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Report for the Visit of Ljubanci

On May 12, 2011, five members of the First Children’s Embassy in the World Megjashi visited the shelter center in Ljubanci. This center is settled 20 km away from Skopje, on lower parts of Skopska Crna Gora Mountain.

The children and their parents welcomed us very well. According to them there are 53 people in there, 42 of them are children. They also said that they were not satisfied with the bad conditions and the lack of care that they receive by Centre for Social Work (CSW).

The fact that worries us the most is the neglection of the children rights to education and health care. Since one year none of the children has got the chance to go to school, while the dormitory in the Primary School Goce Delcev is almost empty for several years until now. Educational institutions and the CSW should support particularly those children with educational and social problems, and those coming from dysfunctional families in order to foster their personal development and to prevent them from being exploited or left behind compared to their peers. However, the children from Ljubanci still do not attend any school.

Health care for the children is in a disastrous state in Ljubanci. No doctor is available, and the ambulance rarely shows up, unless it is extremely urgent.

The distance of Ljubanci to Skopje makes it almost impossible for the children to visit a doctor or attend medical checks as it is too long to walk and no vehicle is available. Moreover, the families have no money for medical examinations and treatments and the parents also said us that the milk powder they received caused diarrhoea and no fresh milk was given for five months.

In order to solve these problems FCEWM contacted the Ombudsman and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. We hope that the government will take all the necessary steps in order to protect the rights of the children.