Considering we are in the holly month of Ramadan- 2010, same as the last 3 years, the meat company “Uka- Komerc” which is located in the municipality of Saraj, Skopje, donated 250 packages with meat products to the association, in value of 30 Euros each. Knowing that Macedonia is in a deep economical crisis, this donation is very welcomed for our members.
We hope this cooperation will continue in the future.

The local action plan for the municipality of Chair that was prepared during 2007in cooperation between APD Shpresa, Handicap International and the municipality of Chair, forecasted that one of the priorities is to built accesses in front of all the public institutions in the territory of the Municipality of Chair.
The project titled “Equal possibilities for people with disabilities” forecasted 4 different institutions, which were: The elementary schools Liria and Tefeyz, the national Albanian theatre and the retirement home in Chair. However, due to lack of budget, which was secured by the Swiss Agency for Development, we weren’t able to build 4 accesses, so we decided we were going to go with only 2. A decision was brought that the 2 institutions that we were going to make accessible were the Elementary school Tefeyz and the retirement home in Chair.
APD Shpresa started the implementation of this project on 15th of January, 2010, and lasted until 10th of May, 2010. Now, as we can see, we have built 2 access ramps and now the people with disabilities can enter and exit these institutions freely, they can consider themselves equal to everyone else, and that is a true pleasure for the people with disabilities, us as an organization and the municipality of Chair, since these institutions create a different image for the municipality. Also, we need to mention that the municipality of Chair participated with 20% of the total budget of the project.
Of course, we won’t stop here, until the entire local action plan for the municipality of Chair is implemented.

The goal of this project was to give the parents of children with disabilities and people with disabilities, members of Shpresa, a chance to be informed about their guaranteed rights by the laws in Macedonia by a social worker and also hear from a psychologist how to manage and overcome their ordinary problems and stressful situations. Over the 3 months of the project’s implementation, 24 members were able to meet with the phycologist and social worker. Having access to this information should help reduce discrimination, the use of violence in their families and avoid divorces, since divorce is an additional misfortune for children with disabilities.

This project began on October 1st, 2009 and will last until December 31st, 2009 and was financially supported by the Ministry of Labor and Social Politics of the Republic of Macedonia.. Since the interest was great from the parents who attended, we hope that we will be able to find a donor to support the implementation of this project during 2010.

The videos from the summer's IT & English classes are now up on the website.
English Lessons
IT Lessons

During June and July 2009, APD Shpresa implemented a project supported by the Small Project Assistance program, an opportunity made possible by USAID and Peace Corps Macedonia. For 8 weeks of the summer, 9 members attended 2 hour classes on the weekends to learn both English and Information Technology skills.

The classes were taught by Afrim Bajrami, with Blerim Rexhepi assisting students as well. The English lessons covered the beginners level of the spoken language, starting with learning the letter names of the English alphabet, introducing oneself, and basic sentences and questions in the past, present and future tenses.

Students learned to use Microsoft Office software during the IT sessions. The classes gave in depth instruction on how to use MS Word, Publisher and Powerpoint, which are important skills to have for future employment opportunities.

Each session was recorded on video to increase the reach of the project within the community. The recordings were edited into lessons ranging from 5-20 minutes, focusing on the main lessons of the project. All of these lessons were compiled into a DVD and distributed to the students who attended the courses over the summer so that they can practice and review what they have learned. The rest of the DVDs will be given to other members interested in learning more about English and IT, and the lessons will be available on the internet via APD Shpresa’s website in the near future.

November 25, 2009 marked the official end of the project with a small gathering to give out certificates. Sefer Hiseni, a member of APD Shpresa who works in the Municipality of Chair, spoke with the students about his experience living and working in the local community with a disability, empowering the students to continue their efforts to learn and improve their skills.

This project was financially supported by the Macedonian Government, the sector for cooperation with the NGOs and we took the initiative to build 5 accesses in front of 5 different public institutions. Project began implementation on January 2nd and ended on March 27th 2009, and we are convinced that the project was a great success.
We, as an association that treats the problems of the people with disabilities plan to implement these kinds of projects in the future as well, since we are deeply convinced that these projects directly influence the living conditions in their area.

With the purpose to improve the independence and quality of life for people with disabilities in the municipality of Chair, A.P.D. "Shpresa", in cooperation with the French organization "Handicap International", many other organizations, and of course, with strong support from the municipality of Chair, encouraged the creation of the local action plan for the people with disabilities which is entirely based on the United Nations standards.
This project was realized during the year 2007, and was highlighted by it acceptance on December 7th, 2007, when this plan approved by the municipality council.
This project recognized all the problems that preoccupy the people with disabilities in the territory of the Chair municipality, and as it was predicted, the three year period of implementation started. At the beginning of 2008, a contract was signed between A.P.D. Shpresa and the French organization "Handicap International", solely for the implementation of this plan, and during this year, the working group which was predicted to be formed, in cooperation with the representatives of the municipality, did a very successful job and achieved these results:

• With our activities, we built 2 access ramps in front of 2 public institutions;


• APD Shpresa realized a course in field of IT, which lasted 3 months, starting September 10th, 2008 until December 28th, 2008;


• Access for people with disabilities was built in the main entrance of the municipality of Chair, which was built by all the building standards;


• Preparations for the foundation of the information office that will work based on the one-counter system;

It is understandable that we, as an association, the activities for the implementation of the local action plan 2008-2010, will continue during 2009 and we hope that we can achieve bigger and more concrete results.