At the awarding ceremony held on Monday, February 27th at E6 Educational Center in Skopje, the Horus Association awarded the OKO Philanthorpy Awards for 2016.

The purpose of the OKO Philanthropy Awards is to acknowledge and honor the companies, CSOs, the citizens and the media that are supporting and helping the development of the community in generous and strategic manner and to promote and stimulate the philanthropy in Macedonia.

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The winner of the OKO Philanthropy Award for 2016 in the category Award for Association/Foundation for Exceptional Contribution to the Development of Philanthropy in Macedonia is the Elena Luka Foundation, which during the past year devoted its activities towards economic empowerment of single mothers and women, through the development of their entrepreneurial skills.

The foundation also awarded numerous scholarships as part of the project called “Plan Your Future”, and implemented activities for social inclusion of Roma, support to education of people with impaired vision, as well as raising awareness on gender equality and prevention of gender-based violence.

The OKO Award for Exceptional Contribution to the Development of Philanthropy in Macedonia was given to Ms. Sunchica Stojanovska Zoksimovska.

Ms Zoksimovska, through her engagement as journalist at the Telegraf.mk portal, turned the attention of the public towards the problems of children that are being treated in the healthcare system in Macedonia and initiated and encouraged numerous fundraising campaigns for patients that needed treatments abroad.

She also contributed towards the alleviation of the stereotypes towards persons with Down syndrome by organizing several charity events.

Pakomak won the OKO Award for Corporate Philanthropy (Small Enterprise). Major achievement of Pakomak in 2016 was development of sustainable system for management of packaging waste through the implementation of the project called “ECO Café & Restaurant”.

Pakomak contributed to the protection of the environment through involvement of 360 hospitality objects in Skopje, Ohrid, Bitola, Dojran, Strumica and Prilep, in the glass packaging waste selection system, as well as through raising public awareness and informing citizens on the importance of glass waste management and its impact on the environment.

The OKO Award for Corporate Philanthropy (Medium Enterprise) was given to Ading ad Skopje.

Ading in 2016 distinguished itself through numerous donations in goods, donated as support to people affected by the flood in the Skopje region, as well as through donations of its products – construction material for refurbishment of public buildings and buildings of historic and cultural significance.

Ading also donated materials for modeling for students of the Faculty of Architecture in Skopje.

The OKO Award for Individual Philanthropist from Diaspora for 2016 was awarded to the Fejzulai family. The members of this family originate from Gostivar and live and work in Norway.

In 2016 Fejzulai family donated medical materials and equipment to the D-r Ferid Murat General Hospital in Gostivar. The donated equipment was comprised of surgical microscope for interventions on the spine, eye examination apparatus, echo apparatus and other various types of essential medical equipment. Total value of their donation is around 300.000 EUR.

The Award for Individual Philanthropist from R. Macedonia for 2016 goes to Ms. Krsitina Arnaudova Petrovski.

Ms Arnaudova organized numerous humanitarian campaigns to support single mothers and socially marginalized families, activities to mark the International Poverty Day, to provide children from single-parent families with the necessary school supplies etc.

We would like to highlight the charity campaign aiming to provide dresses, make-up and hairdresser services for 94 high-school graduates from economically disadvantaged families, in which more than 100 people, companies, hairdressers and make-up saloons took part.

The Special Award for Established Long-term/Strategic Partnership Between Business and Civil Sector (joint award for company and association/foundation) was presented to AVON Macedonia and the Association Crisis Center Hope Skopje.

AVON Macedonia and the Crisis Center HOPE worked in partnership to increase the public awareness on family violence through the implementation of the project “Speak Out on the Family Violence”.

Namely, AVON Macedonia launched special line of products marked with the “infinity” sign and the funds raised from the sales of these products were used for the activities to combat family violence. 12 workshops in 5 cities in Macedonia were organized with the aim to discuss the ways on how to identify family violence and mechanisms for its prevention.

As a result of this project, the family violence victims were provided with psycho-social rehabilitation and were also educated on the opportunities for their financial independence along with the possibilities for social re-integration.