I Love Golak

A total of 49 citizens and representatives of Delchevo institutions came to the first Citizen Forum entitled “I Love Golak”, organized by the humanitarian association Bravura Kooperativa on 23 December 2022. They spoke about the decades long problems with this tourist location, children’s resort, consequences of the inappropriate policies, the initiatives so far, the needs of the citizens and the city, economic aspects and development possibilities, barriers that are a product of the institutional unclarities, etc. The citizens also spoke about fire protection and biodiversity protection.

“Bravura Kooperativa” organized this first open event to inform and mobilise the citizens to alert the local government which had promised in the election campaign that there would be activities and projects to promote Golak tourist location and revitalize it. “The initiative is of great importance for the citizens and the development of Golak”, said Goce Popov, Chairperson of the Municipal Council. “At the meeting there were quite some creative ideas, which would contribute for the development and I hope that in the future you will also have these gatherings and that we will all contribute for the development of Golak mountain together”, he added.

“All of these initiatives are good so that we can gather more stakeholders and discuss about the challenges that are important for such small places as Delchevo”, stressed Rodne Deolska from the civil sector. She added that everybody stands for promotion of Golak mountain, because it has something to offer not only for the local citizens, but also for the potential tourists. “The problems that happen on Golak are within the competence of other institutions, not only the municipality, but we can use the period until there are resolved for more activities that would mean promotion of Golak mountain” said Deolska. She reminded that this mountain is abundant with herbs and that there is a herb trail; there are also adrenaline trails, a biking trail and other resources that can be used to attract more tourists. The attendants agreed that Golak can offer a lot and that more work is needed on activities that would attract the people to visit it: more events – more people on Golak. The participants agreed that intense influence and pressure on the local government is needed, as it has to continue until finally resolving the citizens’ problems.

“Bravura Kooperativa” association noted all discussions, proposals and recommendations and it summarized them in conclusions which would be submitted to the Mayor and Members of the Municipal Council of Delchevo, as requests. The requests will be presented by a smaller group of citizens who were nominated during the event. These requests will be submitted after the second event takes place, together with other information that will be collected in the meantime.

The implementation of this citizen forum is enabled by the project Support to Electoral Reforms in North Macedonia of the Swiss Government, implemented by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (ИФЕС), while the grants are administered by the Macedonian Center for International Support (MCIC).