Comic workshop (17-18.05.2014)

RROMA continued with the annual comic workshop in frame of the MTV SAF project. The youngsters that participated in the workshop worked in creating comics with a very simple message "AIDS doesn't know about discrimination...protect yourself!". Under the guidance of Dimitrij Mihajlovski, various interesting comics were created.

RROMA will published all comics and combine them with the already existing comics from the previous years. All the comics will be available online.

Informative meetings HIV/AIDS in Radovis and Strumica

Using the already established contacts, RROMA run two informative workshops yesterday as part of the MTV SAF project. Our informative meetings were lead by Urmeta and Edvin. The meetings  were interesting and interactive, with a lot of fun, shared information and condoms :)

HIV awareness is important, not only to protect yourself, but also those around yourself. As, we all know AIDS doesn't know about discrimination!

Informative HIV/AIDS meeting in Kicevo

The 25-th of April was very informative day for the youngsters of the high school "Mirko Mileski" in Kicevo. Sejhan Memedov and Gonul Aliova were the youngsters that organized the sixth informative meeting about HIV/AIDS awareness. The youngsters talked in front of a mixed group of over 30 students, presenting proper condom usage, HIV/AIDS protection and sharing information about different STD's.

Informative HIV/AIDS meeting in Bitola

On the 18-th of April, two youngsters from the Regional Roma Educational Youth Association organized and run the fifth informative meeting about HIV/AIDS protection. The meeting was held in the high school "Taki Daskalo" in Bitola. Over 30 youngsters attended the meeting, listening to Juse Rustemov's and Gul Aliova's presentation and advises.

Informative HIV/AIDS meeting in Prilep

On the 11-th of April in the High school “Gorce Petrov” in Prilep, the youth held the fourth informative meeting. This meeting was lead by Selina Mustafova and Emina Saliova, who did an excellent job. Selina and Emina informed the youngsters how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and STD’s and how to use a condom properly. Over 20 young people attended the meeting for 45 min.

Informative HIV/AIDS meeting in Gevgelija

On the 21-st of February in the High school “Josif Josifovski” in Gevgelija, the youth held the third informative meeting. This meeting was lead by Melita Destanovska and Makfira Demirovska, who stepped in as replacement for one of the trainers. Melita and Makfira informed the youngsters how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and STD’s and how to use a condom properly. Over 30 young people attended the meeting.

Informative HIV/AIDS meeting in Kavadarci

The second informative meeting about HIV/AIDS was organized in Kavadarci on the 28-th of January with the students from the High school “Dobri Daskalov”. Like in the previous meetings our youth had a lot of help from the director from the High school, they inform the students to attend our informative meeting. There was around 34 students who got inform how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and STD’s and how to use a condom properly. There was a good interaction and during the meeting, the facilitators (Nalan Memedova and Makfira Demirovska) delivered info materials to the youngsters.

Informative HIV/AIDS meeting in Negotino

On the 26-th of December in the High school “Cyril and Methodius” in Negotino, the youth of RROMA held the first informative meeting in the frame of our HIV/AIDS awareness campaign. Our facilitators, Elena Stojcevska and Seven Ashmedov were greeted by the Director of the school, who helped them in organizing the youth to attend the meeting. It was an interesting and interactive meeting, with a lot of shared information and condoms.

Резултати од новите истражувања!

Од Јуни 2012, РРОМА продолжи со кампањата „Сидата не знае да дискриминира ... Заштити се!“ во новите општини Прилеп, Битола, Кавадарци, Неготино, Гевгелија, Кичево и Струга. Младите членови на РРОМА истражуваа во средните училишта на овие општини, односно ги анкетираа своите врсници во областа на заштита од ХИВ/Сида и ППИ.

Резултатите се следниве:

Неготино

Битола

Гевгелија

Кавадарци

Кичево

Прилеп

Струга

Учесниците во истражувањето беа анкетирани од Едвин Салиов, Мерлин Јакупова, Урмета Арифовска, Моника Јакупова, Фетија Демировска и Игбал Алиова.

