September 23 to September 30 representatives from Seven in Stockholm visited Serbia and Montenegro for start-up meetings to explore the possibilities of arranging Seven in Montenegro sometime during spring 2015 the preliminary date is set to 2-4 of March.
Initial meetings were held with the local project leader Ms Tihana Culafic in Belgrade, Serbia, followed by a meeting with Slavica Markovic-Sandic, Public Diplomacy and communication officer at the Embassy of Sweden in Belgrade, which is also managing the Swedish foreign missions in Montenegro. During the meeting the support of the project was given by the Embassy and future forms of cooperation were discussed.
September 25 was dedicated to meetings with government institutions and NGO’s in Podgorica, capital of Montenegro. The day started with a meeting with Ms Nevenka Stankovic, Ombudsman for children’s rights in Montenegro and at the time also responsible for women’s rights. Discussions revolved around the difficulties women in Montenegro face today and how the state support them by different means such as funding of one of Montenegro’s two safe-houses, local helplines and acknowledging women’s rights issues in connection to e.g. 16 Day’s of Activism.
Next in turn was a meeting with Ms Ljiljana Raicevic at the independent safe house. The organization ins funded solemnly by donations and help women who are victims of domestic violence at all levels of the process of reporting a crime, from hospital visits to filing a report as well as representation in court. Some of the issues discussed were the lack of data on how many women in Montenegro are subjected to violence as well as the low number of women represented in politics amongst others.
The last meeting of the day was held at the Montenegrian Parliament where we had been invited to present the project to Me Nada Drobnjak, MP and President of the Gender Equality Committee. Seven in Montenegro received great support from the committee and was even invited to perform in the parliament! Read more about the meeting on their website!
On Monday 30September the day started with at meeting with Ms Daliborka Uljarevic at the Centre for Civic Education in Podgorica. The centre are actively working with increasing the number of women in politics and the current underrepresentation on both national and local level was discussed together with the situation for the Roma population in Montenegro.
Last meeting for the trip was with Ms Natasha Nelevic, playwriter from Montenegro and also working with feminism in culture. Interesting and highly relevant discussions were held which concerned the possibilities and difficulties of promoting women’s rights through culture in Montenegro.
Our first trip to Montenegro was highly inspiring and we strongly believe that working with Seven in Montenegro can be beneficial for both supporting the NGOs work and position as well as giving the government a new arena to discuss the issues. Last, but not least, we strongly believe that Seven can be a big influence in empowering and improving the situation for women in Montenegro.
Stay tuned for more updates and information about the reading in Seven by following us on social media as well as our website!