VIDEO INTERVIEW | Single parents have become more visible in the Law, says Stanisha Stankovic
In Macedonia, about 26.000 mothers live alone with their children and about 9.000 fathers are single parents. The living conditions of single families have improved over the years, but more influences are needed to make everyday life easier. Macedonia was recently part of the International Conference for Single Parents in Budapest. As the first and only country in the region, Macedonia is for the first time acting on this topic at a higher political level. Our representative at the conference in Hungary was Stanisha Stankovic, a member of the organization Youth from Family Diversity. He is the child of a single parent.
- In Macedonia, the biggest problem is the alimony fund. Our organization, me as a peer educator and the youth team are working to get the alimony fund on the high political agenda of our politicians. In addition, single parents are already visible in the Law and in certain strategies that the state undertakes for marginalized groups of citizens. That one point in those documents means a lot, the visibility unlike before has been raised to a higher level. It helps us to stand in front of the institutions in Macedonia, but also in the Balkans, in a simpler and much more well-argued manner - he said for Free Press Stankovic.
According to Stankovic, Croatia and Montenegro are countries in the region that would be a good example of how this issue should be regulated.
Montenegro introduced the alimony fund three years ago, but this year it drastically improved it. We have an idea in two ways. The first way is to pay alimony in cases of those children where the other parent who has the obligation to pay alimony is one to two months late. In that case, the state should intervene. The other way refers to those young people who do not have the right to a family pension, and are without one parent. In a specific case, Montenegro is an excellent example that should be taken into account. With them, in a very short period, those children receive the financial support they need, and the parent later pays the alimony - explains our interlocutor.
