On 4 Feb. in Prishtina, the Kosovo\u2019s Women Network (KWN) held its first membership meeting for 2019, attended by approximately 66 representatives of KWN\u2019s member organizations, the Kosovo Lobby for Gender Equality (KLGE), Kosovo institutions and other supporters of KWN\u2019s mission and work.<\/p>\n
The two-hour, proactive discussion was opened by KWN Executive Director, Igballe Rogova, who said that the implementation of KWN\u2019s Strategy is off to a good start this year. She added that the year of 2019 is dedicated to solidarity among women, especially among women in civil society and in politics at both central and local levels, as well as with women voters.
\nShe explained the importance of this solidarity and the necessity of getting back out \u2018in the field\u2019.
\n\u201cWe are in an era of solidarity with women in politics,\u201d Rogova said. \u201cI think that all of us need to go back to field work. I know that we have been locked a little bit in our offices. We need to get out of our offices because there are girls and women who expect us to knock on their doors,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n
In this regard, Rogova mentioned the importance of two recently started initiatives; a four-year Action entitled \u201cStrengthening Women\u2019s Participation in Politics\u201d, supported by the European Union office in Kosovo and a UN Women-funded initiative towards ending violence against girls and women through cooperation with the Ombudsperson Institution. Both new initiatives will support KWN and its member organizations in making strides towards implementing the KWN Strategy for 2019-2022.
\nRogova stated that like any other KWN project, accountability and transparency can be tracked for these initiatives as well, with every cent spent being published on KWN\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
Adelina Tershani, KWN Project Coordinator, said that the main goal of the new UN Women-supported initiative is to empower girls and women by informing them about the proper ways to seek justice and the appropriate steps from institutions responsible for addressing gender-based violence.
\n\u201cAs we have observed, these cases of violence mostly happen among relatives,\u201d Tershani said. \u201cWe intend to inform [people] and increase awareness on how to report a case to responsible institutions: the police, Ombudsperson and other relevant institutions.\u201dParticipants appreciated KWN\u2019s support. They also shared their concerns and information related to anticipated activities this year.<\/p>\n
Selvije Rexhepi, recently appointed Vice-chair of the Municipality of Kllokot, underlined that without KWN\u2019s and KLGE support she could not achieve to secure this important public post.
\nFrom the Organisation of Persons with Muscular Dystrophy of Kosovo (OPMDK) Resmije Rrahmani raised the importance of supporting people different physical abilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery organization needs to solidarize with women with disabilities,\u201d she said. \u201cWe do not enjoy the needed support. Maybe it\u2019s hesitation, or maybe it\u2019s because of the lack of information. We need more support because we all have some special needs,\u201d said Rahmani.
\nWhile showing support for women with disabilities, Rogova added that women need to support each other more also in public discourse.
\n\u201cWe need to support each other publicly, also in the field of work, and especially to work with women voters,\u201d said Rogova.
\nIt\u2019s time to leave behind envy and jealousy, she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is time to show the men who are saying that women only have disputes, to show them that we can cooperate\u201d she continued. We have one purpose: to go together where we want to go, to achieve gender equality in Kosovo. We have achieved changes in Kosovo,\u201d Rogova added.
\nLuljeta Limani Sylejmani from the Kosovo Women\u2019s Police Association explained that they observed the need for networking in order to seek their rights that are already guaranteed by law, but are not being implemented.
\n\u201cOur purpose is to increase the number of girls and women in police,\u201d she said. \u201cWith the initiative of the Association we have achieved to have a 30% quota for the representation of \u2026 women in this institution,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n
Adelina Berisha who is participating on behalf of KWN in organizing the upcoming annual Marshojme, s\u2019festojme march (\u201cWe march, we don\u2019t celebrate\u201d) taking place on 8 Mar., International Women\u2019s Day, informed participants about the regular planning meetings and that this year\u2019s theme is women’s right to employment. She encouraged members to organise similar activities in their municipalities like last year. She also encouraged members to take part in the annual event \u201cOne Billion Rising\u201d, on 14 Feb., organised by Artpolis.
\nMembers also shared information about activities in their municipalities, such as Mitrovica and Obiliq.<\/p>\n
In the end, participants decided that the next KLGE meeting will be on 11 Feb., the next Coalition for Equality meeting in Mar. and the next KWN meeting the first week of Apr., which will involve an all day, creative meeting on a Sat.
\nKWN will share information about all upcoming events.<\/p>\n
This meeting was organized with support from the Austrian Development Agency, while KWN staff members funded by the European Union Office in Kosovo, UN Women and Kvinna till Kvinna also attended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On 4 Feb. in Prishtina, the Kosovo\u2019s Women Network (KWN) held its first membership meeting for 2019, attended by approximately 66 representatives of KWN\u2019s member organizations, the Kosovo Lobby for Gender Equality (KLGE), Kosovo institutions and other supporters of KWN\u2019s mission and work. The two-hour, proactive discussion was opened by KWN Executive Director, Igballe Rogova, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3339185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3339184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3339184"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3339194,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339184\/revisions\/3339194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3339185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3339184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3339184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womensnetwork.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3339184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}