Macedonian and Balkan Folk Music

Search for Common Ground in Macedonia

In 1994, Search for Common Ground began work in Macedonia (SCGM) to strengthen interethnic relations and help prevent violence. In 1999, war erupted in neighboring Kosovo and nearly 400,000 refugees poured across the border, intensifying ethnic tensions and making worse an already bad economy. Many observers have said that SCGM's projects made an important contribution to weathering the crisis. After the tensions subsided, SCGM continued working toward cooperative solutions, resolving conflicts, preventing violence and expanding activities meant to foster regional cooperation.

In 2006, SCGM is focusing on media, education, arts and culture. It has entered the second phase of Bridges for the New Balkans, a regional interethnic media projects with print, television and radio broadcast components. It hopes to have Mozaik, a unique model of multilingual and multicultural pre-school education, integrated formally into the Macedonian public education system.

Additionally, SCGM is continuing to develop various outreach activities based on Nashe Maalo (Our Neighborhood), a nationally broadcast television series for Macedonian children. These activities include live theatre, puppet theatre, magazine, a parent-teacher guide, a music CD and a knowledge quiz. [All previous text summarized from SCGM's web site.]

SCGM is a project of partner organizations Search for Common Ground and the European Centre for Common Ground. Established in 1982 and 1995 respectively as non-profit nongovernmental organizations, both institutions share a vision of transforming how the world deals with conflict: away from adversarial approaches toward cooperative solutions.

Search for Common Ground in Macedonia
Albert Švajcer 6
1000 Skopje
Republic of Macedonia

E-mail: Vilma Venkovska Milchev, Country Director

Web Site (Macedonia Program)