Katie Bachmeyer - Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Macedonia
Home Institution: University of North Carolina, Asheville
Host Institution: Goce Delčev University
Grant Dates: 2009-2010
Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Katie Bachmeyer with a student at the Dneven Center
Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Katie Bachmeyer organized a donation of almost 100 specialized toys from the U.S. to distribute to disabled students at local schools and centers in the Stip region. Both Katie and her fiancé Eric Lynch developed the idea for the project to raise awareness about persons with learning and physical disabilities in and around Macedonia.
Americans donated the toys using an online Toys "R" Us wish list from the "Differently-Abled" section of the company's website and a Cincinnati humanitarian aid organization, Matthew 25 Ministries, covered the shipping costs. Katie located institutions that would benefit from the donation by working with Professor Gordana Panova from Goce Delcev's Medical Faculty and Dejan Zafirov, director of Gaia, a non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting active lifestyles for people with physical disabilities.
Following the toy drive, Katie held a public Disability Forum at the American Corner in Stip to discuss disability with a larger audience. The purpose of the forum was to dispel myths and show how the disability movement in the U.S. resulted in legislation leading to improved access to infrastructure, public transportation, the education system, and the employment sector. Professor Panova answered disability questions specific to Macedonia. The majority of attendees were high school students who shared stories about the people in their lives with disability.
Katie hopes to continue supporting disability issues in Macedonia through larger public forums in the near future. She anticipates traveling to at least four different cities to give presentations along with Peace Corps volunteers. She also plans to assist the organization Gaia in developing a summer camp for teenagers with disabilities and in providing further presentations organized around the concept of a human library.
More information on Katie’s experiences can be found on her blog
.
To the U.S.-Macedonia Fulbright Program