As part of our efforts to make youth work accessible in rural areas in October and November 2025 we delivered activities for non-formal education of young people in the Municipality of Mogila. Our team of youth workers held a series of three workshops in the Goce Delchev Primary School in the Municipality of Mogila. The workshops aimed to strengthen the capacities of the student organization in this school so that students themselves can create and implement initiatives that contribute to creating a safer school environment.

The workshops were attended by the presidents and deputies of all classes, as well as the school’s children’s ombudsman, students aged 12 to 15. At the beginning, they talked about how they understand communication, what verbal and non-verbal communication means to them and how these elements affect their relationships. They also talked about what constitutes conflict, how they recognize it and where it is right to report it. Then the students practiced decision-making – individually and in groups – and analyzed the factors that influence a group communication to be successful and useful.

This was followed by a session with a discussion on how to hold meetings, ways of keeping minutes, how to process agenda items and how to draw conclusions. The students described the meetings they had had so far in the school and compared them with the good practices they had learned. Each class was given a task – in pairs to draft a petition or official request to the Principal, based on a need that their classmates had highlighted as significant.

The next workshop was where the children were introduced to the basics of research work. The students learned to choose and use tools for collecting information from larger groups of children, such as surveys, questionnaires and interviews. Each team conducted research in the school, processed the results and presented them at the last workshop. As an additional activity, they drew their “ideal school”, and then compared the idea with the real situation, analyzing what could be improved. This exercise encouraged them to think about a student initiative that would have the greatest significance for their school.

In the discussions, most of the students expressed a desire for the initiative to be creative and supportive. Thus was born the idea for “Comics that Change” – the creation of comics by students under the mentorship of Macedonian language and art teachers, with the aim of creating a student comic book – a collection of topics important to the school and the community: student participation, violence prevention and ecology. These will then be printed on paper and will be part of the regular program of the school’s patron saint holiday, which is celebrated every spring and is a significant event in this local community. The overall initiative in this way helps to raise the level of safety, trust and openness between students and professional service and contributes to a better school environment for future generations.

In order to promote non-formal education in rural areas, YMCA cooperates with various partners. These activities enter in a broader initiative of the Coalition of Youth Organizations SEGA, in partnership with the Macedonian Center for Civic Education, the First Children’s Embassy in the World Megjashi and SmartUp – Social Innovation Lab, with support from the Pestalozzi Children’s Foundation, which is being implemented in the period September 2023 – August 2026.

Thanks to the support of Y’s Men International, we are in a position to implement a series of new workshops in other rural areas as well.