How did we start with the idea of creating a social enterprise?
HOPI Modular started as a project of HOPS – Healthy Options Project Skopje, a citizens’ association that has been working with sex workers and with drug users and their families for more than 20 years. It is the first organization in Macedonia to include the citizens from these marginalized communities. The idea of this project is to provide jobs, to motivate greater commitment among drug users while creating opportunities for reintegration into society.
What is HOPI Modular and its products?
HOPI Modular is thus a social enterprise that makes interior elements from reused or high-quality materials that can be reused many times in the future.
Our workstations decorate the space and provide pleasant working and at the same time a relaxing atmosphere. Reusable cardboard armchairs are easily portable, very comfortable, minimalist, trendy and affordable. Our lamps and chandeliers are handmade by the women from the community.
How can we activate people who are former addicts?
Through the HOPI Modular, HOPS aims at activating people from the community who contribute to the creation of positive policies and strategies for successful rehabilitation and reintegration by providing inclusive jobs. From its beginnings, the company includes people from the community who are HOPS beneficiaries.
For the company needs, people make the elements for the final products – they get engaged in the production process or can gain knowledge that will contribute to being competitive in the labor market, at the same time providing jobs within the social enterprise.
How do we recycle and reuse paper waste for creating sustainable products?
All of the produced elements have already been or will surely be given a second chance to be useful and exceed expectations for their value. We create workstations that contribute to purifying the air in the room and offer a relaxing green decor, bringing us closer to nature through living plants.
The reuse of materials such as cardboard and paper waste, of which some of the products are created symbolically resembles the reuse of the skills that people from this community have but may have been forgotten due to their marginalization. Through this symbolism, our enterprise motives and endorses requalification, improvement, and upgrade in skills and knowledge for greater job competitiveness of drug addicts within the labor market, integrating them into society and creating new job opportunities.
How important it is to employ people from the communities?
The enterprise employs people from the communities, making the entire process of reintegration much easier, thereby providing sustainable solutions for the long-term support and free services which is of great importance to the HOPS users.
