Six days after the catastrophic floods in Stajkovci, there is still chaos and disorder. No-one knows who is helping, who will give food and water and when can the public expect machinery that will help clear up the debris from their homes. Anyone can see that the situation is much worse in reality through social media networks, completely different to the image presented by the media.
The initial station for all residents of the village is the courtyard of the school “St. Cyril and Methodius”, is a tactical operational headquarters for the military and also where citizens can leave donations for those in need. However, by 10:00 this morning, the place was overcrowded with people asking for help.
The organization of the volunteers and the allocation of aid and machinery in Stajkovci is operating as low as possible. There are people still working on getting the mud out of their decaying houses, because they were told that they would have to organize themselves for a few days, because no one from the state had come to ask if they had any help.
“My husband is sitting on the street and begging the people managing the excavator to come and help us get the waste from the flood out of the yard but they told him that they must receive an order from someone higher to help him. Children, friends of my daughter came to help us. They helped us remove the entire waste from the basement, where our kitchen and living room, but it will be for nothing until someone brings an excavator to remove it from the yard”, says Slavica Ristovska.
The most damaged homes and affected citizens in Stajkovci live at the end of the village, next to the ring road. The first response team, say residents just arrived today. The mud and the water level is as if the floods happened yesterday. All the residents from this street do not sleep in their homes, it’s not only their basements and garages which are flooded, but entire houses. Their entire livelihoods have been destroyed.
Members of the group “Humanitarian Aid for flood-hit families in Skopje” has organized the largest number of volunteers, and has also organized an event tomorrow for a joint mass clearing-up operation out in the field.
For more details of the event, they can be found on “Facebook”, called “Joint Action for Clearing all critical points in the field. ” (Заедничка ударна акција за расчистување на теренот на сите критични точки)
“We need everyone to start coming to the meeting place which is the “Vero Center “(“Vero Jumbo”) at 8:00 am who want to volunteer. Then everyone will be organized and coordinated to the critical points organized by the level of damage in the field. Volunteers will depart after the meeting, and by the capacity of each vehicle (bus, minibus or van). The Clearing UP Action will last until 19:00 due to the visibility on the ground “, said the explanation of the event.
