ASOCIJACIJA
ZA ®ENSKU INICIJATIVU
Association for Women's Initiative - AWIN

ul. Majke Jevrosime 39, 11000 Beograd * e-mail: awin@sezampro.yu

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Narrative Report
Association for Women's Initiatives, 2004

RESULTS

    • Gathered, printed and distributed of bulletin with press clipping on women's issues
    • Expended library and video library collections
    • Expended collection of archive materials (documents, brochures, leaflets, badges, posters related to women groups of Serbia and Montenegro)
    • Expended electronic database
    • Expanded regional activities among info centers by exchanging of data and collecting information
    • Increased access to information by adding new information on the AWIN web site
    • Work on a web page launched in December at www.rewindnet.org (Regional Network of INDOC Centres)
    • Organized and participated in various presentations of the project
    • Strengthen women's network capacities by technical assistance in over 100 round visits to the groups across Serbia and Montenegro
    • Strengthen regional cooperation among women's groups with AWIN's technical support
    • Work within the Board on cooperatives (initial body for promoting of cooperatives as an economic model, proposing new law on cooperatives drafted by Board members and supporting forming of new women's cooperatives by technical assistance)
    • Lobbying for legislative changes in terms of gender equality
    • Participated in the Gender Equality Council within Government of Republic of Serbia
    • Organized (or participated in) numerous seminars, round tables, workshops with the main idea - to promote women's equal participation in all public spheres.
    • AWIN was actively involved in the PRSP process (Poverty reduction strategy process)
    • Together with SOS Hotline - Center for Girls and Women at Work we have initiated a campaign against hate speech in the media and filed a first lawsuit to be had according to the new Law on Media and Information.
    • Welcomed women to our language courses and initiative meetings and workshops (Art and Psychodrama, Women and Health, Poetry workshops)

ACTIVITY REPORT

Indoc center
Funded by Open Society Institute

In this period INDOK center worked on the following segments:

  • Press-clipping
    During the above-mentioned period, we gathered articles from several weekly and daily newspapers. The average number of articles was between 150 and 200 per month; the most represented subject was violence against women, followed by the political participation of women, women and economy and the position of women in the society. Regarding other subjects, trafficking in women, prostitution, women activism in SCG and other countries, women in arts and women trough history (in that order) were also relatively well covered, as well as various researches.
    Among all these articles, we selected a certain number of articles for our electronic database and indexed them in accordance with Women Thesaurus. The avarage number of the selected articles was 35-40 per month, 420 altogether.
    The database and the press-clipping were used during the whole indicated period, generally by the students of Women Studies and Belgrade University, journalists, as well as by the activists of other women groups for various feminist researches and other purposes.
  • Publishing
    We continued publishing the press-clipping bulletin Presarijum bimonthly, in a printed form. The issue 16 of this bulletin (Januar-February), beside the press comments on trafficking in human beings and the relation between the criminal law and sex, also included special reference to the presence of gender-sensitized women politicans, as well as several selected archive articles from the newspaper Politika (donated by Neda Bozinovic), on the ocasion of the centenary of that institution. The issue 17 (March-April) dealth with the reporting about the performance "Sex-trafficking", which had a humoristic approach to such a serious matter. Beside that, special attention was (once again) payed to the political participation of women (mainly in Voivodina) and to the women activism on the ocasion of the celebration of March 8th. The issue 18-19 of Presarium (May-August double issue) was focussed on the phenomenon of an increased media attention to the prevention and elimination of domestic violence. In comparison with other months, there was a slight increase in the number of articles dealing with the position and activities of women in general and the media image of women, as well as of feuilletons about female history and ethnography. The September-October issue (Presarium 20) dealt with press comments on the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, political participation of women and the language of journalists used for discribing women occupying high political positions.
    The foccus of the issue 21 (November- December) was on the activism of women groups and their fight against domestic violence and violence against women within the traditional international campaign "16 days of activism against the domestic violence and violence against women", as well as on the media reports on that event.
  • Archive
    The archive material was also extended. We gathered documents, brochures, leaflets, badges, posters related to women groups of Serbia and Montenegro.
    23 items from the above mentioned sources, as well as from the Neda Bo¾inovic's archive, were added to the electronic database. The database was at the user's disposal during the whole indicated period.
  • Web-site
    The Web site was constantly updated and broadened; we worked on developing dynamic segments, for example news about AWIN's and other women groups' activities. We paid special attention to cover new activities - cooperatives, development of the Initiative for Economic Policy and, of course, of all AWIN's initiatives. We continued being up-to-date with new publications and actual researches. One of the plans for the future is to put some of the most recent publications of AWIN's Poetry Initiative on the web site (whose work has been regulary covered); we're also planning to continue the cooperation with Women At Work in a way to publish their bulletin Z in the electronic form.
    During the above mentioned period, the web site was completely technically redisigned in order to offer an easier access to the information and the content.
    In cooperation with other groups belonging to the regional network of Info centers, we participated in designing the REWNET site (www.rewnet.org).

