М. Т. Gologanov 54 1/7, 1000 Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia

“Fly, Hike and Bike” in Gostivar Municipality

The Sport activity “Fly, Hike and Bike” started at 10:00 am near the village of Korito at an altitude of over 1000 meters. During the first hour, professional paragliders flew in tandem with interested participants from the starting point near the village of Korito until the landing point at the village of Cegrane in the Polog valley. After the paragliding, cycling was followed, where the participants rode their bikes from the municipality of Gostivar to the village of Vrutok. In the end, all the participants hiked together on a marked trail by the Vardar River, from Vrutok to Gostivar.

Beside the attendance on this event by fifty citizens, professional paragliders, cyclists and young people from Gostivar, we were honored by the presence of the Mayor of the Municipality of Gostivar, Mr. Arben Taravari, British Ambassador H.E. Mrs. Rachel Galloway and the Chargé d’affaires of the Kingdom of Netherlands in North Macedonia, Andrew van Mens. The event was focused on promoting sport as a value and tool that connects people of different religious and ethnic backgrounds and cycling as an environmentally sound and healthy way of transportation.

Center for Common Ground CCG Skopje with the support of the British Embassy and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Skopje is implementing a project called “Strengthening the Resilience of Local Communities to Violent Extremism in Macedonia”, starting  from October 15, 2018 to October 15, 2020. The project aims to support the national strategy and action plan of the NCNSNBTT (National Committee for Countering Violent Extremism and Combat against Terrorism) through co-operation between local actors including civic, religious and youth leaders and local / central authorities on EBN issues and through establishing Community Action Teams (CATs) within the three pilot municipalities, Chair, Gostivar and Kicevo.