Through project, the goal is to stimulate women who wish to improve their skills, to initiate activities in their communities and educate them for active participation in the society. Our aim is to enable participants to become trainers and to work on further educating women.
Activities
Through cycle of trainings, who were run by experienced trainers, we will enable the group of 20 women to gain knowledge and insights into various aspects of organizing and structuring of women's organizations, training methodology, needs assesment in the community, advocacy and various methods of problem solving in the community, women's human rights and media skills.
The first part of the training will take place during the period of six months through 4 modules starting in January 2003. In the second phase of the project the educated trainers, supervised and supported by CESI, will organize workshops and, in that way, mobilise women in local communities for working and dealing with concrete problems.
At the end of the whole cycle, the traininig will be organized in order to evaluate previous educations and to gain insight into acquired knowledge and skills and to examine further implementation of the project. In the last phase, project team will collect materials, design and prepare the manual containing the experiences and knowledge gained during education, which will be useful not only to the participants but also to other women in Croatia and in the region.
Implementation of Action Plans from Participants' of the Women's Leadership Project (WLP)
Having completed their 6-month training on the social, political and economic promotion of women, participants from the WLP proceeded to successfully carry out their action plans between September and December 2003.
A workshop on the Economic Empowerment of Women was held in Pula for representatives of local authorities. The goal of the workshop was to promote participation and cooperation with local authorities that can potentially have an impact on women's economic empowerment. A Handmade festival was also organized in Pula, in which 80% of the 75 crafts merchants were women. All of Croatia's regions were present, which gave the event an interregional significance. Participants were of all ages and included several disabled persons. The festival's exhibitors had the opportunity to exchange experiences, and to present and sell their products. Due to the festival's exceptional success, it was decided that it should become a tradition.
A WLP participant who is the co-ordinator of the women's initiative in the SDF (Serbian Democratic Forum) organized a workshop based on community needs assessments for a new women's group in Plaški. The workshop allowed the group to become more homogenous, and they displayed a strong interest in women's economic empowerment. Furthermore, a discussion forum on Women's Economic Empowerment and the possibility of planting medicinal herbs in the county was organized. The forum was very well attended and the majority of the county's population showed an interest in participating in the project, which should follow soon after the initial preparations. A WLP participant from EKO-Zadar conducted three workshops on the revitalization of the Zadar region. The participants were representatives of Zadar region's small business sector (people who already are or intend to be involved in planting the medicinal herbs or apiculture). The training covered various topics from business technology to making business plans. Based on the training content, a web site was created and a brochure published containing all relevant information on the small business sector in the Zadar region.
The youngest participant was a sociology student active in Špica, an organization for addiction prevention in youth. Within the organization's activities, problems relating specifically to girls had been overlooked, and so our young leader conducted two workshops for students and secondary school girls on gender awareness and on strategic planning for the organization. In addition to the workshops, she established a GIRLS INFO space on Špica's website where young women can gain specific information and understanding of women's issues. A participant from VIMIO (Vukovar's Institute for Peace Research) has been wondering for a long time about how to improve and organize activities for the women's groups in the Vukovar area. She organized three discussion forums on Women's Organizing in Slavonia – Past and Present, in Vukovar, Dalj and in Bijelo Brdo. In addition, she organized an exhibit of Handicrafts from women's organizations in Eastern Slavonia, with the profits going to charity.
Although the Women's Initiative SDF Knin has existed since 2002, the Initiative became active in February 2003. A participant from the Women's Initiative SDF Knin organized a workshop entitled Economic Empowerment of Women, which confirmed the fundamental interest of women from that area to become economically empowered. The follow-up to this workshop took the form of a round table on the Possibilities for Cultivation of Medicinal Herbs in Knin and the project is being carried out. Within the framework of the WLP, a participant from Split worked with her colleagues to generate activities for the women's group Domine. Their aim is the promotion of women's human rights and they organized a workshop on the Sensitization of women for social and political engagement. This workshop was organized for women in political parties and similar workshops are planned for the future. Prior to the elections, Domine also organized a discussion forum on Women's Political Participation
Influenced by the WLP, one participant founded the women's group O.S.E. Zadar. She organized a workshop on Women's Organizing for members of the group. O.S.E. became visible in the local community and media and is known as the group that promotes women's human rights. In addition, they organized training on Gender Awareness for youth in Zadar's private secondary school, and are aiming to pursue these educational activities. A former member of Stope nade in Donji Lapac founded the women's group Staze following the closing down of their branch office in Donji Lapac. She intends to work with older people and the refugee population. She organized a workshop for the members of her group in Donji Lapac and Srb on Advocacy. WLP participants from Obrovac founded a new women's group named Degenija. They organized a round table on the Presentation of Achievements of the ECRA Programs over the Past Two Years. Representatives of local authorities were invited to participate in order to gain support for their future work.
