GIRLS ADVANCE LAB: Who are the winners and winning teams?

It’s been almost 4 months since we published the call for the Girls Advance Lab project and we’ll finally find out what we’ve all been waiting for – who the winners and winning teams are! Let’s first make a brief review of the previous period and the great numbers that marked GAL pre

🟣 We received over 70 applications from girls and young women from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, which showed us that young people are very interested and willing to work on empowering girls, young women and women and have an idea how to do that.

🟣 Out of the total number of applications, 31 ideas went through the Mentoring Phase! All ideas were aimed at contributing to the empowerment of girls and young women through dance 💃🏻, music 🎶, mobile applications 📱, web platforms 💻, plays 🎭, workshops, sports ⚽, podcasts 🎙️, film screenings and video production 📽️, viber chat bot 🤖, educational games 🎮 and content on social media networks. 97 young people came up with these ideas (of which 84 are female participants and 13 are male participants).

🟣 9 mentors spent a total of 60 hours in group and individual work with teams on advancing their ideas and preparing for the Pitch Phase, but also on their empowerment and personal development.

🟣 19 teams, by the votes of the Commission, were given the opportunity to go through the Pitch Phase and to prepare for their presentation through 1 on 1 mentoring.

🟣 On Friday, a four-member Commission listened to and evaluated the ideas and presentations, based on which the winners and winning teams were selected.

All of the above has brought us to this point – the announcement of the winners and winning teams! 🥁🥁🥁

K ArtKrug (Serbia, Jagodina)

This team wants to draw attention to the mental health of young people, through the performing and musical arts. Their idea is to show young people, through the play “I think, therefore anxiety”, that they are not alone and that their feelings are not a taboo topic that is “only their problem”. With a lot of music, people, lights and cries, they want to convey to the audience in a modern and realistic way the only outcome of the situation in which the play deals – to come out as a winner. In addition to the play, a panel discussion with a psychologist is also planned.

🌷 BIRAM ŽIVOT / I CHOOSE LIFE (Serbia, Belgrade)

The website “Biram život” aims to point out to the public in Serbia and the region the problem of a large number of young people – eating disorders. So, the site would be designed to have educational content about the types of eating disorders, the daily lives of people who face it and the symptoms. Also, the personal stories of those people who are ready to share their experiences will be presented. Topics will also be covered from a professional point of view, for which Dunja has already gathered a group of experts. At the end of their texts, a questionnaire will be attached on the basis of which each person can make an assessment of whether he/she belongs to a risk group or not. Part of the content will be published on YouTube and TikTok. You can follow this campaign to empower girls and young women to share their experience using the hashtag # biramživot 😊

🌷 GirlAct (BiH, Sarajevo)

The idea of ​​the GirlAct team is to record 6 podcast episodes about the position and rights of women in education, politics, sports and everyday life, because, as they say, the problems and situations they face day by day – women and girls are stigmatized. The shows will be available on TikTok, Instagram and other social networks. Their goal is to change society through what is closest to them now, and that is social networks. All team members share the same opinion – as individuals we cannot make big changes in the society in which we live, but together, as a team, we can.

🌷 GO!WOMEN (BiH, Sarajevo)

This team believes that with the help of the “Go!Women” application and good content, girls, young women and women could be given the opportunity to progress (every day) and show their full potential. They believe that in this way, a step forward in development and gender equality could be made. Therefore, the application would be designed in such a way that the user would enter their age when logging in, based on which they would receive the appropriate content for themselves. The content of the application will include information on education, mental and physical health and gender equality.

🌷 Zeneracija Stres (Serbia, Belgrade)

Zeneracija Stres is an idea of a group of teenage girls who “want freedom of expression through appearance, to play sports they want, to walk freely on the street, without worrying about someone waiting for me around the corner.” They also say that they want to provide a safe place for every girl and boy, where they will be able to talk and educate themselves about taboo topics that are rarely talked about. They plan to realize all that through TikTok, the most popular platform among Generation Z, which, they believe, provides the perfect space for that. In short – this team says: “Zeneracija Stres wants more laughter and less stress.” 😊 You can follow this campaign using the hashtag #ZeneracijaStres 👀

🌷 ITgirls SSK (BiH, Glamoč)

  • The team consists of Mia Ikić, Klara Strinić, Petra Popović, Teodora Maros, Mia Tomić and Antonija Pavić

This team of girls from Livno will create a website called “ITGirls SSK”, about the IT sector, with a focus on the stigma that IT is only for boys and young men. They also plan to organize trainings/education on different topics related to the IT industry.

