Kosovo Women's Network

CBWK advocates for implementation of law on blind persons

02.10.2017

On 15 September, Committee of Blind Women of Kosova (CBWK) organized in Prishtina a round table meeting in a series of activities carried out in the framework of “More rights for blind women” projects. The round table meeting, attended by assembly members also, was held to address the demands and concerns of CBWK, including the application of law, equal treatment, etc., paying particular attention to the discussion on how to improve the application of law on education for blind women. In addition, using the moto “You deserve equal treatment”, CBWK expressed the need for support from assembly members by becoming blind women’s voice in certain structures of the government.
At the same time, during the meeting, lawyer and trainer Halil Kurmehaj said that, “Legally speaking, the law on blind persons provides for equal treatment, but these laws are not applied in consistence with the immediate needs of these people. Without setting aside their need for an advocacy plan, which infuriates them in the education perspective, such as the provision of school equipment or tables for blind students, provision of materials written in Braille, and employment at local level and inclusion of these persons in society”.
Other demands were about having a more advanced mechanism for urban transportation, namely installing acoustic signalers for certain starting places and stoppage ones, as a facilitation for their better spatial orientation, including the exemption of blind persons from payment. Discussing on numerous problems faced by blind persons, Bajramshage Jetullahu, Director of CBWK said: “We hope that more work will be done with this social category in order to integrate them in society as well as possible, with a particular focus on services of public transportation, education and employment”.
This project is supported by the Kosovo Women’s Fund (KWF) of the Kosovo Women’s Network and funded by the EU Office in Kosovo.

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Open Door organized the 13th Craftsmen’s fair

02.10.2017

Open Door Women Center organized on 14 September, a solemn opening of the 13^th Craftsmen’s Fair and Cultural Heritage 2017. The traditional fair was organized in the framework of the European Cultural Heritage Days, from 14 until 18 September.
While Open Door has, since 2005, brought to Prishtina the cultural diversity integrating and promoting various communities through this fair, the last one is considered to be the greatest manifestation of craftsmanship in Kosovo, promoting cultural elements and cultural heritage.
During four days, the fair brought in Nënë Tereza Square, in front of visitors, handicrafts of applicative art made in unique ways in textile, wood, stone, metals; folk costumes, loom works, various embroidery works, clay pots, traditional food from various parts of Kosovo and the region. Belgjyzare Muharremi, Director of Open Door Center, said that the work and efforts paid off through the success that the fair reaped, giving us the will to keep organizing this event in the years to come.

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KWN members learn how to write effective policy documents

02.10.2017

Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) in cooperation with its member organizations, advocates regularly to change the public politics at municipal and central level concerning matters important to women, from addressing the gender-based violence to accessing the health care. However, to influence the public policies, it is important to have strong evidence and arguments supporting our recommendations provided in these documents.
Therefore, on 21 September 2017, KWN organized an interactive workshop on “Writing effective policy documents”, held at EU Information and Cultural Center in Prishtina, in order to provide support to its member organizations in refining the writing of policy documents.
            The attendees of this workshop were informed of the strategy of writing policy documents; types of policy documents; how to select the most suitable type of document depending on the field they advocate in; the content that such policy documents must have; and methodology that may be employed to draft them.
            When the applicability of policy documents was being discussed, one of the participants to the workshop highlighted that during their daily work in the organization and in cooperation with various institutions, they had noticed that “some of the policy documents drafted at central government level oftentimes are not that functional and cannot be implemented accurately at local level because of the lack of the budget to carry out such policies.”
            Meanwhile, a part of the workshop included information and discussions on the analysis of policy issues, emphasizing that an important aspect when drafting the policy documents should be the inclusion of gender analysis, social analysis and environmental analysis. This implies that during this process we should keep in mind how the policies influence differently women and men; how the unique needs of women and men will be considered in the framework of the project; what social groups are or may be positively or negatively influenced by the policies we are creating; how the policies can influence the environment; and what steps should be taken to prevent any potential environmental degradation?
            To support this information, one of the workshop participants brought an example of how we could include the foregoing questions when analyzing the program in a situation from our local-level daily life.
            “I think that it is highly important to participate in municipal public discussions and bring up these matters, with a particular focus on matters related to gender analysis. For example, a highly probable situation would be the blocking of roads during winter. When analyzing this issue from a gender perspective, a concrete example would be if we discuss at local level on which roads that are used the most by women when they carry out their daily tasks, say sending children to school, should be cleared the first from the snow.” She further added that during these municipal discussions open to public, “as KWN suggested us, we should push forward the allocation of the budget for matters of priority for us, and we should ask to see the budget documents which, as we know, are public documents, so that we can monitor whether these issues are indeed being included in the budget planning or the promises they have given us are being kept.”
This workshop was supported by the EU Office in Kosovo.

