The organization “Assistance for the Persons with Disability and the Poor” was established during the Kosovo crisis in 1999, when quite a few Roma came as refugees to Prilep. The aim of the organization is to help the socially disadvantaged. The organization was given a building that was previously used for drying tobacco leaves by the Tobacco Company. This building with the assistance of donors was converted into an educational center and training was organized for supporting and empowering marginalized groups of people to become employable. Years later, in order to achieve greater results, the organization, in line with Article 5 of the Law on Civil Organizations, started commercial activities where profits were reinvested in the mission of the organization. So, the pellet production equipment, which was purchased with funds from an Austrian donor, now produces 80 tons of pellets per month with the assistance of socially marginalized people and people with disabilities, who are working on their production.
Social entrepreneurship is a solution for groups of people exposed to social risks, excluded from society, while protected companies are a solution for people with more severe disabilities
“The goal is to achieve full social inclusion of marginalized and socially excluded groups — we want to help them get involved in the labor market and not just employ them in our enterprise. Therefore, our goal is to provide newer machines and establish a center for education and training where, in addition to high school students from wood processing and chemical schools, we could also train marginalized and socially excluded people. They will be trained free of charge for wood processing and recycling. Here they will acquire theoretical and practical knowledge and will have the opportunity to obtain a valid certificate recognized by the Ministry of Education proving that they have a professional occupation. This will make them competitive in the labor market.”
But the Organization’s creativity does not end here. While having a conversation with our team leader, Barbara Sadowska they came up with the idea to procure presses for baling plastic bottles. This activity can be implemented in the otherwise unproductive six-month period of the year, when wood processing is not an option.
