KOLE ANGELOVSKI, Ambassador of the MEGJASHI Children's Embassy: “I am proud that there is a little bit of my contribution this hugely successful story
First Children's Embassy in the World MEGJASHI MACEDONIA
30 YEARS OF EXISTENCE AND WORK OF THE FIRST CHILDREN’S EMBASSY IN THE WORLD MEGJASHI - 30 YEARS OF MORE RIGHTEOUS WORLD
KOLE ANGELOVSKI, Ambassador of the MEGJASHI Children's Embassy: “I am proud that there is a little bit of my contribution this hugely successful story!”
*Your story about little Ana, which is also part of this book, written in the early nineties, is a chilling story, there is nothing fictitious about it, not a single word, not a single comma, not a single exclamation mark and with which, I think, the work of the First Children’s Embassy in the World begins. From then until now, you have been one of the first supporters and constant ambassadors, which is a long-standing, extensive engagement and, above all, great volunteering work that we must take our hats off for. We can assume that this incident motivated you and brought you into the world of fighting for unburdened childhood?
- I spent a large part of my professional life in Sarajevo and I worked on several films there, and I also worked on several plays in the Youth Theater where Ana's father was one of the actors with whom we we got along quite well on several lines, among other things we were both mushroom pickers and mountaineers, so I was very emotionally attached to Sarajevo and to Bosnia and Herzegovina in general. And when the war broke out, followed by the siege of Sarajevo and the destruction of the people took place, it really affected me a lot, so when Dragi and Gorde called me to participate in their incredible work, at least in those first years when everything was on a volunteer basis, I was really glad I wholeheartedly accepted to be in that position.
*As a well-known and established director, you decided to influence not only with moral support, but also with very concrete support. What are your memories of the most intense period of volunteering?
- In the first years, when the first refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina started to arrive, we were very involved and saved many people and human destinies, by taking care to accommodate the refugees, to provide them with food. A large convoy of three huge planes arrived from Spain, with medications and various necessities for the refugees. Meanwhile, we sent about 500 - 600 people from here, most likely to better living conditions in Spain. It was really an incredible success, three huge airplanes from the Spanish airline Iberia did all that for free, the Government of the Republic of Macedonia ensured that the planes landed at the airport for free. It was a really big undertaking. And, in an action at the Bunec Children's Resort in Mavrovo, the mayor of a city in France, Vaux-en-Wallin, personally came several times with his people. they brought school supplies to that children's resort, where there were mothers with children and a teacher who was teaching them. Among other things, I asked the mayor for a school bus that will be used for teaching in nature. They brought a very nice bus for 60 children, fully equipped, with two TVs and a video for the children to watch, from France as a gift. Then, it was my initiative to professionalize the Embassy, because such an organization, which at that time meant a lot in these areas, cannot be run exclusively on a volunteer basis. Also, during the period when Ljubomir Frchkovski was the Minister of the Interior, we managed to get more than a hundred diplomatic passports, which we distributed to various important people from Europe and the world to represent us everywhere and open some opportunities to us. Then, later on, after the military confict had ended, those major humanitarian actions no longer made sense, and the organization started advocating for children’s rights and it may be the only NGO that has advocated for children’s rights in continuity for such a lon time.
*Among other things, the Embassy has its own symbol - Bushavko, that child really exists and is not a fictional mascot.
- I don't know how that child arrived to Macedonia from Brchko, because he had learned that his mother was here. He came to us at the Embassy and we managed to find his mother and reunite them.
*Changing public awareness is the first step towards achieving a goal, and public figures can do that with their work. Did you appeal to your other colleagues to get involved, to lend a helping hand where needed?
- Well, among other things, I invited Blagoja Chorevski-Chore, who is really incredibly active as a volunteer. Even though he was the director of the Drama Theater, back in the nineties, he took it upon himself to be with them and completed many things. And for the first anniversary of the Children's Embassy, we made a very nice play for children, it was called “Clowns”, in which Vladimir Angelovski Dadi (the interviewee’s brother, an actor) and Dragan Spasov-Dac worked as volunteers, without any compensation. It was not in the program of the Drama Theater, but we added it to the repertoire.
*In the seventies, you were the first to create the children's play “Shakespeare in Stories”, then with your play “The Monsters from Our City” the Theater for Children and Youth officially started its work, you were also the programmer at the Children's Festival in Shibenik... Although you were completely devoted to children, did the work at the Embassy deepen those feelings for you, which for you are obviously also a self-initiated obligation, since they have been prevalent in your directorial work for quite a long time?
- My life as a director began with a series of children's plays in the Drama Theater, later I made some truly extraordinary children's plays, which at that time toured the entire Yugoslavia, and this sentence might be a cliché, but truly “children are the most sincere audience”. Working on a show for children is a great pleasure, because the feedback that the children give you as viewers, as sincere recipients of what you give them, is an indescribable pleasure and it is something that is rarely experienced with an adult audience. So, it's really nice to work for children.
*Dramas have always touched the soul of humans, and have shaped the consciousness of people, something that could touch the soul throughout the ages still touches it today. The dramas deals with values and MEGJASHI also deal with values, however, also with a concrete struggle...
