The Centre for Multicultural Understanding and Co-operation founded in 1996 is a non-profit, non government organization dedicated to the promotion of inter-ethnic, inter-faith and inter-cultural tolerance and co-operation in "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia". The fundamental motivation force behind all of our activities is the creation of mutual understanding and respect among all ethnic and religious groups. To this end, our main goal is to foster ethnic and religious tolerance by increasing contact among different ethnic and religious groups, teach techniques of conflict prevention and resolution, and enhance appreciation of diversity. We believe, that our work is essential for a lasting peace and a pluralistic democracy in our country. We are an independent organization, drawing financial, material and moral support from various individuals and donor organizations world-wide. We promote inter-ethnic and religious tolerance in our nation in the following ways: - By supporting programs and projects which help to foster ethnic and religious tolerance with financial, technical and moral support
- By educating people to honor and respect the religious and cultural differences among the different ethnic groups
- By decreasing ignorance, suspicion and prejudices among different ethnic and religious groups by education
- By increasing contact and collaboration among groups in conflict
- By building conflict resolution and management skills among individuals and groups and encouraging work on issues of common interest
Project examples - "Multicultural Mosaic"
Our country is a multi-ethnic, multi-faith, multi-cultural country, where different ethnic groups live together, but in parallel lines. So, they do not know much about each other's tradition, habits, everyday behavior etc. Therefore there is a lot of misinformation, stereotypes and prejudices among the population of all different ethnic groups. These are the reasons why the organization puts in the centre of its activities the work with young people, giving priority to their democratic education and mutual familiarizing as a unique possibility for bringing up new generations without the burden of stereotypes. The main goals of this project are to find out ways and means to overcome the barriers among young people of different ethnic groups by fostering common language of living together in harmony and understanding. Language awareness training, intercultural learning, intercultural communication and bilingual education were in the centre of the project. It was our aim to adapt these approaches for the situation in our country that they can be used later in different schools and for social activities. As there were hardly any materials in these fields, neither in Macedonian or in Albanian language, these materials have a pilot function. The series of meetings and youth camps "multicultural mosaic" brought together young people from different language backgrounds for common workshops, lectures and leisure time activities. - "Come to Talk about it"
The project's goal was to establish a dialogue at local level among the citizens of the towns where the ethnic composition is mixed. The need for this kind of dialogue arose from the fact that everything in the country was divided in closed national circles. Three public discussions were held in each of the five towns, Debar, Tetovo, Gostivar, Kumanovo and Struga. Prominent intellectuals, journalists, politicians and sociologists from different ethnic background participated in the local discussions. Their role was not to present previously prepared thesis, but to be co-speakers to the citizens and to help them to search for common ground in establishing dialogue. Such public discussions on topics as "multiculturality and the media", "the role of the media in inter-ethnic relations", "tolerance", "equality and difference" or "open society" were for the first time held in the country, so they raised great interest, especially among the media, which was one of the goals of the events. All local electronic media in the area broadcasted the entire discussions and comments about the events among the local citizens which lasted for days.
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