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Women of Krusha e Vogël learn how to draft a business plan

02.10.2017

On 20 September, “Krusha e Vogël” organized in Prizren a training in the framework of the project titled “You, too, crate a business; don’t hesitate”. This training was attended by 15 women and men benefiting from the project, representatives of the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) and lecturer Mr. Bahri Zeneli.

This training aimed at economically empowering women focusing on informing them of various opportunities to apply for subsidies and grants and increasing the professional knowledge on doing business.

Considering the huge unemployment of women from rural areas and their not being professionally ready for the labour market, namely in the aspect of business management, it was deemed reasonable to provide these trainings which result in them being trained to direct their businesses in the future. In addition, taking into account the fact that women in rural areas, particularly those from Krusha e Vogël, do handicrafts and carry out various agricultural activities such as seeding and cultivating various fruits and vegetables, the organization deemed it reasonable to work with them and to make them exercise their ‘craftsmanship’ or activities as a business, thus providing themselves and their families with a higher living standard.

During this training, the topics that were discussed were: writing a draft-proposal, narrative budget, logical framework, work plan and keeping business finances. At first, the participants were explained a basic form of business plan and all the elements it must contain. Besides lectures, the participants worked together with the lecturer to create a draft-proposal template which served as a practical drafting sample.

While this was the first time for many beneficiaries to participate in such workshop, what they learnt was very important, and they hoped that they will include in business plans their ideas to open small businesses and apply to donors for various subsidies.

This project was supported by Kosovo Women’s Fund (KWF) of the Kosovo Women’s Network and funded by Austrian Development Agency (ADA).

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Female students informed of sexually transmitted diseases

02.10.2017

On 21 September, Association for Education and Family Care (AEFC) held a meeting in the framework of the project titled “An educated woman—a healthy society”. This meeting was attended by 35 female students of 8^th and 9^th grades of Shaban Golaj Elementary School in Lipovec village, Gjakova.

The general goal of this meeting was raising the women’s awareness of the risk of unwanted pregnancies, right to health care, and risk of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDS.

“Taking into account the experience of the organization and field research, it was considered reasonable to deal with this matter because the girls’ level of knowledge on sexual health is extremely low and cases where they have been infected by such diseases have not been uncommon”, Fikrije Komoni from AEFC said.

The students were given explanations about HIV virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, the causes HIV which might turn into AIDS, symptoms, ways of transmission and prevention. In addition, other topics were also discussed which were to the interest of the women students such as the menstrual cycle; the young girls were offered the opportunity to hold consultations and conversations with gynecologists.

One of the students said that, “This is the first time we were lectured on these topics” and that during this meeting “we have learnt a lot about reproduction health”. She further added that at the beginning of the lecture, when the topic was introduced, she felt shy because she could discuss about these topics only with her mother, sister or female friends and not in the presence of many girls.

At the end of the meeting, the girls were given a questionnaire which contained basic questions on reproduction health, which will help girls draw conclusions on their knowledge on this field relevant to their age.

This project was supported by the Kosovo Women’s Fund (KWF) of the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) and funded by the European Union Office in Kosovo.

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American Student helps KWN further their Gender Analysis of Kosovo

01.10.2017

Lauren Hanna is in her final year at the University of Washington, studying Public Health with a focus on epidemiology and women’s health. She interned this summer with the Kosovo Women’s Network, furthering a myriad of different projects but focusing on the completion of the Gender Analysis.