Work within the REWIND NET
Indok Center participated in the annual meeting of the Regional Network of INDOC centers, held in Estonia; at that meeting we discussed about the goals achieved in 2004 and the plans for 2005. REWIND NET took part in several international conferences, worked on completing the database, designing and fund-raising for the web site. One of our activities is also the work on a web page launched in December at www.rewindnet.org , consisting of several parts.
At the meeting, once again it was prooved that the cooperation between the centers and the exchange of experience was absolutely necessary. The plans for the next year include the updating of regional directorium of women groups, development of the web site, expert exchange and further work on the Thesaurus and the organization of the next annual regional meeting. One of the plans is also a television monitoring, if we manage to raise necessary funds. Considering the fact that OSI will finance the project till May 2005, the future fund-raising and possible strategies were also discussed .

Project promotion
We presented our project to many women groups of Serbia and Montenegro, Kosovo, Palestine (within the programme Women Can Do It), Germany, USA, Jordan, Albania, etc. We promoted the project itself, as well as the research - press monitoring of violence against women within the journalists' education programme, carried out by Reconstruction Fund - women fund. We've already arranged further promotion of our project at the seminars "Women and Media" (within the project Women Can Do It); we are also planning to present our project to the students of Women Studies and Belgrade University.

Women's Movement - Women's Network
Funded by KtK

Political context from the end of 2003 and 2004

  • Parliamentary elections
    The early parliamentary elections were held in the aftermath of a failed presidential election in November 2003 (due to the failure to reach a voter turnout of 50%), in which the Serbian Radical Party candidate, Tomislav Nikolic, received more votes than Dragoljub Micunovic, the candidate of the ruling coalition.

    Results of the parliamentary elections: 28 December 2003:
    Party % of votes amount of seats (total 250)
    Serbian Radical Party (SRS) 27.7% (82)
    Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) 18.0% 53
    Democratic Party (DS) 12.6% 37
    G17 Plus 11.7% 34
    Serbian Renewal Movement - New Serbia (SPO-NS) 7.8% 23
    Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) 7.4% 2
    Together for Tolerance 4.0%
    Democratic Alternative 2.1%
    For National Unity 1.7%
    Otpor 1.6%
    Independent Serbia 1.1%
    Liberals of Serbia 0.7%
    Socialist National Party - National Block 0.6%
    Defence and Justice 0.5%
    Reformists - Social Democratic Parties of Vojvodina-Serbia 0.5%
    Economic Power of Serbia and Diaspora 0.4%
    Labour Party of Serbia 0.1%
    Alliance of Serbs of Vojvodina 0.1%
    Yugoslav Left JUL 0.1%

