Interity Alpha Omega

This was the first meeting I had with an NGO not in their office, but for good reason. They are changing offices right now and the new one is not set up. Technically, they are still looking for new office space. They lost their last office due to an inability to pay the bills anymore because of a loss of funding. So we met over tea in a local restaurant.

Integrity Alpha Omega is a varied NGO based in Skopje. According to their website, they aim for the “creation of new opportunities for all people, for development and improvement and for education. This organization invests in people, in their capabilities, interests and in their will. The creation of strong integrity among the people, people who will be independent, fulfilled and with healthy character, is the main goal for this ngo.”

They began 4 years ago when they realized that people were complaining without doing anything about it. They constantly heard people state that “you have to be close to the parties” to receive any help from the government. They had a shared vision to face the problems that trouble society head on. When they began searching for donors and projects that interested the founders, they began to narrow down their ideas from “helping society” to  their current specific focus. They focus mostly on healthy living and an active lifestyle. They believe that this is key to a successful future. As part of this, they also help with youth empowerment. When they saw that no one was challenging these kids, they wanted to help them become a better person. They also help with renovation in local schools or hospitals when it is needed. Ideally, they told me, they like to respond to the different problems they see every year.

They have completed many different projects over their four years:

• Weekends of Change: They group youth of different ethnicities together to show them the common language of sports. They help form multi-ethnic clubs that are sports related over these weekends. The kids will spend time together and learn new sports together.
• Go Pink: A walk against breast cancer that they host every May
• Run Towards the Goal: A running fundraiser for different charities. They have sponsored special needs and Roma charities, and school/hospital renovations with this money.
• A triathlon in August to just get people out and about in a healthy way.
• Orphanage Sports Camps: A sports camp for those children in an orphanage. They believe that most of the time the orphans are ignored and with this camp they were able to reach out and not only empower them, but teach them more about sports!

They find it hard to find sponsors in MK because, they claim, many people still have the mindset of “money laundering” organizations. They try to fight this perception by being completely transparent in their use of any money they receive as well as filing timely reports with their donors. In addition, if they (or other NGOs) receive funding it might only be for the specific projects but not for overhead costs. Also, they claimed that due to their local nature it is even harder to get funding for their operational costs. They have run into positions where they are offered services or “things” instead of money for them to provide services.
When asked about the government, they said that in the beginning it was really difficult because they weren’t part of any specific political party and they wanted to keep it that way. Eventually through, according to them, their dedication to their cause and not giving in convinced the locals and government that they were here to stay. Their main issues have been with other city governments (not in Skopje) wanting a cut of the grant; specifically asking as a bribe. (Struga, however, was very supportive and easy to work with.) They haven’t received funding from the MK government, but have had numerous grants from foreign embassies. The US embassy was apparently very helpful in their beginning stage in convincing others that this NGO was important.

They were offered space in the NGO center here by the goverment, but they turned it down. The space is shared with any other NGO that wants to use it. Basically it has free internet and desks, as well as a conference room. But this is not what they were looking for, they wanted a separate space.

They do have big goals for the future. If they can get funding they want to open a day center for youth. They also want to start a program for those youth in an orphanage to provide them with the skills that they will need to live on their own after they turn 18. They want to continue the programs that they have created (such as Weekends of Change) as well as address new problems that they see. But they are currently searching for more funding in order to make these goals come true.