🌷 IT FOR GIRLS (BiH, Sarajevo)

Azra, Naida and Admir will create a Viber chat bot with educational content on the taboo topic – menstruation. Their goal is to “fill in” a comprehensive educational program on this topic and contribute to the conversation so that this topic becomes common over time. 😊

🌷 INVINCIBLE ME (BiH, Zenica)

Adna’s idea is to create a website that will actually be a community where people will talk about the mental health of girls and women, but also things from everyday life. As Adna says – there would be ups, downs, dreams, advice and similar. Its goal is to show girls and women that they are not alone, and that there are many people who have been or are currently in a similar situation. In addition, she wants to raise the confidence of girls and young women (with a focus on girls in puberty); she wants to “teach” them that we don’t have to have an “hourglass body”, and that it’s perfectly OK to have “excess” weight. She plans to realize her idea with weekly blogs about equality, feminism, body positivity, mental health… and with recommendations from movies, series, music and podcasts on these topics. You can already follow her on her Instagram profile: @femental, and soon you will be able to visit her website as well! 😊

🌷 Step forward (Serbia, Belgrade)

This idea will be realized by creating a show “Breakfast with a cup of self-confidence”, where guests (coaches, nutritionists, gynecologists, psychologists, psychotherapists…) would talk about health (both physical and mental) while preparing their favorite breakfast 😊 Lara’s goal is to help girls and young women to improve their lives by taking care of their own health. “Taking care for ourselves means taking care for others.”

🌷 Od A do Žena / From A to Women (BiH, Banja Luka)

The idea of ​​this team is to create a series of fun/educational content, intended primarily for girls and young women aged 15 to 30 years old. The episodes will be released once a week on the YouTube channel and will last up to 15 minutes. Each episode will in a fun way with various skits, contributions and guest appearances “break” some of the prejudices that women encounter; send a strong message to viewers, and educate them on specific topics. In addition to the YouTube channel, this team will realize its idea on the social networks TikTok and Instagram, where they will publish daily educational content, short clips and announcements of the episode coming out that week, “behind the scenes” filming, polls, Q&A, etc. Their motivation is the desire to raise the self-confidence of their audience.

🌷 BALL IN A HAND (BiH, Tešanj)

Melika, Lejla, Sumea and Mirzeta are handball players and by realizing their idea they want to empower girls and young women who want to play this, often called, “men’s sport”. However, they want to motivate them to play whatever sport they want, and thus raise society’s awareness of gender inequality in sport, as well as promoting sport as a healthy lifestyle – both physically and mentally. They believe that we can learn many other things from sports, such as tolerance, resourcefulness, self-control, how to endure and appreciate victory and defeat…

🌷 STEMahaluša (BiH, Sarajevo)

STEMhahalusha is a podcast that is an “upgrade” of the STEM platform, a universal space for all girls, young women and women to learn more about STEM, but also to be encouraged in case they are faced/see devastating inequality statistics. The platform will be created in 3 main segments: HERSTORY (written interviews with successful women in STEM), WONDER STEM (articles on various topics in the STEM field), and SMOKING STEM (workshops, challenges, webinars). The goal is to raise the awareness of girls in primary and secondary schools about STEM sciences.

🌷 I’m here (Serbia, Novi Pazar)

As Sara says – it is difficult to find a person who has not witnessed sexual harassment of women on the street and in public at least once the, whether mentally and/or physically. Feeling it on her skin, she was motivated to help other women, but also men, who may find themselves in the same situation. Encouraged by the “Me too” movement, she wants to create a website “I’m here”, with all the unsafe places in Serbia. So, everyone will have the opportunity to comment anonymously on their negative experience and warn other people. It will also allow you to choose a safe route for all those who are in an unknown city – the streets or parts of the city will be divided into red (completely unsafe), yellow (risky) and white (safe) zones.

Congratulations once again to all the girls/young women and teams that won! 🎉🎉🎉

Now, perhaps the most exciting part awaits us – the Implementation Phase. So be with our lonac.pro community in which we will monitor the development and realization of winning ideas in the next 6 months! And we hope that we will have the opportunity to hear about the successes of other ideas that went through GAL, because lonac is there to support all young and proactive people who want to improve life in their communities. Thank you for daring to be with us during this process and work on developing your ideas, which we are sure will be realized in the future. 🙂

Once again, on behalf of the Girls Advance project partners, we thank all the teams, mentors, the commission and all those who in any way contributed to the empowerment of young people and showed that we are all together and we are all fighting for a more equal and just society!

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