Narrative Report
Association for Women's Initiatives, 2002

• Core activities - Round Visits and Visits of the groups
• New Initiatives
• Cooperatives - A challenge and a Chance
• Cyber Space - A Resource Center
• Dealing with Globalisation
• Campaign "Economically Equal"
• New developments in 2002
• Book presentations and other cultural segments
• AWIN POETRY WORKSHOP
• Language courses
• Computer Courses

Core activities - Round Visits and Visits of the groups

In 2002, the Network continued its core activities: round visits and visits of the groups. During the year, we have had 73 workshops related to the groups in the Network and visits from the groups in the following cities:
1. Pozega and Uzice
2. Novi Knezevac
3. 8th March - Sabac, Bajina Basta, Kragujevac, Novi Sad, Uzice, Valjevo, Krusevac, Pozega - the presentation and panel discussions considering cooperative management and the possibilities of its development focusing women as owners and beneficiaries.
4. Vlasotince
5. Bujanovac
6. Zajecar
7. Niksic
8. Kolasin
9. Topola

During these visits, women had the possibility to see different groups of interest and discuss their strategies, plans and ways of assisting each other. Women usually wanted to see the Center for Girls, Women's Studies Centre, SOS Hotline, Autonomous Women's Centre, Women at Work and women's groups dealing with specific economic empowerment such as Gea and Lastavica.

The visits to the groups (round trips) included dissemination of materials (magazines, books published by Feminist 94, ProFemina, Azin and other women's groups and women affiliated projects), informal conversations, assistance in making contacts and workshops. Some of the visits included:

• Groups in Vrnjacka Banja ("Duga") and Center for Girls and "Jefimija" in Uzice. Main topic in Center for Girls was the establishment of the SOS Hotline. We have explored possibilities for such project and resource people that could provide education and training to the volunteers.
• Other visits have included groups in Bujanovci - where we have discussed possibilities for economic empowerment of women and current limitations, as well as Uzice and Pozega - where we have dealt with the same topic. During the discussions we have presented the ideas related to the project on cooperatives - our proposals for the changes in legislature and the reaffirmation of this economic model.

The workshops in Bujanovci were organized in conjunction with the group "Responsibility for the Future" with which WM has been cooperating for over a year and shared efforts to support women's initiatives in Bujanovci, as a part of the project aimed at promoting community based development and multi ethnic cooperation.

In March we have participated in a joint effort of Kvinna till Kvinna, STAR Network and AWIN - and went to visit women's groups in northern Kosovo and discuss networking and ways of cooperation between the groups. The initiation of this meeting came from the side of women's activists in Zubin Potok, who came to visit us in Belgrade and suggest such possibility. Majority of the groups present in the meeting did not have experience with organized networking and structured cooperation and we have worked together on designing the ways in which they can support each other and try to advocate as a network of women's groups. Out of this meeting came the initiative to organize a program of visits for women's groups in northern Kosovo and seek the commitment of donor agencies and development partners present in Kosovo. This program was effectively delivered and led to further visits to Kosovo (Strpce, Pristina, Gnjilane) by the representatives of AWIN. At the end of 2002 - women in Kosovo have formed a Network of women's groups, defined the platform for action and invited the network of Albanian groups for collaboration.

Women from the groups in Kosovo perceive this program as creation of the space for cooperation and mark it very highly in formal evaluations during the visits. Through the discussions with women, we have learnt that the support has been necessary in gaining momentum for activities. They estimate the assistance as a great impact to their work.

• We have also visited groups in Prijepolje (Center for Girls, Forum of Women and City Library), Pljevlja (Bona Fide and SOS Hotline), Niksic, Podgorica (Women's Lobby and SOS Hotline), Kotor and Cetinje. We have provided contacts and addresses of groups of interest and added some women and groups to the mailing list "Zenskaposla".
• Other visits to the groups included Krusevac, Pancevo (feminist working group within Socialdemocratic Party) and Zajecar (the Association of Single Mothers). The topics were: feminism, anarchism and networking. We also had visits to Nis (meeting with the donor agency CRIC - that invited us for a meeting in order to discuss possible strategies for women's projects and funding), Kragujevac, Novi Sad, Krusevac, B. Basta, Pozega, Valjevo.

WM has in the past served as a liaison between the groups, which do not have the capacities for round visits and wish to network between the groups with specific missions/dealing with similar issues. This will continue in the future as we believe more groups are building focused agendas, and developing specific expertise, and in this process they need assistance of the groups with databases, contacts and the knowledge of the current situation on the women's scene.

