Symbolically, on March 8, we published which teams and girls had passed to the second round of the Girls Advance Lab project, i.e., the mentoring phase. On Friday, March 12, an introductory training was held for all of them. 😊 Although it was planned to meet, i.e., the introductory part lasts half an hour, and after that the first mentoring meeting starts. The meeting of 68 persons (60 members and team members) went completely differently! In addition to getting to know the teams and girls, (fascinating) ideas for empowering girls and young women were presented, on which as many as 97 young people will work – specifically 84 female participants and 13 male participants. We are especially happy that the men also joined and supported their friends and colleagues in this competition.
Talking about their motivation to participate in the Girls Advance Lab project, some of the girls and young women shared their experiences with discrimination and referred to that as one of the reasons for applying to the GAL. The support that followed then was amazing and just as important as the fact that the girls and young women decided to talk about their experiences, honestly and loudly, which we greatly appreciate.
The mentoring areas follow the areas from the call (GIRLS ADVANCE LAB: EUR 35,000 for innovative ideas of young people from BiH and Serbia), which are EQUALITY, EDUCATION, HEALTH AND DIGITAL CONTENT.
And who are the mentors with whom these young people have been working for a whole week on improving their ideas, in group and individual meetings? Meet them here 👀
Katarina Vučković – Topic: Education / Equality
Katarina Vučković has been volunteering and working with young people since 2002. Her work began in the Brčko District, in the PRONI Center for Youth Development, and today she works as the Head of the Department for Youth Policies and Youth Work at the Institute for Youth Development KULT in Sarajevo. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, she works with young people on a daily basis, but also supports youth initiatives throughout the region. She is a coach for youth groups, focused on youth activism and youth participation, team development, youth work and youth policy. She is very interested in establishing youth work as a profession in BiH, which can support the professional and personal development of young people. She studied youth work and leadership and is now a social work student. In her free time, she is an amateur photographer and a member of the fire brigade.
Branka Ivanović – Topic: Equality
Branka Ivanović is a psychologist with long work experience in the civil society sector. She works as the executive director of the IN Foundation. The focus of her work is children and young people. She is professionally focused on the topics of prevention of violence in the lives of children and youth, promotion of gender equality, mental health issues, but also education and youth activism in the community. Branka has extensive knowledge in mentoring, strengthening organizational capacity, but also knowledge and skills in preparing project ideas, writing and implementing projects. She loves working with young people and helping them grow and develop through new knowledge and experiences. Branka has diverse interests, professional curiosity and is looking forward to the opportunity to meet new young people who are ready to initiate change.
Maja Tubić Banović – Topic: Health
Maja Tubić-Banović has a master’s degree in pharmacy, and is a nutritionist by profession (and specialization). From 2006 to 2017, she worked in the pharmaceutical industry. Of that, 10 years for Bayer and one year for Jadran Galenski Laboratorij, Rijeka. After so many years, she realized that this job no longer inspires her. Nutrition, on the other hand, is something that has always interested, intrigued and inspired her. She completed an academic specialization in Nutrition at the Faculty of Food Technology in Osijek. In 2018 she decided to start her own business, with a huge desire to help with the mission of raising awareness of the importance of nutrition for health, but scientifically, professionally and without sensationalism.
Faris Bajrić – Topic: Digital content
With 20 years of experience in working in the media, of which five years on creating video content for social networks, Faris Bajrović is a person with whom you can certainly successfully visualize your idea. Format, composition, shooting style, equipment are just some of the items that will enhance and make your project visually appealing.
Milica Kezić-Marčić – Topic: Health
Milica Kezić-Marčić lives and works in Belgrade, where she completed her studies in social policy and social work at the Faculty of Political Sciences. She has dedicated her career to empowering girls and advancing the position of women. As a student, she started volunteering at the Red Cross, where she worked on programs aimed at promoting human values among young people. As the coordinator of the Anti-Trafficking Program, she aimed to spread awareness and knowledge about human trafficking and preventive action, especially among young people and other potential victims. She continued her activism through civil society organizations. As a case manager at the NGO Atina, she has worked on projects aimed at providing support to women from the most vulnerable groups. In addition to working directly with young people, Milica also has experience in implementing projects, their development and implementation. Through her engagement at the Center for Social Policy, Milica has improved her mentoring skills. She will continue on working towards empowering young people as bearers of changes in society.
Marijana Jović – Topic: Education
Marijana Maja Jović is a youth worker, psychologist, activist and feminist. Until today, her work was all about communicating with people, primarily young people. She holds seminars on various topics, most often on children’s, women’s and human rights, social inclusion, non-violent communication, teamwork. She also completed training in mediation, i.e., non-violent conflict resolution. She worked as a mentor, mostly with young people who want to be more active in youth work. She has participated in the development of various policies for children, youth and vulnerable groups at the local and national levels. She has been involved in research on the topics of positions and services for vulnerable groups and has dealt with formal and non-formal education and inclusion in education. She believes that working with and supporting young people is very important because in that way young people learn to be responsible members of the society and community in which they live.
Katarina Ivakić – Topic: Digital content
Katarina Ivakić is an entrepreneur and the founder of the first body-positive community Kataliza. She graduated from the Department of Management and Production of Theater, Radio and Culture at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, and is currently studying for a master’s degree in Culture and Media Management at the same faculty. She currently works as a digital creative strategist, copywriter and influencer manager. Also, she has been successfully coordinating the program “How to become an influencer”, which was attended by over 100 future influencers. In addition to her regular job, she started a body positive story in Serbia through “Kataliza” – an NGO that aims to build a better relationship between girls and women. In her spare time, she likes to sew, write, create micro influencers and make Instagram videos.
Aleksandra Galonja – Topic: Equality
Aleksandra Galonja is an expert in organizational development, monitoring and evaluation with many years of experience in managing development programs and processes of strategic planning and organizational capacity building. She has worked with civil society organizations and institutions from Serbia, the region and abroad. As part of her profession, but also as an activist, Aleksandra has helped establish and develop numerous civic initiatives and organizations dedicated to the promotion of social justice and equality.
Jovanka Uljarević-Pajkić – Topic: Digital content
Jovanka Uljarević-Pajkić considers curiosity and change to be the main drivers, and by combining differences, she confirms that every step we take is important, that it determines us and enables us to be exactly what we want and what only we can do. She graduated philosophy, but she is an IT professional by profession. She describes that she is, according to the poet’s inner aspirations, dedicated and organized like a martial arts master, tireless like the waves of the sea. She believes that we breathe now and here as long as we weave our web of knowledge and pass it on to others.
What are the next steps, after mentoring?
After some teams have participated in group mentoring for more than 10 hours or 1 on 1 interview with mentors, they will review and improve their applications in lonac and further work on and develop those parts that were least developed. On Monday (March 22), the teams will receive information which of them goes to the next step and prepare their presentation for the pitch, which will be organized online on Friday (March 26). As early as April 1, we will know who the winning teams are, which will then realize their ideas by October 1, 2021. 🙂
We would love to hear the experiences of the teams that are in the process of mentoring, have you been able to improve your ideas? Also, it would be good to present them to us briefly here in the comment. 🙂
https://giphy.com/embed/YRVUxiJP9z1lfE5htb
Our community will certainly remain open to all ideas, to monitor their development and implementation and support them in all phases of their development. 🙂
We implement the Girls Advance Lab together with the UNFPA BiH, the UNFPA Serbia and Violeta d.o.o.