- I would divide my work in MEGJASHI into two periods - the first period when it was voluntary and when we were all somehow affected by that war that was happening in Yugoslavia, pouring all our hard work and strength into it, trying to help people, children. The second period is the professional work of this non-governmental organization, which is called the First Children’s Embassy in the World - Megjashi, where the people working there became professionals and when there was already a team that professionally dealt with the problems of the children in our country in Macedonia and where I, shall we say, stepped aside a little. They were so skillful, so well organized, that they work flawlessly. Of course, there are people out there who still work as volunteers, but there is a group who work full-time, and sometimes even overtime, depending on the situation. Not only in Macedonia, but also more broadly, I don't believe that there is another organization that cares for children the same way as MEGJASHI do. What they do is really flawless, and at full throttle. They always have problems with finances, but they know how to make programs to get some financial support and survive. Here, for 30 years, MEGJASHI has existed with a single cause - children's rights! Not only are they one of the few non-governmental organizations that advocates for children, but they are always ranked hightest when it comes to trust among the population, among the citizens.
*Even though myself, and all of us, have been children, to this day I still haven't found an answer to my eternal question - why do children show their joy uncompromisingly, but never show their sadness, they know how to hide it so deeply inside themselves, and I just wonder how they manage to act so well, that most of the time we can't find out what exactly is bothering them.
- (Laughing) To tell you honestly, I myself don't know why it is like that, but I know that when I made plays for children, I knew exactly how to attract children to love that play. Of course, I have never made a play in which there is violence, no matter how trendy and fashionable such plays were, I really wanted to tell fairy tales to children. Because, nowadays, children are non-stop on mobile phones and on those phones they can see many things, unpleasant and pleasant and beautiful and ugly. However, when I made my children's plays, I always tried to give them a fairy tale, because in our families we no longer have grandmothers who would sit down with the grandchildren and tell them stories. Children bonded through them.
*There is a lack of dramas that describe the suffering of children that we don't see, children who are victims, neglected, those who are left like pigeons to fend for themselves in the world.
- It's a general problem on our televisions, still the best shows for children are still “Bushava azbuka” and the ones that I made “Monsters From Our Town”, “Clowns”, show that no matter how much time passes, will still be classics. It's good that the Macedonian Television started with the production of “Dajte muzika” again, it's a very beautiful, very positive, very quirky show, but it's a shame that there are so many televisions in Macedonia and none of the owners and directors showed any ambition to any other shows. Earlier in the Macedonian Television there was a special Editorial Office for children's programs, then there was an Editorial Office for school programs, now there is literally nothing of that. As if children do not exist, they either import children's shows, or play the ones that we recorded 30, 40, 50 years ago. When I think of all the former editors and heads of those children's editorial offices, top personalities, top writers, Olivera Nikolova, Vasil Pujovski, they were the editors of those shows and then when you have that kind of people backing you, they strategize “this year we will record a show like this which will be positive, then another one that will deal with the problem of...” Now that is gone, politicians and news are the most important things now.
*A child - a message! A child can paint the entire picture of the century that he/she which lives in. A child can also be a global message. We all know the story of the little orphan Oliver Twist... A single character paints the picture, the broad picture. That's your story about Ana, it's rooted in the war, but it's also a story whose truth continues to hurt, even though things have now changed. Have you ever felt the drive from within to turn it into a drama, for the theater stage?
- That is very difficult. Isn't there a novel “The Diary of Anne Frank”, in fact, a diary, which is world-famous and which talks exactly about the suffering of a girl during the Second World War, when she hides in the attic for years, in the end they are still caught and sent to a camp where they end tragically. Surely today there are many such stories, especially with the wars in Syria, in Lebanon, in Iran, Iraq where millions of children die, millions of children are displaced, where millions of children have lost their childhood, where they do not know what joy is, where they are faced with Kalashnikovs, and that’s a huge problem, it's unfortunate. Children are perhaps the biggest victims of the powerful countries, of the very powerful people that, for profit, or personal interests, destroy entire generations of children, destroy their childhood.
*Over these thirty years, what has been the biggest challenge and beauty of working with MJEGASHI?
- In the beginning, it was the emotional connection that was predominant, not only mine, but of all the people who participated in the creation of that organization, the emotional connection first with the country of Yugoslavia, and secondly with the fate of those people who suffered. Innocent people suffer, because of various interests, political, geopolitical, geostrategic, where so many people died, so many children died... That emotional connection with people with whom we were otherwise friends, comrades, lived together, is always very strong, such connections give you motivation and desire to participate and help as much as you can. And that was the main motive that drove us to action, together with Gordana and Dragi. There were many other people who participated in the work, in the relief, people worked for 24 hours. Another thing I'm proud of is that, thanks to them above all, is that we have become an organization that is independent of any government. It is certain that all governments so far have provided some sort of financial support, but we have never tied ourselves to politics, to any particular party, but we have always tried to be objective and fight for what the Children's Embassy stands and was founded for, which is: children's rights to be represented in the everyday life in Macedonia!
*Do you feel particularly proud of having done something of higher value?
- Sure, sure... I can't say that I'm the one who deserves the most, but I have had my own share in that broad range of everything that MEGJASHI has done, in general, for our country and for the children in the world, and for children of the war, I am proud that there is a little bit of my contribution to it.
***
MONOGRAPH
The First Children's Embassy in the World MEGJASHI 1992-2022
30 years A fairer world for every child