New Initiatives

Women's Media Centre
The activities of Women's Media Centre had the aim of establishing a women's journalist lobby in 12 cities in Serbia: Lazarevac, Pozega, Novi Sad, Zrenjanin, Vrbas, Sombor, Becej, Priboj, Cacak, Kragujevac, Backa Palanka and Belgrade. The project was coordinated by a team comprised of two journalists, a trade union activist, activists and several students of political sciences. Activities of the Media Center have been: mediation of panel discussions, participation in radio shows and press conferences such as ASTRA's "Open Your Eyes" campaign and "Right to a Life Free of Violence". However, this initiative has terminated its activities by the end of 2002 and is no longer a part of AWIN.

Cooperatives - A challenge and a Chance

Within the project Cooperatives - A challenge and a Chance (supported by STAR Network) we have given series of workshops (28 workshops in the country with about 400 participants, and 13 in Belgrade with about 190 participants). They focused on women's economic empowerment, entrepreneurship and women's cooperatives as a part of the ongoing and future campaigns related to women at the labor market and the affirmation of cooperative management as a suitable model for the current economic situation in FRY. This refers to visits to Uzice, Bajina Basta, Valjevo, Prijepolje, Nis, Krusevac and Kragujevac. Some of the cities have been visited more than once and we have also engaged local activists in implementation of the workshops and panel discussions, some of which were organized in public institutions (municipalities, libraries, book stores). The issue of women at the labor market is becoming one of the priorities for WM and in the future we will move more towards the shaping of possible strategies and practical assistance to women who wish to form cooperatives and small scale business enterprises.

Cyber Space - A Resource Center

The (IREX) project aims at preventing sex trafficking in young women and the focus of AWIN within this project was the forming of a Cyber Space - a resource center providing computer training for young women and assistance to women's groups in the Network.

Dealing with Globalisation

Branislava Bujisic, activist and researcher at AWIN delivered a lecture on ťwomen and globalizationŤ at the seminar ťWomen and TrazitionŤ organized by the Women's Section of the trade union ťNezavisnostŤ in Belgrade, 15-16 July.
AWIN has initiated the project dealing with globalisation, considering the importance of being informed about the principles, good and bad sides of the process of globalization and in this way analitically approacing the future process of integration into the EU and global systems. We have especiallu emphasised a) the consequences of this process to trade unions and activities related to it, and b) the effects on the family life and its organization in the conditions of the daily 24hour lasting global economy.
AWIN has also became a part of the project of creating an international network of women in/and solidarity-based economy which has as its objective the increase of the visibility of women in solidarity-based economy all over the world, to show the real value of this work, and to make visible the richness of solutions they represent.
The project itself is a solidarity-based project because it will allow for the sharing of communication means and know-how, in order to create an on-line network for exchange between different actors, which could on the one hand break isolation, and on the other hand assist in finding joint solutions to obstacles.

Campaign "Economically Equal"

AWIN has also been one of the partners in the Campaign "Economically Equal" carried out in 2002. Other partners were Zene na delu, Vojvodjanka and Voice of Difference. Below is the summary of the activities carried out in 2002:

In Vojvodina there were

• 4 launching press conferences
• 5 public polling activities on the economic status of women in local communities
• 11 public discussions and round tables covering the main legislative topics of the campaign
• 4 television programs on the main topics of the campaign
• 9 radio programs dedicated to the main topics of the campaign
• 2 initiatives started to support women in their efforts to improve their economic status through women cooperatives, including consultative meetings held in the Government of Vojvodina with the representatives of the Secretariat for Work, Employment and Gender Equality
• 1 public action with pasting posters and distribution of publicity materials
• numerous articles and analysis in printed media

In Central Serbia and Belgrade

• 5 launching press conferences
• 2 public polling activities on the economic status of women in local communities
• 24 public discussions and round tables covering the main legislative topics of the campaign (5 new cities included with one form of activity, usually only the public discussion in Nova Varos, Bajina Basta, Pozega, Velika Plana and Coka)
• 6 television programs on the main topics of the campaign
• 12 radio programs dedicated to the main topics of the campaign
• 5 initiatives started to support women in their efforts to improve their economic status through women cooperatives or through continuous lobbying of the local institutions of trade union organizations, including two public advocacy activities regarding the protection of sexual harassment at work
• 8 public actions with pasting posters and distribution of publicity materials
• 1 two day consultation seminar covering all the legislative issues
• numerous articles, interviews and analysis in printed media