This project is part of the EU GAP II Action Plan, in order to draft concrete recommendations to Kosovar Institutions and the European Union office in relation to disparities between the genders. It also looks at the intersection of gender and ethnicity, calling into question some of the deep-rooted problems Kosovo faces currently.

Her favorite part of the experience was working alongside some of the most amazing and inspiring women she has ever met. She feels incredibly lucky to have contributed to important research, setting up workshops, and drafting policy briefs/project proposals in a country that is rapidly changing and growing.

Lauren is passionate about gender equity, and making sure that women have the resources to meet their full potentials. She was becoming disheartened with the NGO community, seeing that most of their grant money was going back into the organizations and salaries rather than the community. Then she started working for Kosovar Women’s Network.

“It’s such a blessing to have met the KWN women who are so passionate about what they are doing, and who really care changing the lives of women in their communities. It is rare to find such a prominent CSO who has remained true to their core values and beliefs, and who put 110% of what they get, back into the country.”

She looks forward to remaining on the Gender Analysis project until its completion while she returns back to school, and hopes to return to Kosovo sometime in the near future.

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KWN, KGSC and Women’s Association for Human Rights are informed of the Austrian legal framework for the prevention of violence against women

01.10.2017

Organized by Kvinna Till Kvinna, three organizations from Kosovo were given the opportunity to get closely acquainted, from 18 to 21 September, with the legal framework of Austria regarding the fight against and protection from violence against women.
In the framework of this visit, the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) and its member organizations–Kosovo Gender Studies Center (KGSC) and Women’s Association for Human Rights, were given the opportunity to pay visits for three days to institutions and meet with representatives of various Austrian institutions, the goal of which is to provide aid to women and girls who experienced violence.
Participants from Kosovo had the opportunity to closely see the work done by the Domestic Abuse Intervention Centers, Counseling Centers for Violent Men, Women Against Violence Network, shelters, Agency for Fundamental Rights, OSCE, Ministry of Health and Women, District Court, Department for Women’s Affairs, and Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The fact that in Austria the interest in preventing and fighting against the violence against women was one of the local government priorities was extremely important to the participants. The Department for Women’s Affairs informed the participants that the budget allocated for women is one of the highest budget lines of the Austrian Government, and is one of the lines which, unlike other lines, never decreases.
Besides participants from Kosovo, participants to this study visit included representatives of women’s organizations from the region—Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia and Albania.

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Women in the Municipality of Obiliq learn how to draft a business plan

01.10.2017

Education Code Organization organized a three-day workshop in the framework of the project “Women entrepreneurs”, in the Municipality of Obiliq. The general goal of this project is the economic empowerment of Kosovo women entrepreneurs and building their capacities in the domain of business and entrepreneurship.
            Education Code organize this workshop considering the extremely low number of women involved in business, particularly those in rural areas; based on the statistics obtained by the Gender Equality Agency in the Office of the Prime Minister, it turns out that, “Only one-ninth of businesses in Kosovo are owned by women.” Furthermore, referring to the same source, “Women in Kosovo own 11% of businesses. Therefore, 99.9% of businesses owned by women are micro-enterprises, having from 1 to 9 workers. Because of the lack of consultancy, trainings and capacity building for women in business, most of women-led businesses are forced to stop their activities after a short time.”
            During the first day of the workshop, it was discussed about the goal of the project and what will be done during this workshop; during the second day, the topic “Establishment and development of micro-enterprises” was dealt with.
            On the third day, the topic discussed in the workshop was “Creating a business plan”, with 14 women participating. On the third day of training, a KWN representative participated to demonstrate support to the participants and to closely monitor the progress of the project. On this day, the participants were explained in details how a business plan in prepared; what risks should be taken into account; what a business plan must contain; and that we must pay great attention to the market analysis because our demands in the business plan must be real and in compliance with the market prices.
            The participants were very pleased with this training, because most of them deal with some kind of activity that they exercise in the form of “crafts”, such as embroidery, tailoring, and bee-keeping, and they aim at expanding their business thus making it possible to employ other women.
                Director of Education Code Organization, Ms. Mimoza Statovci, had prepared for the participants a list containing published calls to support women with grants or various subsidies. One of the participants emphasized that she had learnt a lot from this workshop and that, “Starting from the next year, I will apply for subsidies to various donors.” She also stressed that this workshop “[…] has motivated me to work more and not quit regardless of potential rejections by donors.”
            Women expressed their gratitude because “now we know whom to address themselves to for our ideas”. In addition, one of the women who did embroideries, but how had never participated in a fair and who had not even heard of them, was put in contact by KWN with two KWN member organizations so that she can send her works to these two organizations and participate in fairs that they organize.
            This project was supported by the Kosovo Women’s Fund (KWF) of the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) and funded by the European Union Office in Kosovo.

