On 10 September 2018, at the Sirius Hotel, Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) held its regular membership meeting, which was attended by the representatives of KWN member organizations and supporters.
Igballe Rugova, KWN Executive Director, welcomed the present, especially the new members of the Network, pointing out that the number of member organizations has reached 138.
She informed the attendees that KWN staff was working on a summary of the new strategy and that a one-day meeting with member organizations and the Lobby on Gender Equality would be held to work on Strategy 2019-2022.
Further on, she shared the information that, during this time, the Kosovo Women’s Network has supported the protests against gender-based violence with the motto #BollMa, which was used to say enough to the murdering of women and children, enough to injustices, enough to selective justice.” To date, such protests were held in Gjakova/Đakovica, Pristina, Ferizaj/Uroševac, Gjilan/Gnjilane, Kaçanik/Kačanik, Prizren and Vushtrri/Vučitrn”, Rugova said. She also stressed that the protests have already started to yield results, taking as an example a murder case in Gjakova/Đakovica, where a mother and her daughter were killed by her former husband and father respectively. “Our institutions have not responded to their cry for help, and, as a result of the protests, police officers that were on duty have been suspended now”, she continued.
Later on, Nertila Qarri Gërguri, Kosovo Women’s Fund (KWF) Coordinator, reported on the first point of the KWN strategy, related to the development of member organization capacities. She shared information about the 12^th round of the Kosovo Women’s Fund, which was open from 26 June to 10 July 2018, with a total of 58 applications received, out of which 50 were individual and 8 in partnership. Out of a total of 58 applications, 56 have met the KWF criteria. In this KWF round, the total amount for the grants will be €49,000, of which a maximum amount of €4,000 can be awarded to individual grants, and a total amount of €8.000 can be awarded to partnerships for change. This round will be funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA).
In the last part of the meeting, the members had the opportunity to share information about their recent activities and initiatives planned for the future.