On 8 August in Prishtina, “Open Door” organized a training on empowering community women activists to further women’s rights and gender equality, which was attended by 15 Albanian women from Prishtina, Bardhosh and Hajvalia. The same training was organized on 18 August by “Ruka Ruci” in Dobrotin village of the Municipality of Graçanica, attended by 17 Serbian women. These two trainings, provided by these two Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) member organizations, were organized in the framework of the Empowering Women Community Activists to Further Women’s Human Rights and Gender Equality through Participation, Information and Social Media Project. 
      The Project aims to empower and actively engage women in decision-making processes as well as in sustainable development of communities where they live. In addition, “Open Door” and “Ruka Ruci”, through this project, aim to enhance inter-ethnic dialog by uniting Albanian and Serbian community women, organizing joint project activities and sharing experiences. 
           “Raising the awareness of women on the importance of participation in decision-making processes and informing them of the mechanisms related to the decision-making process at the municipal level is the only way for women to understand the importance of advocacy and active participation”, Nevenka Rikalo, representative of “Ruka Ruci” organization, said. She further noted the fact that the problems faced by the women in the Municipality of Prishtina and in the Municipality of Graçanica are similar and that she believes that sharing experiences will positively affect the inter-ethnic dialog of these communities. “After sharing experiences and establishing advocacy strategies, women will have the opportunity together with us to participate in advocacy meetings in their respective municipalities”, Belgjyzare Muharremi, representative of the “Open Door” organization, said. She further mentioned the fact that participation of women in advocacy meetings will have a direct impact in empowering women and in their active engagement in decision-making processes. 
The attendants expressed their gratitude for this project, leaving satisfied with all the knowledge gained. One of the women said, “I look forward to the meeting where women of the two communities would sit together and discuss about the problems in the communities in which we live”. 
This project is supported by the Kosovo Women’s Fund (KWF), and funded by the European Union Office in Kosovo.