Skopje, 10 December 2023 (MIA) — The 2023 Meto Jovanovski National Award for achievements in the promotion, protection, and advancement of human rights was given in Parliament on Sunday to Lice v lice street magazine representatives as well as Kavadarci-born activist Borche Stojmenov who refurbishes donated computers and gives them to those in need.

Lice v lice was founded in 2012 and is dedicated to promoting sustainable development, social justice, equality, democracy and humanity. The magazine is printed on recycled paper and has also been available online since 2020.

The award was received by the magazine's editor Maja Ravanska, who said Lice v lice raised awareness for important issues inlcuding people's right to work.

The non-profit also advocates for the rights of marginalized and their inclusion in society, promoting positive life stories, she noted.

The 150 street paper vendors it works with are people from socially vulnerable categories. One of them, Valentin Rakip, was present at the awards ceremony. Rakip, who had been an undocumented person, with the help of a work integration mentorship program, received his papers and became a spokesperson for undocumented and stateless persons, Ravanska said.

The Meto Jovanovski award was also given to Stojmenov, who through his "Donate a Computer" initiative, has been taking broken laptops and computers, refurbishing them and donating them to socially disadvantaged families since 2016.

Stojmenov's activism was especially important at the start of the pandemic, when online instruction was organized in schools and the Ministry of Education and Science said 40,000 children did not own a computer to attend online classes.

Stojmenov's "Donate a Computer" initiative has workshops in Kavadarci, Skopje and Shtip, where it offers young people free training in computer repair, which also reduces electronic waste.

Accepting the award, Stojmenov pointed out that the United Nations had recently declared internet access a basic human right.

"In the past seven years, I had the privilege of donating about 2,700 computers to socially disadvantaged families and equipping 40 classrooms across the country," he said.

The Meto Jovanovski National Award was named after Macedonian writer Meto Jovanovski (1928-2016) who was the first president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. The award is given on World Human Rights Day, Dec. 10. mr/