  • Women representation
    In the previous Serbian parliament 12.8% of the deputies were women. While underrepresented, women held several high positions in the parliament and three out of 24 minister posts. In the elections, around 20% of the candidates were women. The lists with the highest proportion of women candidates were submitted by parties that did not pass the 5% threshold (Reformists - Social Democratic Parties of Vojvodina - Serbia 40% and the Labour Party 31%). The lowest share of women candidates were put forward by the nationalist parties (Socialist Party of Serbia and Serbian Radical Party and Serbian Renewal Movement- New Serbia coalition - around 10%). Among the parties that gained representation in the new parliament, G17 Plus and the DS had the highest proportion of women candidates (21-22%). In total 31 women (12,4 % of the total) were elected into the parliament, which is one less than in the previous parliament.
  • The new minority government
    The Serbian parliament approved the government led by Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica in early March 2004, after over two months of coalition negotiations following the elections. The new minority government is formed by representatives from the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), G17 Plus, and the coalition of New Serbia and the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO-NS), and is supported by the controversial Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). One minister (Labour, Employment and Social Affairs) is a member of the Social Democratic Party, who participated in the elections on the G17 Plus list. Present Minister of Education and Sports is Slobodan Vuksanovic People's Democratic Party (NDS) - collectively adjoined DSS.
  • Presidential elections
    Four unsuccessful attempts were made to elect a president (29 September, 13 October and 8 December 2002 and 16 November 2003).
    On 13 June 2004, a new attempt to elect a president was made. This time, the 50% barrier was abandoned. The winner of these elections was Boris Tadic, leader of the Democratic Party (DS). Tomislav Nikolic, candidate for the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS), won the first round with 30.1% of the vote, closely followed by Tadic who gained 27.3%. Quite surprisingly, Bogoljub Karic, an independent candidate, ended third place. Dragan Marsicanin (DSS), who was endorsed by the government, received only 13.3% of the votes.
    In the second round on 27 June, Nikolic and Tadic faced each other. The governing G17 Plus and the Serbian Renewal Movement allegedly endorsed Tadic. With 53.7% of the vote, Tadic defeated Nikolic, who gained 45.1%. Turnout was 48%. These elections are the first serious defeat of the ruling coalition led by Kostunica. Tadic however has already announced that he is not in favor of early elections.
    The presidential post is largely ceremonial, but the ballot is widely seen as an important barometer for the political climate.
  • Local elections
    Serbia's local elections (19 September), were marked by the lowest voter turnout since the multi-party system was introduced in 1990, with only 35 per cent of eligible voters going to the polls. As anticipated, Serbian President Boris Tadic's Democratic Party (DS) and the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) came out ahead. Close mayoral races in Belgrade and Novi Said resulted in a second round of voting, held on 3 October. In the Belgrade race, Nenad Bogdanovic of the DS won 50.3 per cent of the vote (235,627), while Aleksander Vucic won 48.3 per cent (226,086). In Novi Sad, Maja Gojkovic of the SRS won 49.9 per cent of the vote (60,347), while her DS rival, Borislav Novakovic, garnered 40.0 per cent (59,224) -- a margin of only 1,133 votes. In the City of Nis, Smiljko Kostic of the Nova Srbija party won the mayoral race with 62.6 of the vote.
  • Women's Economic Status in Serbia
    Economic status of women in Serbia has not changed much in comparison with the last period. There are no reliable numerics, nor analytic data on the specific women's participation on the labour market; as well as their perspective in other social segments. The state has not initiated any innovative means for the improvement of women's economic status; thus only sporadic actions coming from women's groups and other NGOs occur.

Serbia and Montenegro differ from other transition countries due to the fact that the initial position for reform process was self-management system, quite different from the centralized systems in other countries in the region. Secondly, the reforms started with a delay of ten years compared with other ex socialist countries. That is the reason why this review of socio-economic situation will be different both in form and problems taken into consideration compared to other countries in the region.
The reform process in Serbia practically started only after the political changes in 2000 by bringing two new laws - The law on privatisation and the Law on labour. These legal regulative were precondition for the development of modern (capitalist) market oriented economy.
As the reform goals are not clearly defined, these questions will be constantly raised again and again, every time a new government established or changed, due to fact that different political parties have different view on these issues. Some parties are closer to social and democratic approach, while the others chose the Anglo-Saxon, more liberal option. It results in non-defined attitude towards strategic social approach, which is visible in the process of bringing the key legal regulative. The present debates on the framework solutions for the labour law show this fact explicitly. Some changes related to the issues to be defined by a new labour law are: the opportunity for workers to share the companies profit, the increase of financial means for workers who will stay without job and who are not in the state social program, creation of state funds for workers whose companies went into bankruptcy. These solutions faced open resistance in some members of the government, while Council of foreign investitures, representative of the US Chamber of Commerce in SCG and domestic Association of Employers expressed their resistance through some media too. Minister of labour is, by the way, the only one representing social democrats in the Government.
Neither institutional, nor legal framework for defining and regulating the labour market are not complete, so it is difficult to bring conclusions about the efficiency of the existing institutions. This objection is related both to the labour market situation in general and to the functioning of this market from the point of view of women labour force.

