Making a Mozaik in Macedonia

Multi-ethnic kindergarten children participating in Mozaik activities.

This past October, after 12 years of successfully reaching over 850 kindergarten children in nine multi-ethnic municipalities, SFCG achieved the full institutionalisation of its Mozaik educational program as all Mozaik groups were integrated in the educational system and Mozaik teachers’ salaries were included in on the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy payroll. The innovative Mozaik educational program introduced a unique model of bilingual and multicultural pre-schooling in public kindergartens, bringing together children from Albanian, Turkish, Serbian, and Macedonian communities in a country where education is highly segregated along ethno-linguistic lines.

Reaching over 2000 beneficiaries, the Mozaik program socializes children from 3 to 6 years old, teaching them to be free from prejudices and stereotypes towards their diverse classmates, while also influencing their kindergarten staff, parents, family members, and local education authorities, thereby bringing a larger change in attitudes within the pre-school education system in Macedonia. As a result of the program, the children attending Mozaik groups have shown high levels of tolerance towards the opinions, needs and acts of other children, regardless of their ethnic background; and most of them expressed a high level of sensitivity towards others in conflict situations, thereby demonstrating understanding and practical implementation of conflict resolution techniques. For more information about Mozaik and our programs in Macedonia and Kosovo, please click here.