Representatives of the Equality Association held a working meeting with the Mayor of Kumanovo Municipality. At the meeting held on November 28, 2024, at the premises of the Municipality of Kumanovo, the President of the Association Equality for the Affirmation and Promotion of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Gere Tripkov and the project coordinator of the Zen 2.0 Caravan project Ruzica Stojanovska presented to the Mayor Maksim Dimitrievski the portfolio of projects of the Association in the direction of creating policies and measures in the short and long term for the benefit of the population of persons with disabilities, but also of interest to all citizens of the municipality.
Following the signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation between the Association of Equality and the Municipality of Kumanovo (July 2024), this meeting aimed to initiate possible cooperation in the areas of protection of the rights of persons with disabilities, education and cultural and social life, for which readiness was emphasized on both sides.
Among other things, Mayor Maksim Dimitrievski expressed support for the initiated projects of the association of interest to the citizens of the municipality, such as Zen 2.0 Caravan – a project for young leaders from 5 municipalities across Macedonia, Kumanovo, Kisela Voda, Gostivar, Bitola and Strumica, while the officials from the services for creating greater accessibility in the city of Kumanovo informed the representatives of the association about the commitments and measures taken that are successfully implemented in the relevant areas, as well those who are still considered a challenges.
The Municipality of Kumanovo is one of the local governments that is commited to promoting the process of inclusion and greater accessibility for people with disabilities, but also in developing multicultural policies with a special emphasis on the younger generations.
Within the framework of the working visit to the Municipality of Kumanovo of representatives of the Equality Association, the Secondary School “Pero Nakov” was also visited, where more than 10 people with different types of disabilities are taking part in education. The visit to the school was led by the defectologist Lenche J. Miloshevska. Within the school, adequate accessibility is provided in the external surroundings, but there is a need for further improvement of the infrastructure for greater physical accessibility, which was pointed out to the representatives of the Municipality of Kumanovo.
The Equality Association, starting from 2025, will continuously act to create greater accessibility in education, enabling greater participation in the educational process of youth with disabilities, including physical accessibility, accessibility to educational materials, accessible toilets and appropriate access to youth with disabilities from services in educational institutions at all levels.