New developments in 2002

WM-WN has joined a campaign for amnesty of the women committing a criminal act of homicide. The project was initiated by the event taking place in Novi Pazar, where a woman was sentenced to eight years in prison for the murder of her husband, a perpetrator of a 16 year long violence against his wife and two children. Simultaneously, a women imprisoned in Belgrade for the same criminal act has committed suicide by drinking chemicals used for washing. These events have mobilized women's groups in Sandzak and also in Belgrade, and an ad hoc coalition has been formed and the campaign titled "Dokle robijom na robiju?" ( Descriptively: How long will we put in prison women who are already imprisoned by violence?). The campaign is an advocacy campaign - we will demand amnesty for all women who committed this criminal act, but will also include awareness raising activities such as direct actions, public pressure, performances etc. The start of the campaign was in August and the groups working on the issue are: Autonomous Women's Center, AWIN, Victimology Society of Serbia, Women at Work and different experts and activists. As a start of the campaign, letters for amnesty have been sent out to all the relevant institutions and individuals, including Dragana Micic, current president.

AWIN has also supported the research done by the Philosophy Faculty, professor Andjelka Milic and the group of her undergraduate students. As a result - they have compiled a report on the research of women's groups and initiatives conducted in Serbia and Montenegro. KtK has supported the publishing of this book. Authors estimate that the position of women's groups in the country can be defined as organizationally isolated, financially dependent, relatively well covered by the media and politically ineffective. However, they conclude that the network is growing, and that there is a clear expansion. Some of the findings of the research will be strategically important, and will focus the political and advocacy dimensions of our activities. In this respect, the plans of the Network will be to organize annual gathering of women's groups in 2003, during which we will be able develop shared visions and strategies and strengthen the political influence.

Book presentations and other cultural segments

The Network has organized 63 workshops related to cultural segments of the project. They included 22 workshops of psychodrama, 12 poetry workshops, 11 art initiative workshops, 8 educational workshops by and for the members of AWIN and 10 movie projections.

We have organized book presentations of three different publications - book "On Childbearing", the book "Life of Neda Bozinovic" and "Anarchism and Feminism" by Emma Goldman. They have been presented in the library "Milutin Bojic" and during the manifestation of 8th March in Student's Cultural Centre. During the 8th March Women's Studies Novi Sad together with Women's Media Centre organized the presentation of the book "Romkinje"

AWIN POETRY WORKSHOP

Short history of the Awin Poetry Workshop

Poetry Workshop in AWIN started in 1997. A small group of very talented young poets gathered, and we decided that it will be the best for all of us if we strated to gather once a week, discussing poetry, and working together. The gathering was at the beginnig informal, and in summer 1997 it got more formalized form within AWIN. In 2001-2002 our work has been developed in range and in time. We have worked all summer, and Fall, once a week.

General structure of the work:

The work in AWIN Poetry Workshop is structured on several levels:
- In our sessions we discuss poetry and poetics from modernism to postmodernism. Every participant choses the author and tells us about the poet's ideas what poetry for her/him is, and what devices do she/he uses in writing poetry.
- The crutial goal is to develop our own work - which means that we write poetry together, read it aloud and discuss it with each other.
- From time to time we have some guests. They present their work, and talk about their experience, give a lecutre, or work with us.

When the AWIN Poetry workshop started, the idea was to try to initiate a different kind of poetry production, which would be against mainstream nationalistic culture, and which would enable the participants to write selfconsciously, and to become sensible to the gender problems in culture. The participants were till this year only girls, and guests were women and men poets.

Topics covered in 2001-2002:

Our guests are usually important to us because with them we develop a kind of esoteric literary community. A correspondences are developed in this kind of communication, we share some poetical, political, and aesthetical believes. In previous sessions our guests were: Jasna Manjulov, Slobodan Tišma, Slavko Bogdanovic, poets from Novi Sad, Dušica Pavkov and Jelena Marinkov, poets from Vršac, Danica Vukicevic, Divna Vuksanovic, Ivana Milankov, Dejana Nikolic, Nenad Miloševic, poets from Belgrade.

