Kocho Racin boulevard
number 30-1/3
1000 Skopje
North Macedonia
- Others
Our association is a non-profit and non-governmental organization that works in the field of social protection. We started as an informal group in the year 2013, we continued our work as a part of an association, which was engaged in several different fields of work, and finally on January 9th, 2015, we established an independent legal entity with the title „Kindness”, exclusively for the assistance of people who are members of socially vulnerable groups. We operate on a national level, and we visit families in several cities and rural areas on the entire territory of our country, with the focus of our activities being in Skopje. During its organizational development Kindness has been going through dynamic development and in only a few years, it is becoming an important stakeholder in the field of social protection, with the focus of our work gradually shifting from dealing with humanitarian aid to tackling homelessness, employment and providing other social services. From the beginning of this year until now, our organization has a staff of six employees, and 27 volunteers. We have at least 20 long time partners and associate organizations from the business, public and civil sector, and we are members of four networks. Our sources of funding include institutional donations, grants from the local government institutions and from international grantors, as well as donations from individual citizens and families, as well as companies and other organizations. The total revenues of Kindness in the year 2023 amounted to 2.083.865 denarii or almost 35.000 euros.
Our vision is to live in a society without poverty, where there is acceptance, inclusion and equal opportunities for homeless and socially disadvantaged citizens. The mission of Kindness is continuous education, assistance and support for the homeless and socially disadvantaged people in the process of their resocialization and reintegration. Our strategic objectives are: 1. To reduce poverty. We will achieve this objective by conducting visits directly to the places where the homeless reside and to homes of the socially disadvantaged families and individuals, we will identify their problems, and inform and encourage civil activism to collect donations for these citizens. 2. To reduce unemployment. We will achieve this objective by identifying the homeless and socially disadvantaged persons who are fit for work and who want to get a job, and by supporting them to increase their competitiveness in the labor market. In addition, our association will directly employ some of them in our program activities. 3. To reduce homelessness. We will contribute to solving the issue of homelessness with housing programs, by providing economical living spaces for homeless families and individuals. We will connect individuals and businesses with these people to help them renovate their homes or build new ones. 4. To improve the situation of homeless and socially disadvantaged persons. In order to achieve this goal, Kindness will work on redirection, counseling and connection of homeless and socially disadvantaged persons and will provide them with psychosocial support. 5. Organizational development of Kindness. By achieving this goal, it will be possible to increase the number of users that we serve, increase the volume of services we provide and of the humanitarian aid that we give them, and also to diversify our work, that is, we will be able to provide new related services that we do not currently offer to our users. The growth and development of our organization will contribute to the achievement of our vision, our mission, and other strategic goals of Kindness.
Past and present donor projects: 1. Mobilization of citizens and local communities to support and assist the homeless and socially disadvantaged during the winter period of 2017/2018 2. Collecting funds for assistance and support to the homeless and the poor. This project was funded by the IPA program of the EU, through a re-granting scheme managed by the association KONEKT 3. Restoring the dreams to tackle loneliness. This international project was part of the ERASMUS+ program and it was implemented together with partners from six other European countries on topics related to loneliness in homeless and socially disadvantaged persons 4. Social economy without borders was an international project financed by the Visegrad fund which was implemented in partnership with the Barka foundation from Poland and eight more partners from North Macedonia, Czechia and Hungary 5. Institutional support by the Civica Mobilitas program during the period 2019 – 2022, for capacity building of our organization 6. Mobilization of the community in the fight against hunger. This project was implemented in partnership with the Journalists for human right and was financed by the IPA program of the EU, with the mediation of the WSS effect network 7. Mobilization of the citizens and the local communities in the Skopje region for support and assistance of the homeless and socially disadvantaged in 2018 8. Mobilization of the citizens and the local communities in the Skopje region for support and assistance of the homeless and socially disadvantaged in 2019 9. Mobilization of the citizens and the local communities in the Skopje region for support and assistance of the homeless and socially disadvantaged in 2020 10. Mobilization of the citizens and the local communities in the Skopje region for support and assistance of the homeless and socially disadvantaged in 2021 11. Mobilization of the citizens and the local communities in the Skopje region for support and assistance of the homeless and socially disadvantaged in 2022 12. Action for assistance and support of the homeless and socially disadvantaged citizens in conditions of a crisis with the pandemic of COVID-19 13. „Take care” is a project financed by the government of Austria that Kindness is implementing in partnership with Macedonian Karitas and ADDR Sonce from Tetovo. This project is about the empowerment of the most vulnerable categories of citizens through their housing, psychosocial support, providing them with legal and medical aid, and organizing training and workshops for them to acquire basic life skills. 14. Building international bridges – social entrepreneurship as a tool for local economic empowerment is a project financed by the Visegrad fund, with 14 civic organizations and municipalities from five countries participating in this project. 15. „Take care II” is a project financed by the government of Austria that Kindness is implementing in partnership with Macedonian Karitas and ADDR Sonce from Tetovo. This project is about housing the homeless in North Macedonia and providing them with integrated services to empower them and reintegrate them into our society.
We can contribute to Ana Lind Network in our country in the area of the community development, by improving the social protection of the most vulnerable citizens. We can offer our expertise, experience, connections and other resources for the promotion of the network in front of the various stakeholders, such as government institutions, companies, NGOs, citizens and international institutions.
We want to increase our networking and partnership with organizations that work in similar fields of intervention as we do. Furthermore, we want to exchange ideas, experiences and good practices in order to increase our social impact and to improve the conditions of our end users.