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“ATO” informs and encourages women to register their property in their name

01.10.2017

On 22 Sep., Women’s Center ATO organized an information meeting in the elementary school of Smrekonica village in the framework of the project titled “My right to property”. This meeting was attended by representatives of the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN), lawyer Mrs. Ermira Musliu Hyseni, and 15 women benefiting from the project.
Based on the research report published by the Kosovo Center for Legal Studies which reads that besides the existence of the legal infrastructure, Kosovo faces with a poor application of the law on inheritance, in the context of women’s rights to inheritance, and unwritten laws that continue to exist. Therefore, most of women respondents think that although regulated by the law, inherited property is registered in accordance with the tradition and customs related to inheritance division. Although the applicable law acknowledges the full equality in inheritance, legal practices show that when reviewing the inheritance, and particularly when a woman has the status of testator’s child, she waives her right to inheritance during the trial.
Based the data collected from villages and the analysis carried out, it is shown that women, particularly those from rural areas, are not informed of their rights pertaining to inheritance. Therefore, Women’s Center ATO Organization took the initiative to inform women, who have a lower access to this information, of their rights to inheritance.
Given that the number of women who have registered their property is, up until now, extremely low, the organization held the meeting to raise the women’s awareness to register their property, enabling them to contact notaries and informing them of the procedures and steps they should take to register the properties. Apart from living in a patriarchal society, another reason for such a low number of women who have property registered in their name is that women voluntarily waive their rights to own property in their own name.
One of the women participants emphasized that she had decided to leave all her property in her brother’s name despite the fact that her brother had waived his right to inheritance; not only did he not accept the entire property, but he also allocated her a share even greater than the one she had previously thought. However, there are numerous cases where, in order not to degrade the relations with their family members, women waive their rights, which are guaranteed by legal provisions.
At the end of the meeting, one of the women decided to immediately initiate the procedure to register the property; she will ask other women to do the same thing.
This project was supported by the Kosovo Women’s Fund (KWF) of the Kosovo Women’s Network and funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA).

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Agency for Gender Equality launches Commentary on Gender Equality Law

29.09.2017

On the 14 Sep., the Agency for Gender Equality (AGE) launched its Commentary on the Law for Gender Equality. This commentary is of utmost importance as it will guide women and men on the proper implementation and use of the Law. The aim of the Commentary is to clarify, promote and simplify the implementation of the law, and ensure that women and men fully enjoy their rights pursuant to Kosovo legislation.

The opening speech of the launch was given by Kosovo’s new Prime Minister, Mr. Ramush Haradinaj, who noted that there is yet work to be done toward ensuring gender equality in Kosovo. He was followed by Ms. Selvete Gërxhaliu – Krasniqi, from the Constitutional Court who provided for a historical view on the adoption of the older Gender Equality Law and Mr. Nehat Idrizi from the Kosovo Judicial Council re-affirmed the importance of such Commentary being launched.

On behalf of AGE, Chief Executive Edi Gusia thanked everyone who participated, stating that the need for a commentary had emerged years before, in 2004, when the first Law on Gender Equality came into effect. She also noted that, although Kosovo’s laws have advanced, implementation still remains a challenge.

Mr. Hilmi Jashari, the Ombudsperson, emphasised the need to harmonize Kosovo legislation. Currently the Law on Gender Equality foresees equal representation of women, at all levels, as being 50%, which is not compatible with the Law on General Elections and the Law on Local Elections which both foresee a quota of only 30% as prescribing equal representation.

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