This year we started with Dubravka Djuric' s lecture on Russian cubofuturists. We also listened to the CD with avant-gare readings from the beginning of the 20th century. Important aspect of our work is that we should learn to read aloud our work, because poem doesn't exist only as printed in a book or magazine, but as a oral interpretation of its author. Therefore we try to develop our own style of oral interpretation of our own work.
Dejana Nikolic talked about Russian women poets at the end of 19th century and at the beginning of 20th century. She describe the cultural and political context within which the poets lived, and their relationships. She draw a exciting, and tragic personal paths of few extraordinary women poets (Akhmatova and Cvetaeva, among them).
Every year our guest is Nina Živancevic, poet, who for many years leaved in USA, and now lives in Paris. This year she talked about her experince as a poet who was in contact with US poetry community, and developed her work under the influence of American and Serbian modernist and postmodernist authors.
Poet Ivana Milankova, who also was connected with US poetry scene at the Beginning of eighties, but later for her the influence of Russian Soviet poets were important. This year she made a workshop with us, asking us to write in few words our poetic credo, and then we discussed it with her.
Our regular guest is famous poet and artist from Novi Sad, Slobodan Tišma, who was in sixties conceptual artist, who also wrote radical forms of poetry. He gave us a lecture on wanishing subject in his poetry. He defines himself as a yin male in poetry.
In one session our guests were Slobodan Tišma and Slavko Bogdanovic both protagonists of Novi Sad artistic scene in sixties, who talked about their work in that period and painful experience with communist establishment, which banned their work then. Belgrade theoretician Miško Šuvakovic theoretized the work of Vojvodina's radical artistic and poetry scene that is cenzored within the mainstream Serbian culture.
We had as a guest for the first time this year Biljana D. Obradovic, diasporic poet, who lives in USA, obtained her PhD in creative writing, and teach at Xavier University of Lousiana. She told us her experience of studying English at the beginning of eighties in Belgrade, and how she decided to study creative writing in USA. Then she made a workshop with all the participants - under her directions we wrote poems, and then discussed with her the proces, and the results.
Miško Šuvakovic, professor at Belgrade University of Arts gave a lecture on gender representation, and representations of sexualities (hetero- and homosexuality) in arts. The lecture was followed by a discussion.
Ivana Mardešic, philosopher, discussed with us philosophical issues of contemporary theoretical environment, and help us in being aware of the important issues relevant for the life and work at this specific period oftimewe live in.
Poet Predrag Dojcinovic was for the first time with us in 2002. He lives in Amsterdam, and is co-founding member of Pen Club of Writers from former Yugoslavia. He discussed his own poetry, and showed us a short balley film based on his scenario.
Belgrade translator Biserka Rajcic was a guest with Poland prose writer Ana Potochek. Ana Potoshek, one of the most distinguished fiction writers of her generation, talked about her work, and her experience as a clinical psychiatrist.
Our guest also was a young poet Siniša Tucic. His work was theoretized by Slobodan Tišma. Tucic read his poetry to us, and talked about his involvement in poetry, and his working process.
In September,October, and November we focussed on a particular topic, developing our self-consciousness, and discussing specific topics. We discussed Mallarme's poetics, Denise Levertov's poetry and poetics. We also tried to map our own poetics discussing the main terms around which the work of each person develops.

Public activities:

In previous period, we performed several times within the celebrations of March 8th, organized by Belgrade feminist groups. We sang and danced our poetry.

Young poets are encuraged to try to publish widely in different local magazines, which they have done with success. Six authors managed to publish their first books of poetry: Ksenija Simic, Snežana Žabic (prose), Natalija Markovic, Ana Seferovic, Tamara Šuškic, Jelena Tešanovic (poetry).

Our first public presentation was at the end of August (2002) at the library "Milutin Bojic", entitled: "Wild femininity: five younger women poets". The evening was good attended. Poets read their works, and discussed with the audience daring body of work.
The work of our ‘ecoteric' poetry group was again presented in Belgrade Cultural Center with another similar group (mid-December 2002).

Language courses

Language courses in AWIN are primarily organized in order to give women opportunity to have better professional qualifications, which are required in the very competitive work market. Secondly, language courses help women to improve their self-confidence and to acquire necessary language skills that can help them to reach financial security by finding adequate employment. The knowledge of the foreign language has become one of the essential requirements that all women have to meet in order to find a job. The aim of these courses is also to encourage women to improve their professional skills, which will help them to present their knowledge and work experience in a better way. The courses give younger women (who are students) a chance to combine their professional knowledge with the foreign language skills.

Organization of the language courses

Three foreign languages are thought in AWIN: English, Italian, and German. The courses in these languages are organized at two levels: elementary and intermediate. Each course lasts three and a half months. Classes are held twice a week (each class lasts 90 min.) We have tried to organize the class schedule in the way that suites all women (students, unemployed, single mothers, women who have temporary work), and therefore we have classes in the morning and in the afternoon. During this period (three and a half months) we are trying to cover the most important grammar points and to include a range of different topics which gives students the opportunity to learn terminology from different fields of work. Courses are organized in the way that meets the needs of the students, which means that they have to acquire basic knowledge of the language by developing at the same time all language skills: speaking, writing, listening and reading. There is a test after every three lessons to see whether students have adopted the necessary knowledge. Students who attend intermediate courses have the opportunity to broaden their knowledge especially speaking skills and vocabulary. Textbooks, workbooks and cassettes that we use combine recent approaches to help students use English, Italian and German in work as well as social situations. At the beginning and at the end of each course women are tested to see how much they have improved their knowledge of the specific language. English, German and Italian courses started in May 2002 and have been concluded in June 2002.

