Community Engagement Roadshow, Chapter 4, Skopje

When we arrived at our hotel in Skopje, Macedonia, we were greeted by an army of police officers and soldiers. I assumed they had come to return my ipod which I had forgotten on the plane (a clear sign that all this travelling is starting to catch up to me), but it turned out they were there to protect the President of Albania who was also staying at the same hotel.

ArcelorMittal Skopje is possibly one of our smallest industrial units, but the term ‘small’ in the ArcelorMittal world can be quite deceiving. Employing roughly 500 people, it is one of the largest employers in Macedonia’s capital city.

The community engagement workshops is gaining strength as we move from site to site. At each site we are greeted by an even greater amount of smiles, laughter, enthusiasm and food – and Skopje was no different.

We got along with the team in Skopje immediately and soon we were sharing stories and jokes like old friends. This is probably one of the best things about working for a global company like ArcelorMittal: you get to visit countries that most people never would, and you quickly realise that you have friends there that you never knew of. I am reminded of a saying I heard somewhere – “a stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet.”

The end of the workshop in Skopje, the 4th of 6, also meant having to say goodbye to the team of facilitators that I had been working with since March. In 1 month, the 4 of us (from 3 different companies) have worked and travelled together, living and breathing community engagement the whole time. It was a bittersweet end, but as one of them said, “a goodbye is necessary if 2 are to meet again.”

Next up, I reunite with the team from Ukraine as we resurface in Kazakhstan.

PS. I eventually found my ipod, thanks to the great people at Malev airlines

Collaboration: Tobin Postma, Corporate Responsibility, ArcelorMittal