July 3, 2024

On June 26, after the completed education of peer educators and the largest peer education held on the importance of mental health in Bitola with a coverage of over 2000 students from elementary and secondary schools in Bitola, as well as in several faculties, the final promotional event of the project.

It was a several-hour event, which consisted of presenting the project results, but also a presentation of the additional intellectual and creative results that resulted from the project activities.

The promotional event began with a presentation of the steps and phases through which the project moved and how all the modules were through which children and young people from primary, and secondary schools and students were organized. The discussion was opened by Viktor Iliev, president of YMCA Bitola, followed by Prof.Ph.D. Sasho Kochankovski about how the atmosphere was built among the participants of the peer education modules and the social impact that was realized on the involved educators.

In this section, the work of the two support groups (groups for persons with disabilities in the family and groups for single-parent families) was shown. The coordinators who led the groups, Renata Dimanovska for the group with single-parent families and Martina Durljanova for the group of families with persons with disabilities, gave presentations for them.

Then the manual was shown according to which the work modules for children and young people, as well as for vulnerable groups, were conducted. The explanation for the manual was given by Jovce Krsteski, who in cooperation with Prof.Ph.D Sasho Kochankovski was preparing the appearance of the manual.

Before awarding certificates for completed peer education modules, a group of peer educators who have been actively preparing in the past period performed in front of the present audience with their musical score. From the mental health topics they worked on the past year, they created their text and under the guidance of Jasna Dimitrovska, they managed to create their melody for that text and sang their entire idea in front of the audience at this final event.

In the end, there was the awarding of certificates of participation and the sharing of gratitude to everyone who participated and helped this project throughout the year. The Mayor of the Municipality of Bitola, Toni Konjanovski, also addressed some of the young people who participated in the activities, as well as participants from the support groups who emphasized the need to continue this type of activities in the city, because there is no enough for this type of work with marginalized groups. offer at the level of the Municipality of Bitola.

The event took place on the premises of Europe House in Bitola, where most of the peer educators were present, of course also their peers, parents, some of the professional services from the schools, representatives of civil society organizations, and representatives from the municipality. The representatives from the Municipality gave words of praise for the invested effort, work, and energy for this project to be completed properly and to contribute to enriching and encouraging interest in this issue at a higher and more professional level. With the publication of the manual, Bitola as a city also joins the trend with its contribution to the topic of how to work with peers on topics important to their mental health and well-being. The manual is free and can be downloaded at the following link.