Enrollment and groups

During the enrollment between 80 and 100 women apply for the courses. This is mainly due to the great number of unemployed women who have recently lost their jobs. Most of them are between the age of 40 and 55 and are desperately seeking employment, which is very hard to find not because of the lack of the experience but rather because of their age. There are also a lot of women who are working at the moment, but are expecting to lose their jobs. Women who are students and cannot afford language course elsewhere are also participants in the courses. Among these women there are also women who are single mothers (who are also looking for work) and don't have the financial means to attend the courses somewhere else. In each group there are about 10 women. We usually have two groups for English (one elementary level and intermediate level) one group for Italian ( elementary ) and for German (elementary).

Interest in other activities in AWIN

Most of the women who attend language course also show a great interest in computer courses. They are aware that language skills combined with the knowledge of computers are crucial in a job finding process.

Follow-up

It is important to say that some of the women who have finished language courses in AWIN have been able to find work. Most of them are very satisfied because knowledge of foreign language helps them when they go to work interviews, and women who are students might get scholarships to attend professional courses which are thought in English, Italian or German. These language courses have also given them the chance to improve their self-esteem and self-confidence because they became aware of the fact that they can learn and develop their communicative skills in another language.

Future intentions

Every year more and more women apply for language courses in AWIN and it is necessary to expend the number of groups that we have in order to give chance to all these women to learn the language. The number of women who are looking for work and who need to know a foreign language in order to find it increases constantly. The fact that foreign language has become terribly important in the work market reflects in the number of women of different age who want to learn it and it that way increase their chances to find work. It is our intention to continue to adapt these courses to the needs of our students who have to deal with a difficult economical and social situation.

Computer Courses

During the year of 2002 there were completed 3 (three) sets of computer courses. The first set was held from 6th May till 17th June, the second set from 6th October to 14th November and the third set from 17th November till 28th December 2002.

Computer courses are created to provide women with basic knowledge in using a computer. A computer course lasts 6 weeks and lessons are held three times a week (each lesson lasts 90 minutes). As usual, the course program is combined of the following topics: Introduction part, MS Word (the main topic), Internet & E-mail, and therefore no changes were made regarding the program contents. There were no problems during the implementation of this project as well.

Women who attended computer courses were of different age (beginning with students and unemployed women at the age of 20-30 who require this knowledge as a chance of finding a job, and older women at the age of 30-45 who need computer skills for their further job progress. These women also come with different educational, professional and social backgrounds. They were divided into 3 groups (each of which consists of 10 women). According to the number of groups, three instructors worked on this project, and there were no volunteers involved.

The main aim of the course (to provide basic computer skills) is accomplished, because women gained a good basis of knowledge in computers, which is ready to be used immediately, or to be upgraded at some higher level. Women who completed this course are using the skills for integrating into the modern society, both personal & professional purposes, finding a job, or working on an honorary basis.

In June 2002 we approached to IREX program together with both ASTRA and Women at work and we have opened Women Computer laboratory called Women Lab. The aim of this project is to increase the number and type of courses which we divided in two groups - basic and advanced. Basic courses include MS Word, Internet and MS Excel and advanced courses include programs for prepress and design (i.e. Adobe Photoshop, QuarkXPress, CorelDraw etc.) and web design (MacromediaDreamweaver, MS FrontPage). From October we organized Photoshop and Excel and other courses will be organized depending on the need of the women. Advanced computer courses last 4 weeks and lessons are held three times a week (each lesson lasts 90 minutes) and there is 5 women per group.

Also we are starting to organize lectures (for women on courses) about sex trafficking (ASTRA), about administration work (Women on work), about business correspondence (writing business letters, CVs) and also introducing the work of the other women‘s groups. All lectures will be held once per week in Women Lab. Also, our plan is to participate in different international computer trainings for women.

The other part of our program will include giving different computer services to women groups such as making prepress materials, design, web design etc. One of our target groups are activists in different women groups which we want to educate how to use better computers in their organization.

We plan to do evaluation using our standard inquires and also we plan to contact women two or three months after finished course to interview them and to see how they used our course or did that helped them to find job.

vrh strane