STRONGER TOGETHER

The first regional joint meeting of all women’s organizations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia that support the Oak Foundation in collaboration with Trag Foundation under the title STONGER TOGETHER The path to creating a common strategy for the support to the women’s movement in the Balkans was held 12th – 14th October 2015 in Belgrade. Over 50 participants from the three countries had the opportunity to analyse where the women's movement is today, to voice their opinions and experiences about the strengths and weaknesses of women's organizations and movements, and make suggestions for the revision of the strategy of the Oak Foundation "Issues Affecting Women Programme”. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Foundation of Local Democracy. During the meeting, there was a chance for women's organizations to share good practices from the region on topics of functional women's networks that have contributed to solidarity in advocating for women's issues, followed by the possibilities for raising funds for projects addressing women and promoting women in public events.   The representatives of the Oak Foundation presented the strategy of the Oak Foundation "Issues Affecting Women" and explained the ways in which the Oak Foundation as the responsible organization came to the key theme of the strategy: combating violence against women, human trafficking and building the movement. Capacity building, supported by the Oak Foundation was yet another one of the topics presented and discussed, as well as the self-assessment capacity of women's organizations conducted by the Trag Foundation. This document will form the basis for planning further capacity building of women's organizations in collaboration with the Trag Foundation and the Oak Foundation in the next three years. The group work on the key themes of the strategy "Issues affecting women" have contributed to a better understanding and exchange of knowledge about the needs of the beneficiary, systemic changes that we want to achieve in the next 3 to 5 years, stakeholders that we need in order for the changes to be achieved and interventions that should be undertaken in order for the change to take place. During the training, an action of solidarity was organized with the victims of violence in the Peace March Ankara whereby we had together joined the international call for peace by the European Women's Lobby in Turkey. They also organized the collection of warm clothing items for refugees from Africa and the Middle East that will be taken and distributed to the Miksalište.   The second part of the regional meeting was reserved for training which was held by Alex Dressler from the organization Keeping Children Safe. The aim of the training was to train participants to develop, improve and implement policies and procedures to ensure the safety and protection of children within the organization. Based on the knowledge gained in training, the women's organizations will in the coming period develop policies and procedures to preserve the child safety, with the support of the Trag Foundation and the organization Keeping Children Safe.