New research started!

The youth of RROMA have started the new researches in seven new municipalities: Bitola, Prilep, Kavadarci, Negotino, Struga, Kicevo and Gevgelija.

The research is to get data about the knowledge of the young people regarding HIV/AIDS. The survey tests the knowledge of the young people in 4 areas or categories.

1. Basic knowledge of the target group about HIV, AIDS and STD's;

2. Opinions about HIV + people;

3. Basic knowledge about transmission and infection of HIV;

4. Basic knowledge of the target group when it comes to protection.

The research will end this week and the data will be published soon on the blog.

Informative HIV/AIDS meeting in Radovis

On the 23-th of May in the High school “Kosta Susinov” in Radovis was held sixth informative meeting in the frame of our HIV/AIDS awareness campaign. Our facilitators, Anife Sakirova and Sendil Aliovski were greeted by the Psychologist of the school, who helped them in organizing the youth to attend the meeting. It was an interesting and interactive meeting, with a lot of shared information and condoms.

Informative HIV/AIDS meeting in Strumica

The fifth informative meeting about HIV/AIDS was organize in Strumica on the 23-th of May with the students from the High school “Jane Sandanski”. Like in the others meetings our youth had a lot of help from the director from the High school, they inform the students to attend our informative meeting. There was around 25 students who got inform how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and STD’s and how to use a condom properly. There was a good interaction and during the meeting facilitators (Fetija Demirovska and Redifa Edipova) delivered info materials to the youngsters.

Informative HIV/AIDS meeting in Stip

On the 22-th of May in the High school “Dimitar Mirsaciev” in Stip the fourth informative meeting was held with the youngsters. This meeting was lead by Edvin Saliov and Vanesa Abdulova. For this meeting our youth had help from the vice-director of the school to organize the students. Edvin and Vanesa inform the youngsters how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and STD’s and how to use a condom properly. It was interesting when in the middle of the workshop vice-director showed-up in the class room and informs us that there is a group of students who weren’t invited for this meeting, they skipped class to hear more about this topic. During the meeting, info materials and condoms were delivered to the youngsters.

Informative HIV/AIDS meeting in Sv. Nikole

The third informative meeting regarding HIV/AIDS prevention was held on the 15-th of May in the facilities of the High school “Koco Racin” in Sv. Nikole. The Director of the school greeted our facilitators and brought them in the class-room were the students had a biology class and the topic of that class was about STD’s. The RROMA youngsters Anife Sakirova and Emran Saidov had a really hard task, because the students had learnt about HIV/AIDS in previous class and they wanted to show to our facilitators that they have knowledge about that, but our facilitators made it easier for the teacher, by explaining to the students how to protect themselves from the STD’s. Anife and Emran delivered info materials about HIV/AIDS and condoms to the youngsters.

Informative HIV/AIDS meeting in Delcevo

On the 10-th of May in the High school Metodi Mitevski – Brico in Delcevo, RROMA held the second informative meeting in the frame of our HIV/AIDS awareness campaign. Urmeta Arifovska and Igbal Aliova were facilitators of this meeting and they had a lot of help from the psychologist from the school that helped them to inform and organize the students. It was interesting that all of the students were girls and maybe that was one of the reasons to have a very open, positive and interactive discussion. The girls got the chance to get informed about HIV/AIDS and the STD’s, but also to learn about proper condom usage. They had a lot of questions to our facilitators and they gave them proper answers. Urmeta and Igbal delivered info materials about the AIDS/HIV and condoms to the girls. At the end, some of the students showed interest in how they can get involved in our activities.

Informative AIDS/HIV meeting in Pehcevo

On the 28-th of April in the facilities of the High School “Aco Ruskovski”, the youngsters that were trained in the frame of the project, held an informative meeting with the youth from Pehcevo.

