
For almost three years, Loza Foundation has been part of an EU project called TIMOR, where the purpose is to develop group homes for disabled people in North Macedonia so they can move out of the antiquated institutions where they have been living. Through this EU project, Loza Foundation came into contact with a local driving force focusing on social enterprising, Daliborka Zlateva, who is starting several, privately managed group homes in 2022.
Towards the end of 2021, Loza Foundation started collaborating with 14 companies where the aim was to work together to reduce extreme poverty and help some of the poorest families in Europe to a sustainable life. The partnership is based on the UN’s Global Goals with a particular focus on Goal no. 1, i.e. No […]