Empowering women and encouraging open dialogue about their position are key aspects of the progress of every society. The project “Montenegrin Woman Today – Paths of Emancipation”, implemented by the FEMME Foundation, highlighted the importance of strengthening solidarity and continuous efforts to raise awareness.
“Given our cultural and historical context, I think a lot has been done, but of course more needs to be done, primarily in raising awareness in our society. We believe this is the biggest, final and ultimate goal, and then definitely greater solidarity as well,” emphasized FEMME Foundation Director, Milica Marković.
The project lasted eight months and was implemented in five Montenegrin municipalities. It was carried out through the grant scheme “At the Right Time”, implemented by NGO Juventas with the financial support of the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro. It included workshops for children in what Milica described as three less developed northern municipalities, psychodrama workshops, a conference on the topic “Hate Speech – from Violence to Solidarity”, and a podcast series “You Are Not Alone” with ten episodes.
“The project was extremely important to us, both for the development of our organization’s capacities and for achieving certain goals we had set as an organization, namely the affirmation of women’s position in Montenegro and their more active participation in building a more prosperous society,” said Milica.
Through work with young people, conversations with podcast guests, and discussions with conference panelists, the FEMME Foundation gained a clearer insight into the position of women in Montenegro, as well as young people’s views on human rights.
Milica noted that through project activities they tried to examine the situation in Montenegro from multiple perspectives in order to gain a clearer picture of both the causes and the ways in which the position of women is treated: “We believe that work on improving women’s position must continue. Even much more developed societies still actively work on gender equality, and therefore on improving the position of women.”
So far, the FEMME Foundation has implemented all of its projects with the support of the European Union.
“We are currently working on a project concerning youth and youth policies, and the European Union is a reliable partner there. Last year we successfully carried out a project dedicated to cultural heritage, also funded by the European Union,” concluded Marković.
The project “Montenegrin Woman Today – Paths of Emancipation” showed how important it is to work on empowering women and youth through education, dialogue and support, and that it is crucial to have project initiatives that contribute to building a more equal society.
This is one of four stories, within the campaign of the Ministry of European Affairs on the occasion of International Women’s Day, created through the EU4ME project, with the financial support of the European Union.
Author: Anđelika Durutović