The situation of donkeys in Europe is dramatic and they are in danger of extinction. The total number of donkeys is around 40 mil and it has been decreasing for decades. Breeds are often not identified. Where breeds are known, the number of breeding animals is dramatically low. Situation in Macedonia is even worst. Up to now no official data are available about breeds or numbers of animals. The move toward technology left the donkey redundant. The donkey began to disappear completely from view. But with this disappearance, an important part of our cultural heritage is being lost. Donkeys have played an integral part in Macedonian rural life for centuries but donkeys do not fit into modern living circumstances. Therefore it is clear that donkeys don’t need to breed for purposes for which they were grown over decades. The main objective of this project is to increase skills and employability of young population in rural areas through access to integrated training programs in donkey protection and farm breeding. Participants will acquired skills and knowledge about businesses connected with donkeys which they can use for their own business. Project participants will take part in several activities. In the 1st project phase, employees of "Zdravje" and other veterinary stations will carry out a census of donkeys in the country. In the 2nd phase 15 persons interested in donkey protection and farm breeding will be selected to attend the trainings. They have the ability to directly use of newly acquired skills in their daily work in local communities, increase the scope of their activities, as well as transfer the knowledge gained. Experts of "Bioselena" and "Magare" will provide trainings and prepare curriculum. In the 3rd phase trainers will train persons interested in donkey protection and farm breeding. Actually, around 100 persons interested in farm breeding of donkeys and donkey’s milk production will be involved in different dissemination activities within the project. The proposed project will be implemented in the three phases. Activities and expected results are defined for every project phase. Activities of Phase 1: Census of donkey and recognition of training program for donkey protection and farm breeding. Expected results: Census is carried out, Situation analysis is prepared and Curriculum is defined. Activities of Phase 2: Selection of trainers, Training of trainers, Preparation of curriculum for donkey protection and farm breeding. Expected results: Trainers selected, Knowledge and skills related to donkey protection and farm breeding is increased, Brochure for donkey protection and farm breeding is prepared. Activities of Phase 3: Consolidation of activities, Dissemination, Provide support to selected farms to create business plan and start with farm breeding, Creation of awareness for donkey protection and farm breeding. Expected results: 100 farmers trained, at least 5 farms started with farm breeding of donkeys. Methodology that can be employed in this project belongs to traditional approaches. The following stages are included the proposed traditional project management methodology: Initiation, Planning and design, Execution, Control and integration, Validation (testing and debugging), Closure (installation and maintenance). Teams are assigned for different aspects of the project to take responsibility for, passing things along as goals are reached or assigned tasks are completed. The project will have an overall impact on participants, various institutions and local communities. PARTICIPANTS The project will increase the skills and competences of direct participants in the project - trainers who will be trained in Bulgaria and Croatia in donkey protection and farm breeding thus contributing to improve the situation of local communities. TARGET GROUPS Farmers and young persons interested to start business in farm breeding of donkeys will benefit from the new ideas for possible innovative business. Local communities will benefit from a professionally implemented dissemination activities to initiate sustainable change in the area of agriculture and improve the socio - economic situation. Strengthened cooperation will further encourage communities to implement of international projects in this area. The results of the projects Census & Situation Analysis (O1, O2) and Brochure Donkey protection & Farm breeding of Donkeys (O3, O4) will be made available on the project website as well as websites of partner organizations in the PDF version. In addition, information and links to the above mentioned results will be published on relevant sites for educators as well as in Erasmus+ dissemination platform. That will ensure a long-term sustainability and availability of the project. Training program will be verified by the Adult Education Centre and initiative to MAFWE will be addressed to amend current policy for direct payment including subsidies for farm breeding of donkeys.
The situation of donkeys in Europe is dramatic and they are in danger of extinction. The total number of donkeys is around 40 mil and it has been decreasing for decades. Breeds are often not identified. Where breeds are known, the number of breeding animals is dramatically low. Situation in Macedonia is even worst. Up to now no official data are available about breeds or numbers of animals. The move toward technology left the donkey redundant. The donkey began to disappear completely from view. But with this disappearance, an important part of our cultural heritage is being lost. Donkeys have played an integral part in Macedonian rural life for centuries but donkeys do not fit into modern living circumstances. Therefore it is clear that donkeys don’t need to breed for purposes for which they were grown over decades. The main objective of this project is to increase skills and employability of young population in rural areas through access to integrated training programs in donkey protection and farm breeding. Participants acquired skills and knowledge about businesses connected with donkeys which they can use for their own business. Project participants have taken part in several activities. In the 1st project phase, employees of "Zdravje" and other veterinary stations carried out a census of donkeys in the country. In the 2nd phase 15 persons interested in donkey protection and farm breeding were selected to attend the training courses. They have the ability to directly use of newly acquired skills in their daily work in local communities, increase the scope of their activities, as well as transfer the knowledge gained. Experts of "Bioselena" and "Magare" provided training courses and prepared curriculum. In the 3rd phase trainers trained persons interested in donkey protection and farm breeding. Actually, around 100 persons interested in farm breeding of donkeys and donkey’s milk production were involved in different dissemination activities within the project. The proposed project was implemented in the three phases. Activities and expected results were defined for every project phase. Activities of Phase 1: Census of donkey and recognition of training program for donkey protection and farm breeding. Results: Census is carried out, Situation analysis is prepared and Curriculum is defined. Activities of Phase 2: Selection of trainers, Training of trainers, Preparation of curriculum for donkey protection and farm breeding. Results: Selected trainers, Increased knowledge and skills related to donkey protection and farm breeding, Prepared Brochure for donkey protection and farm breeding. Activities of Phase 3: Consolidation of activities, Dissemination, Provide support to selected farms to create business plan and start with farm breeding, Creation of awareness for donkey protection and farm breeding. Results: 100 farmers trained, 2 farms started with farm breeding of donkeys in Macedonia, huge interest in Bulgaria is generated for milk processing and production of cosmetic products. Communication and business relations between projects partners and local entrepreneurs are established. Methodology that was applied in this project belongs to traditional approaches. The following stages included the proposed traditional project management methodology: Initiation, Planning and design, Execution, Control and integration, Validation (testing and debugging), Closure (installation and maintenance). Teams were assigned for different aspects of the project to take responsibility for, passing things along as goals are reached or assigned tasks are completed. The project has an overall impact on participants, various institutions and local communities. PARTICIPANTS The project increased the skills and competences of direct participants in the project - trainers who were trained in Bulgaria and Croatia in donkey protection and farm breeding thus contributing to improve the situation of local communities. TARGET GROUPS Farmers and young persons interested to start business in farm breeding of donkeys benefit from the new ideas for possible innovative business. Local communities benefit from a professionally implemented dissemination activities to initiate sustainable change in the area of agriculture and improve the socio - economic situation. Strengthened cooperation will further encourage communities to implement of international projects in this area. The results of the projects Census & Situation Analysis (O1, O2) and Brochure Donkey protection & Farm breeding of Donkeys (O3, O4) are available on the project website as well as websites of partner organizations in the PDF version. In addition, information and links to the above mentioned results will be published on relevant sites for educators as well as in Erasmus+ dissemination platform. That will ensure a long-term sustainability and availability of the project. Curriculum for farm breeding of donkey and utilization of donkey milk was developed and approved by VET center. Initiative to MAFWE was addressed to amend current policy for direct payment including subsidies for farm breeding of donkeys.