Before the meeting started the youngsters were greeted by the Pedagogic of this school, who also helped to our youth to organize the meeting. There were around 30 youngsters who attend the meeting.

The RROMA youngsters Fetija and Aljus started the meeting. There was interactive discussion. They delivered info materials about AIDS/HIV and condoms to the youngsters.   

At the end Fetija and Aljus gave to the students to fill an evaluation form and they received positive feedback about the workshop.  

Demographic research

Issue:

In the Republic of Macedonia, there exists a generally low level of awareness about issues of and relating to HIV/AIDS/STDs. This issue will be addressed by expanding our current MTV SAF campaign of HIV/AIDS/STDs educational trainings, activities and workshops to an additional 16 municipalities in the Republic of Macedonia over the next three years and to also include Advocacy/Lobbying trainings. The municipalities selected have the largest Roma population throughout the nation. Roma is a minority in the Republic of Macedonia and the group is associated with early marriages and low awareness/access to public health institutions and their benefits. For this reason, Roma communities will be targeted in our campaign but our trainings are not exclusive to only Roma participants. However, the youth leading the trainings and workshops will be mainly comprised of Roma youngsters. Trainings will be completed in three phases (in addition to our current initial phase which is soon finished) and each phase will be cumulative with our previous phase’s volunteers training the next group, in the end having over 440 trained and mobile youngsters. Each phase will last the duration of a year’s time. At the conclusion of our campaign, the youth will approach their local governments and school boards and advocate for them to conduct HIV/AIDS/STD workshops regularly in their respective communities and on a national level in the final phase. The Republic of Macedonia has written policies on these issues, however they are not being implemented correctly. For this reason, we feel it is necessary to include advocacy in our campaign to make it sustainable in the future after the conclusion of our project.

This will increase the awareness level in 22 municipalities throughout our country and be sustainable by having each community take over responsibility to continue to address HIV/AIDS/STD issues independently from RROMA’s initial trainings.

Background Information / Demographics:

HIV/AIDS/STD awareness levels:

· After consulting the leading research institution on HIV/AIDS/STD related statistics in the Republic of Macedonia, UNAID.org, it is evident that the database available on accurate and current statistics is quite limited and incomplete. Many of the categories available for analyses state “no data available”. This is why our campaign will include data collection through the distribution and analysis of a pre/post test questionnaire as well as general distribution of informative brochures in each community with which we will be working.

· According to UNAIDS, just over 20% of youth have a general knowledge of higher risk sex, condom use and testing (UNAIDS.org). This again reinforces the need for educational workshops in our nation.

· Additionally, the percentage of young people aware of how to get tested for HIV is just over 2% and limited mainly to the female youth population (UNAIDS.org).

Existing Relevant Government Policies:

· The Republic of Macedonia has a “National Youth Policy” which does include a subheading under ‘health and prevention’ on issues of HIV/AIDS prevention. This also consists of a national strategy on HIV/AIDS prevention as well as a program for protection against HIV/AIDS, supported by the Global Fund. The listed strategy to accomplish their goal is to raise awareness through public media as well as information provided to universities, schools and NGO’s about the consequences of HIV/AIDS locally and world-wide. Additionally, they will provide information to these institutions on prevention methods (SEGA.ORG.MK).

· This policy is not being implemented as it is outlined in the Action Plan provided. This will be proven through the assessment of the knowledge level of students prior to our trainings in their schools. If the level is overwhelmingly low, it is safe to assume that such policies have not actually been implemented in school curriculums. For this reason, our campaign will put pressure on local and national policy makers to implement these policies. If they see youth as active and interested participants in relation to these topics, perhaps they will enforce the policies with more urgency.

· The organization, HERA (Health Education and Research Association), based out of our country’s capital city of Skopje, has been doing significant research in the field of HIV/AIDS research and awareness. A partnership with them would be most beneficial to us, and potentially them as well, as we begin our research and expand our campaign to surrounding municipalities.