On theoretical level, analyses of labour market are very developed and mostly inspired by radical streams of neoliberal way of thinking. The analyses from the gender point of view are mostly conducted within NGOs (A®IN, Voice of difference...) and some academic institutions (Higher business school in Novi Sad, Institute for sociological and criminological research...). Naturally, these researches and analyses possess more balanced approach, having in mind equally both principle of economy efficiency and principle of social responsibility.
To conclude, we could say that one of the basic problems women are facing in this country is the problem of poverty. Overcoming this problem could only represent the result of joint collective and individual efforts. The way to achieve this goal is a system, which would enable fulfilling the basic human right - right to work. For women, this demand has two dimensions: realisation of right to work and realisation of rights at work.

Branislava Bujisic, Women and Employment,
Conference - Economic status of Women (Southeast Europe)



The Network and its activities

  • Round visits and cooperation with the groups
    In the year 2004 the Network realized over 100 visits and assistances to different groups from Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo. Moreover, AWIN had the opportunity to meet and establish cooperation with numerous international organizations.
    Detail data on the performed activities included in interim reports.
    Achieved purpose of those visits was to provide expert/educational/logistic support to the initiatives of women's groups, such as: media presentations, round tables, public discussions, regional conferences, research, campaigning, lobbying, advocating, etc.
    The network of women from northern Kosovo (Serbian enclaves) had collapsed after the events in March (ethnically based violence); consequently, additional emphasis was given to the re-establishment of the disrupted connection. At the meetings with the representatives of women's groups from Kosovo strategy for inclusion of their groups in the activities related to the economic position of women was shaped.
    Women's groups were thoroughly informed on the activities of Council for Gender Equality (formed in February 2003, member Sonja Drljevic), as well as possible forms of societal engagement and mechanisms for implementation of gender equality and protection of women's human rights.
    Regular meetings with women from political and trade union networks were held. At one of the meetings held with member of the Social Democratic Party (Dragana Petrovic) arrangements regarding the strategies for lobbying in Parliament and Ministries, related to the Law on Cooperatives and improvement of the economic possibilities for women were agreed. The idea was to re-initiate the gender machinery on regional level.
    Issue of women's cooperatives raised the most attention within the partners. Therefore, that was the most frequently addressed topic. Furthermore, Cooperative Board had a lot of related activities, such as lobbying and advocating for tax reductions within the first year of enterprising.
    Awin has organized a discussion on the organizational and economic difficulties of the newly established women's cooperatives. During the meeting, Gordana Jovanovic from Nis, Board member of the Cooperative Alliance of Serbia gave an insight to the new proposal for the Law on Cooperatives and possibilities for collaboration between the Cooperative Union of Nis with the members of the cooperatives in Uzice were discusssed.
    Taking into consideration previously stated, the idea was to help the organizations to strengthen their mutual cooperation (based on sub-regions) by supporting them in a creation of strong and functional regional alliances.
  • Workshops, seminars, discussions and presentations
    Apart from regular workshops, discussions and presentations organized with the members of women's groups from the entire network (delivered for the specific needs, such as: feminist theory, organizational development - NGO management, building the strategies for action, violence against women, sexual abuse, trafficking in women, parenting, adolescent girls, ecology, women's health and related topics, position of women in labour and legislature, political representation, fundraising and writing project proposals) AWIN had been organized and participated in numerious eduactional projects:
    • At the conference of the Students' Union of Serbia in Novi Sad where we assisted in drafting a policy paper regarding gender equality in this association. This occasion actually represented formation and the beginning of work of GENDER GROUP of Students' Union of Serbia. The key idea behind this particular cooperation was to establish fresh collaboration within the present network (women from NGOs, political parties and trade unions) and to expand the sphere of influence among younger women.
    • In the seminar, the second part of the TOT focusing on the economic empowerment of young girls, organized by ANIMA, Kotor (Montenegro).
    Training was delivered to the future trainers and segments presented focused on:
    - Raising gender awareness of young women
    - Raising awareness and knowledge about economic independence
    - Introducing different economic models that young women can choose
    - Raising capacities for seeking jobs
    - Making the business plan
    • In the seminar on administrative and organizational aspects relevant for organizational development of women's cooperatives. Topics included: legislative norms, measures and constrains, book keeping, strategic planning of the development of cooperatives and SME (small and medium enterprises). The participants of the seminar were women who are members of cooperatives:
    1. Profemina
    2. Sofija
    3. Florans
    4. Sv.Mina
    5. Uslu¾na
    6. Alijansa
    • AWIN was a co-organizer of the South-East Europe Consultation Workshop: Women's and Employment alongside with UNIFEM. The workshop gathered experts and advocates from South East Europe who are involved in issues of relevance to the topic, including labour market economics and employment issues, in addition it treated the information and analysis of national statistics, as well as gender analysis, both quantitative and qualitative.
    The workshop served as a forum for exchange of information and knowledge that supported the ongoing work of the participants, who had the opportunity to share and compare updated information on resources and innovative initiatives to address challenges that women specifically face in the labour market. The workshop also served as the venue for presenting preliminary findings emerging from the recent work to deepen knowledge on the topic of women and employment at regional level, and to validate its strategy to support work in selected countries.
    • In the OSCE Gender Awareness Training for municipal Focal Points. The training was designed and tailored to the needs of individuals who applied for the position of municipal gender focal points. Its aim was to provide participants with the basic knowledge of the concepts of gender equality, discrimination, gender analysis, gender mechanisms, language standards, and alternative economic models for women, standards regarding sex harassment as well as cooperation and issue based networking with NGOs. Additionally, participants were asked to propose guidelines for writing Code of Conduct for their respective municipalities as well as map out the problems affecting women in their respective communities and propose possible solutions and plans of action.
    The goals of the seminar were:
    o To deepen the understanding of gender as well as gender based discrimination
    o To provide participants with full information about different gender equality mechanisms in the country, at all levels
    o To explore possibilities for action in the framework of local governments
    o To offer information on current actions undertaken in order to improve economic status of women
    o To provide exchange of experiences and space for networking
    • In another OSCE's seminar which was organized to introduce women on the candidates' lists to the concepts of gender equality, discrimination, gender analysis, gender mechanisms, cooperation and issue based networking with NGOs as well as internal democratisation of the political parties. Additionally, women were asked to map out the problems affecting women in their respective communities and propose possible solutions and plans of action.
    Cities that were included in the program were selected on the basis of their past commitment to the issue of gender equality and the activity of the gender focal points. Those were: Zajecar, Jagodina, Kragujevac, Krusevac and Prokuplje. OSCE has invited women who were candidates for the positions in local municipalities, coming from democratic parties: DS, DSS, SDP, PSS, Nova Srbija, Local coalitions, G17 and GSS.
    The goal of the seminar was to:
    1. Tackle the issues of discrimination and present concepts of gender as well as gender equality and analysis
    2. Give insight into gender mechanisms and affirmative action measures
    3. Explore spaces for cooperation and networking cross sectors
  • The Initiative against Misogyny in the Media
    Activities of IPMM - Initiative against Misogyny in the Media have been very hectic, due to the planning and preparations for the 8 March action. Members of the initiative have written a series of articles (Nadezda Radovic) and given a large number of interviews in almost all daily newspaper. We have also created a short documentary film raising issues of misogyny and hate speech in the media.
    At the occasion of March 8, IPMM has organized a public happening where many other groups took part. Several huge balloons filled with messages promoting women's issues and hundreds of small balloons were brought to the main square in Belgrade (Trg Republike) and sent in the air.

    The happening was followed by a round table where several people active in the public life took part (Ivan Medenica, Divna Vuksanovic, Nadezda Radovic, Jelka Imsirovic, Ljiljana Djurdjic) and a short documentary made by Natasa Teofilovic was shown.

  • Gender Mechanisms
    Council for Gender equality (formed in February 2003) within the Serbian Government had regular meetings during 2004. Besides its standard activities, the Council has elaborated and adopted working plan for 2005:
    • Development of National Action Plan for Women and the implementation of the first phase by priorities
    • Listing and registering the legislation acts, as well as research relevant to gender equality
    • Formation of the Council's Office with the database, adequate equipment and trained staff
    • Visibility increase and strengthening the role of women in social, economic and political life
    • Participation at international events on women issues
    • Cooperation with the UN, European and regional institutions (OSCE, etc)
    • Cooperation with similar institutional bodies in Montenegro, Council for Gender Equelity of the Assembly of Republic of Serbia, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and at the local level
    • Cooperation with relevant NGOs and expert associations from the subject matter
    • Cooperation with media and public education

Language courses
Semi-commercial courses

Objectives of the language courses:
Language courses in AWIN are organized in order to accomplish variety of different goals and objectives. Firstly, they 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, German and Spanish. The courses in these languages are organized at three levels: starter, beginner and pre 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 are skill based designed for students who want to improve knowledge of language in accelerated way. 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. The winter term started in January 2004 and finished in June 2004. The fall term starter in September 2004 and finished in December 2004.

Enrollment and groups
During the enrollment between 90 and 120 women apply for the courses. The main reason is that great number of women are unemployed or they have recently lost their jobs. Most of them are between the age of 25 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. In winter term we had three Italian courses(three starter courses and one pre intermediate, one intermediate), one German(starter), two Spanish courses (one starter and one pre intermediate) and 7 English courses( three starter, three beginner and one pre intermediate courses). In fall term we had six Italian courses (two starter, one biginner, one pre intermediate courses and one intermediate), one Spanish (starter), German (one starter and one pre intermediate) eight English courses( four starters, two elementary, one beginners, and one pre intermediate).

Interest in other activities in AWIN
Most of the women who attend language course also show a great interest in computer courses. They realize that good computer skills are as necessary to find work as the knowledge of the languages.

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 have been able to advance in their careers. 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. It is our intention to organize the course of French because women have expressed that knowledge of English itself is not enough in a very competitive work market. 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 essential in the work market reflects in the number of women of different age who want to learn it and in 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.

Art and Psychodrama

Psychodrama group in AWIN is operational since 2000. It started like a number of workshops done on certain subject (such as - conflict resolution, coping with aggression, relationships, parents and parenthood, gender, female identity, social roles etc) and continue as the form of work done with the steady group based on their own needs.
In this moment group has 8 steady members, and several “freelancing”, and they are all women with age range 25-55. Most of them are activists of their own organization and different groups, and half of them are activists from AWIN .
Due to the fact that group has its long history of serious and deep work on different subject, it function very well and it is developing into very cohesive and dynamic structure.
Psychodrama and its techniques are applicable to wide range of subject and to different group structures. Group had a 1, 5-year break because of my pregnancy, and now it is going on in the same direction. Before starting a maternity leave I made one paper based on the abovementioned group, and its typical “female subject of the work” and presented in at the International psychodrama Conference last year.
It this cycle of work I have noticed some changes with the typical and frequent problems of the group members, because they became more close as a group and more mature as the persons, the subject moved a bit more from the area of strictly personal problems with no connection to the group, to the more “group subject” such as: relationship between person and the group, feeling of loneliness and isolation of the everyday life, group rules versus personal roles, mother and daughter relationship, etc. This prevalence of common subject with the members are showing their tendency to be more group oriented then before, and to share much more very personal issue with each other which are not superficial.
Group members are willing to go on the psychodrama, as far as they have a need to it, and some of the members showed the interest of having the education for the therapists themselves. My idea is to open another group, which will be educational one, and to focus on learning skills for psychodrama therapy.
We have close and very satisfying relationship with all the AWIN staff, and will be pleased to go on with our activities in the way we did through the past 5 years.

AWIN's poetry workshop

Poetry workshops were organized on a regular base in 2004. The workshops topics (among the usual ones - poetry, prose through theory and practice) were: questions of the literary canon from feminist perspective, modernist art and literature, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Gertrude Stein. It also included a plan for making a new anthology of poetry/prose/critical/visual works, and for working on a film, or several short video works.
The mailing list was established (witches of poetry). The purpose of the list is in exchanging of materials, information, writing comments, etc.
The most important activity was work on the realization of the book (presentations of 13 poets - ®abic, Simic, Markovic, ©u¹kic, Seferovic, Te¹anovic, Roksandic, Velimirac, Pavlovic, Jovanovic, Savic, Popovic, Petkovska who have been worked since the establishment of Poetry workshop. The idea was to publish their poetry and the essays on their poetics. Two theorists, Aleksandar Trkulja and Dubravka Djuric are planed to have texts on young generation of Belgrade poets; and poets from AWIN's workshops are strong stream within that new generation. Large number of the activities of the workshop was connected to the language editing of this material, proofreading, and lay out.
In addition, four members of Poetry workshop were working on finishing lay out of the Anthology titled Discursive bodies of poetry - New Generation of Women Poets.
The anthology of poems and poetics was review in the following magazines and newspapers: Nezavisni (Bosnia and Herzegovina, written by Tanja Stupar Trifunovic), Danas (Belgrade, written by Radmila Lazic), Knjizevni list (Belgrade, written by Ivan Velisavljevic), Polja (Novi Sad, written by Predrag Krstic). The Anthology has been promoted during the fall at Cultural Center of Belgrade, Dom Omladine (Beograd), Segedin (Hungary). The Anthology is in a process of translation to English, Polish, and Hungarian.
We also had two radio presentations (each lasted for about one hour) at Radio Belgrade 2, and short information was given for Radio 202.

Poetry performance - presentation of Poetry Workshop poets
At the end of March AWIN had a participants in a World day Poetry Reading (Dialog among civilizations through poetry) at Belgrade Cultural Centre. With a help of Dubravka Djuric, they practiced poetry performance; poetry readings in several voices, reading poetry with slide projection, with music, etc.
For 2005 Poetry workshop has a plan to start working with the second anthology.

Women and Health

Initiative WOMEN AND HEALTH was established on September 11th 2004 as one of AWIN's initiative. Initiators and establishers were two doctors: Ljiljana Marinkovic and Ljiljana Bosic.
Activities were set to achieve some standards in health education and prevention of women's diseases. Women of all age were encouraged to participate and we were trying to empower and support those of them who already had some problems.
Activities in 2004:
• Counselling. We were organizing consultations with the doctors-specialists in AWIN office. The time for the consultations was set in advanced. IN 2004 we had just 4 consultations and we are not satisfy with the number of women, but, since it was our first year, we are sure that number would increase in next period.

• Workshops. We have organized 2 workshops with the groups of 10 to 15 women. Subjects of the first workshop were: Problems with health of women who are more then 40 years old and how to plan health examinations. It was held on October 10 and 12 women participated in it. All of them were very satisfy with the subject and the organization in general.
The subject of the second workshop (December 12) was - Psychological problems and sexuality in menopause.

• Texts. We had two texts on women's health in the magazine of Women at Work. The first one was about women and health in general; the second one was about breast cancer, prevention and the ways of controlling. The second one was about the flu.

• We also edited booklet on flu prevention.

Our plan for 2005 is to keep on with the all mentioned activities.

 
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