Gender Equality Serbia Project #29346

With Education Against Violence Toward Girls

by Centar for girls

With Education Against Violence Toward Girls

Project Report | Dec 2, 2019
Solidarity is one of our basic principles

By Marija Virijevic | Project Leader

Support to a teenage girl from Zadar

In the past three months, we have pointed to the problem of violence against little girls, girls, and women through street actions, theater, television appearances and campaigns through social networks.

- We had three fantastic street actions.

* We send support to a teenage girl from Zadar (Croatia), a victim of sexual violence, and made it clear that impunity was also a crime. We held a banner labeled "Justice for Girls" and made a short video.

* By street action in front of the Basic Public Court in Niš, we supported Marija L. from Brus and send her a message that she is not alone. We called on the competent authorities for the accused to receive the appropriate sentence, and also we informed the citizens about the case. Support and solidarity rallies with Marija are being organized before a court hearing in front of the Basic Court in Kruševac (and a few other cities) against Milutin J., the former mayor of Brus, on the basis of a criminal complaint by Marija L. for sexual harassment of abuse of office.

* With the performance "Women's Cemetery" in Obrenovic Street in Niš we stood for all those whose voice can no longer be heard. Since the beginning of 2019, at least 25 women in Serbia have been killed by their partners, former partners and closest male family members. 16 Days of Activism is a global, worldwide campaign marked by over 5,000 organizations in 180 countries. The campaign begins on November 25th withInternational Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and ends on December 10th with International Human Rights Day. In Serbia, every 10 days 1 woman is killed by her partner, ex-partner or male family member.

- In Health Center in Niš, we were part of the program on the occasion of November 25th - International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and performed texts about violence from the piece "I Am an Emotional Creature" by Eve E.

- On the occasion of the 16 Days of Activism campaign, we had 2 TV appearances

- We have launched a campaign (and we are still in it) on the social networks "Recognize Violence and Respond" in order to increase the visibility of this problem and thus try to bring to people, first of all, girls and women, closer to what violence is and how it works. Till now posts have 130,000 reaches, 468 shares, 18,502 views, and 39 comments.

Thank you for your attention.

Stay tuned and follow our work.

Street action against sexual harassment

Performance "Women's Cemetery"

At the Health Center - I Am an Emotional Creature

TV appearances - 16 Days of Activism campaign

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Sep 3, 2019
What we did during summer

By Centar za devojke | Project Leader

Hello!

Although it is summer, the Center for Girls continues its fight against violence toward little girls, girls and women.

This year we have realized the fifth Feminist Art Colony with 12 female artists.

We want to empower women artists to become familiar with feminist topics and incorporate them into their work, to change the image of society through art and to fight for a life without violence.

The girls / women who participated in the Feminist Art Colonies had the opportunity to hear about the issue of violence, human trafficking and women's health through performances, workshops and conversations with activists of the Center for Girls.

The introductory workshop was extremely emotional. Women and girl artists were opening up, presenting their personal stories, stories of their mothers in the context of violence or gender-imposed roles or positions in the faculties of painting, sculpture on which they have studied or are studying.

It was cathartic. Workshop opened up many topics that female artists have been addressing over the next week.

Part of the program of the colony were three plays:

1. Nadezda self-portrait in the plural

Nadezda was primarily a woman who, in addition to painting, was involved in humanitarian work.

She went significantly ahead of her contemporaries and this is one of the reasons why she was not understood in the traditional patriarchal milieu of the Yugoslav countries.

The play is about her struggle to make the life choices that she wants.

2. I am an emotional creature

The lyrics of this play talk about the various problems that teenage girls around the world face - identity, violence, trafficking, appearance, sexual orientation.

3. Invisible 45+

The Invisible 45+ show aims to highlight the various problems these women face in their job search, alarm the public, and point out the need for various forms of support and measures to improve their condition.

The performance was assisted by the Secretariat for Culture and Information of the City of Niš.

The other two plays are performed by the activists of the Center for Girls, which is very important because they are empowered by acting and encouraged to leave their comfort zone.

Within the 6th ArtFemine festival we organized a workshop "Painting Rickwand".

In this workshop, we painted canvas and conveyed our feelings and our ideas about how women and girls experience violence today. We should put into action the fight against violence against girls and women, and it starts with an education that would empower at least one person who would then pass on. The canvas was painted by 11 girls and women and three children.

The workshop was led by artist and associate of the Center for Girls Milena.

Until next time.

The Center for Girls team

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May 31, 2019
Empowering

By Marija Virijevic | Project Leader

Workshop with girls in small place Babusnica

In last three months (march, april, may) within of the project ,,Education against violence toward girls'' the activists of Center for Girls held 1 workshop, perform twice theatar play ,,Invisible women 45+” and held education for girls and women to protest themselves from violence.

Workshop with high school girls in small place Babusnica

The atmosphere at the workshop was pleasant. Most of the girls were open to discussion and expressed their desire for further cooperation. We also heard various opinions and examples from life on this topic. They already knew a lot of things what is seen from the questionnaire that is being done in our workshops before and after the workshop.

15 girls participated on wokrshops in Babušnica.

From the evaluation of the girls who passed the workshop you can see what they learned and what they liked:

I like that everyone can express their opinions and everyone's opinion is respected. I heard something about the law. The organization should expand and visit other parts of Serbia more often.
I learned what is actually violence and that the victim is never guilty.
I liked everything, and I particularly like the fact that we have talk about this topic through examples and even better understood everything.

Workshop were done in place cold Babušnica, near Pirot in high schools new for us and were led by Marta and Silvija.

Theatar play ,,Invisible 45+”

The theatar play talks about women over 45 years of age and job-finding problems and presents their life stories. In a waiting room in the newly established South Korean company, five women meet with different life stories, desires, dreams and one common goal - to get a job. Theater play ,,The Invisible 45+'' aims to point out the various problems that these women face in the search for jobs, to alert the public and to point out the need for various forms of support and measures to improve their condition.

,,Only engaged art, art that tackles community problems and points to disenfranchised, oppressed and discriminated, has reasons to exist" - actress and author of the play. Activists of Center for girls are co-authors of this play.

Two performances of this play were seen by 68 people.

Protect yourself from violence - practical education

The Center for Girls held education for 25 girls and women titled "Protect yourself from violence - practical education".The education consisted of two parts: 1. Identifying and understanding the mechanism of violence against girls / women in order to prevent and / or exit from the same - leader Tatjana and 2. Basic principles of self-defense with presentation of techniques and simulation of real situations - leader Andrijan, the author of the book Self defence basic principles and practical application.

For more information you can follow us on our facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/CentarZaDevojke/

That's it. See you soon with new things

Theatar play ,,Invisible 45+" - Labor rights

Protect yourself from violence

Practical education - self defence

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