Blagica Dimitrovska from the association “Inkluziva”, says that although ecology is not a priority of their association, it is, however, closely related to the category of citizens they work with, because it has great consequences to their health.

“We live in a city where much effort is made to have a clean environment and healthy citizens, but the citizens’ awareness is at a very low level. There are illegal landfills in several places in the city. We have a beautiful river that flows through our city and divides it into half, which is very dirty and filled with garbage, and you can see all sorts of things in it, and it’s not the authorities’ fault, but rather the citizens’. The river has been entirely cleaned several times, only to have the same picture return after two-three days”, says Dimitrovska.

Dimitrovska says that we all need to be aware that the future generations can increasingly more have some form of disability or some rare disease, precisely because of the polluted air and unclean environment in which we live.

According to her, society has done very little for the target group they work with, and that it is precisely those citizens who are still invisible in this society.

“Our city is totally inaccessible for people with physical impairments and for visually impaired people, very little has been undertaken, even though initiatives have been given several times. It is only now that we have received a response that measures will be taken for lowering the sidewalks in the city of Kumanovo, but we can see that sidewalks are not being lowered in places where streets are being asphalted, and that the law on construction is not being respected”, adds Dimitrovska.

“The authorities in Macedonia should know that in Europe the rights of people with disabilities are respected first, and then of other citizens, and that we cannot join Europe until we do so”, says Dimitrovska.

Angela Petrovska
camera and editing: Biljana Jordanovska