· Geographic Region (Separated into phases by start and end date of each group of municipalities.):

These municipalities were selected strategically as they have the largest Roma populations throughout the country. As our project aims at increasing the knowledge level particularly, but not exclusively, in Roma communities, these municipalities were the most promising and ideal for our campaign.

· Phase One: (June 2010 - June 2011) Berovo, Kočani, Kratovo, Probištip, Veles, Vinica.

· Phase Two: (July 2011 - June 2012) Delčevo, Kriva Palanka, Pehčevo, Radoviš, Štip, Strumica, Sveti Nikole.

· Phase Three: (July 2012 – June 2013) Bitola, Gevgelija, Gostivar, Kavadarci, Negotino, Prilep, Tetovo

· Phase Four: (July 2013 – June 2014) Kumanovo, Skopje

· Stakeholders/Outline:

o The main stakeholders of our campaign are the members of our youth NGO, RROMA (Regional Roma Educational Youth Association). We will utilize our current members which include over 40 youth from the north eastern region of the Republic of Macedonia. They will initially be the ones to distribute the questionnaires around each community as well as informative brochures. Around half of them will be trained in order to be able to conduct trainings on their own to their peers in high schools around our region. We will then need to select youth in other municipalities outside of our region in the succeeding phases. These youth will be identified through meeting with young Roma leaders in the high schools we will be working with. We will meet with them and determine who has the characteristics necessary to be effective leaders and trainers in each additional phase of the campaign.

o The same methodology will be used in order to determine which youth will participate in the initial Advocacy/Lobbying training. Again, these youth will be trained and then transfer the knowledge obtained to their peers until we have around 22 trained youngsters who can mobilize around 440 youngsters, who will be able to approach local governing bodies and come together to present our findings on a national scale at the conclusion of our campaign.

· Other external stakeholders outside of our NGO include:

o MTV and the Staying Alive Foundation who provide us with funding as well as material and informational resources for our trainings.

o Local municipalities: potential to aid us in our campaign and implement public policy changes to include HIV/AIDS/STDs workshops on a local level after the conclusion of our campaign.

o Local school boards: potential to make curriculum changes to include HIV/AIDS/STD educational classes for their students, making our project sustainable.

o Other NGOs across our country also involved in HIV/AIDS/STDs related issues. This includes but is not limited to the following organizations:

· Local Red Cross Organizations

· Other Roma NGOs around our country

· H.E.R.A.: Health Education and Research Association

· Citizens’ Association, EGAL

Demographics of Municipal Populations:

Municipality	Total Population (2009)	Population ages 15-19 (2009)	Population ages 20-24 (2009)	Population ages 15-24 (2009)
Phase One
Berovo	13,464	912	1,052	1964
Kočani	38,172	2,593	2,832	5,425
Kratovo	9,917	696	737	1433
Probištip	15,734	1,106	1,197	2,303
Veles	55,071	3,713	4,300	8,013
Vinica	19,502	1,459	1,538	2,997
Phase Two
Delčevo	17,055	1,148	1,348	2,496
Kriva Palanka	20,461	1,397	1,621	3,018
Pehčevo	5,232	368	367	735
Radoviš	28,612	2,295	2,443	4,738
Štip	48,382	3,186	3,800	6,986
Strumica	55,910	3,822	4,404	8,226
Sveti Nikole	18,176	1,236	1,506	2,742
Phase Three
Bitola	93,689	5,970	7,148	13,118
Gevgelija	22,913	1,378	1,685	3,063
Gostivar	82,425	8,099	7,774	15,873
Kavadarci	38,994	2,504	2,944	5,448
Negotino	19,405	1,389	1,544	2,933
Prilep	76,463	5,075	5,682	10,757
Tetovo	89,331	8,155	7,995	16,150
Phase Four
Kumanovo	106,993	8,169	8,650	16,819
Total Pop.	875,901	64670	70,567	135237

*Statistics provided by <www.stat.gov.mk>.Map of Municipalities of the Republic of Macedonia: