Each year the circle of friendship between the Macedonia Schools Project and its friends widen. We never know who we will touch or what new development will come along.

Key to the program’s success our wonderful donors, boardmembers, volunteers and teaching staff. Summarized below are the main MSP activities for 2014.

Grants

Using funds from the First Methodist Church of Ellensburg and the Oregon Community/Speroff Family foundations we initiated 2 small grant periods. One in the spring and another in September as the new teaching term began.
The spring grants of about $250 each went to:
1. Kosel School for school supplies for each students
2. Goce Delchev primary school in Kuratica. (Ping-Pong table)
3. Bratstvo-School Vanista Building. (Ping-Pong table)
4. Tito School in Struga. (Soccer uniforms)

Kosel students receiving school supplies

The September small grants of approximately $1,100 went for:
1. 3 LTD projectors for 3 village schools under the Tito School’s administration in Struga area
2. A LTD projector & speakers for the Vanista Building at Bratstvo-School
3. A lap-top computer for Bratstvo-Edinstvo School
4. Zivko Cingo School in Velgoshti equipped a new primary school room including a new chalkboard.

BOOKS AND SCHOOL SUPPLIES DONATIONS

Podkrepa members have donated countless boxes of books and school supplies. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough postage of send them immediately so we stagger deliveries throughout the year as we receive donations.

The May 28th box for English Resource Center from Portland, Oregon! We sent five more boxes in October.

The May 28th box for English Resource Center from Portland, Oregon

USA-MACEDONIA VISITS

This year featured several visits by Macedonia School Projects participants!
In May, Dr. Leon Speroff and his wife Sen toured the English Resource Center in Bratstvo-Edinstvo school and played Ping-Pong with his Skopje cousins on the newly donated Ping-Pong table. In doing so he met Vesna Terzioska, a MSP Boardmember, and Boris Luceska, Bratstvo-Edinstvo teacher and advisor to the chess club.
In June MSP Boardmember and teacher Emilijia visited the Pacific Northwest meeting MSP Board members Dr. Speroff, Vasja Jordanova, and Tom Lineham. She also met with Podkrepa members in Portland Oregon along with former Macedonia Based Peace Corps volunteer Dina Kashuba. Also in June Podrekpa chairman, Bob Bouneff and his wife Slyvia visited Ohrid along with their family. They brought along some equipment for the Lasker Chess Club at Bratstvo-Edinstvo school.

MSP VOLUNTEER TEACHING EXPERIENCE

The program was blessed by two incredible American volunteers from Cambridge, MS David Golber and Helen Snively. Arriving in June David and Helen taught adult learners for 2-weeks in Ohrid. They brought considerable energy and spirit into their classes and provided the program some very valuable feedback. As a result, the MSP teachers agreed to expand the volunteer experience to include a few more volunteers for 2015. We interviewed two possible volunteers for 2015.

WEBSITE
Zoran Sofkoski, our Macedonia webmaster has redesigned our website. It looks terrific.