The Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) held today the second meeting of its membership this year.
The meeting was started by the Executive Director of KWN, Igballe Rogova, who highlighted the fact that Kosovo is an example in the region of the movement for gender equality, and how what women should do today is to increase solidarity with each other. This campaign for promoting solidarity, known as #RedShoesTuesday, was initiated by the KWN in March. Every Tuesday, messages of support for each other are shared through posts, and the members are also invited to participate.
“They are telling me that there is no chance for women to show solidarity with each other. You know how hard we fought to break the stigma for survivors of sexual violence. We did years of lobbying, and the stigma slowly began to disappear and solidarity began. Even with the Red Tuesday campaign. We started this year, but you should do it too, together with us. All these positive changes are useless if we don’t have solidarity among ourselves,” said Rogova.
Further, Rogova presented the updated KWN statute to the membership, which had been approved through a membership vote. According to legal guidelines, membership organizations are not typically advised to establish a Management Board. Nevertheless, the members reached a consensus that the KWN Board, nominated and elected by the Assembly, should persist in its role, providing ongoing approvals and support for the KWN staff. Additionally, a proposal to communicate through alternative channels, such as the joint Viber platform group for information exchange, was suggested and approved.
Rogova congratulated the members for increasing their capacities, which has also been observed in the implementation of projects financed within the 18th round of the Kosovo Women’s Fund (KWF). Next, she presented to the members the findings of the Members’ Evaluation Report.
“This evaluation helps us both as a KWN and as a KWF to see the capacities and know where we are. It is a great strength for the Network that there are 140 active organizations that have the capacity to continue working with both small and larger grants,” she said.
The Manager of the Program for Addressing Gender-Based Violence, Adelina Berisha, has spoken about the tireless advocacy that has been done by KWN and its members who provide services to victims of gender-based violence, towards the creation of a budget line Basic Services for Shelters in Kosovo’s annual budget for supporting the work of shelters. From this advocacy, this year the shelters have been supported throughout the year, offering services and safety to women and girls who have experienced violence.
Meanwhile, Program Director and Lead Researcher Nicole Farnsworth, while talking about gender-responsive budgeting, asked the members if they have suggestions for writing advocacy letters at the time when the budget is reviewed in the municipalities, they should contact the coordinator for gender-responsive budgeting.
In the end, the members discussed the problems and challenges that organizations face while doing their work.
Today’s meeting was made possible by Kvinna till Kvinna.
