Skopje, 26 August 2025 (MIA) - The Mother Tesera state award was presented Tuesday to Professor Irfan Ahmeti from the Clinic for Endocrinology and Borche Stamenov from the “Donate a Computer” initiative at a ceremony in Parliament. 

The recognition is presented for outstanding achievements in the interest of the state in the field of humanity and human solidarity and in encouraging and improving mutual understanding and development of cooperation between the nations and between the members of different communities, cultures and religions. 

The President of the award committee, Behixhudin Shehapi, stressed that the state award is more than a recognition because, he said, humanity does not compete, but it unconditionally participates in building a more humane and beautiful world.

“In this new era marked by information, speed, and transformation into a modern digital, virtual, and artificially intelligent world, unfortunately, human consciousness is regressing despite technological advancement. This is evidenced by the wars in Palestine and Ukraine, and many other cold wars that should have served as lessons of failure, not repetitions that prove humanity, understanding, and dialogue have been defeated. In our country, the youth of Kochani burned, the soul of that city burned, and today we are trying to heal it with respect, compassion, and a helping hand, support for everything that is needed and will be needed in the years to come,” Shehapi said. 

Professor Irfan Ahmeti said he sees the award as an immense honor and a great responsibility to continue his humanitarian work.

“In the words of Mother Teresa, ‘it is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing.’ I won’t focus on my professional contribution to society, because the medical field is, by its very nature, a humanitarian profession. Do something good and forget it, because in my experience, what’s done and forgotten often reappears, someone we’ve helped in a significant way will approach us with emotion and express deep gratitude for what we did, even though Borche and I are unaware of it. That’s why Mother Teresa also advises, ‘Do something and don’t expect anything in return, do it with your soul’. Borche and I come from different professions, but we’re united by humanness, which serves as a bridge between people, cultures, and communities. We are aware that today medicine, IT, and eventually artificial intelligence will connect in the future, but the real challenge will be learning how to merge emotions with what is technical,” Ahmeti said. 

Borche Stamenov, who also received the Meto Jovanovski state award, stressed that he sees the awards as added motivation.

“The entire [Donate a Computer] initiative began at work. A lady came and asked for a used computer, we have a lot of clients who are leaving their old computers, I took one to her home, and when you see someone genuinely happy over what is essentially someone else’s trash, you think, maybe this could be a good idea. At first, it was interesting to me, and there are many socially vulnerable families across Macedonia who can’t afford a device. We said, let’s aim for 100 and that’ll be enough. Then Covid happened, and it became clear how unprepared we were, both as a country and globally, for something like that. It showed how much equipment was lacking across the country, and that’s when we stepped in. In about six months, we managed to donate 600 computers,” Stamenov said.  

The Mother Teresa state award for outstanding achievements in the interest of the state in the field of humanity and human solidarity and in encouraging and improving mutual understanding and development of cooperation between the nations and between the members of different communities, cultures and religions was first awarded in 2006. 

Photo: MIA