Facebook group
by goldmankm
Kosovska Mitrovica
Young Activists in Streets of North Mitrovica to Mark the Day of Love
14. February 2012.
The Young Men Initiative project staff, accompanied by the Be a Man Club members (BMK), organized today a street campaign in North Kosovska Mitrovica to mark the international Day of Love and the national Day of Wine, which coincided with each other.
The campaign comprised of two activities. The male and female BMK activists were putting the stickers with love slogans on the jackets of the pedestrians. Other young pedestrians were asked to pose while carrying the BMK banners. “I choose to love”, “I love to love”, “Be a man, fall in love”, are just a few messages that could be read on dozens of the red and white stickers and banners.
The campaign aimed to promote a non-violent life style and to remind people of the need to show their love and care for each other. Although the activists went out in the very cold weather, the joyful stickers and banners brought wide smiles to many pedestrians’ faces and even a sun to the snowy streets of North Mitrovica.
For some people St. Valentine, for others St. Trifun Day, still, they all agree that wine and love go together.“The wine, too, reminds me of love, romance, harmony and life, and both holidays, which come from two different religions and cultures in one day, remind me of our global need to love each other and be tolerant”, said Ivana, a fifteen-year-old girl.
The Role of Women in Society
13. March 2012.
The CRZ and BMK organised a series of activities last week to mark the 8th March - International Women’s Day, while rallying a large number of youth volunteers.
Guest speaker Ivana Aritonovic, a PHD candidate in sociology, who is researching the females’ role in society, delivered a presentation in the Eve of 8th March on the historical context and importance of the 8th March. She introduced the many listeners to a brief history of the 8th March, from the first demonstrations of the New York female textile workers over a century ago, until the present times. The crowd acknowledged hearing for the very first time the historical facts surrounding International Women’s Day.
In the following debate - “Positive and negative effects of women’s emancipation”, the two gender-mixed teams, in a role play before the audience, advocated two dominant views in our local community – the pros and cons of full females’ emancipation. The debate aimed to reflect the current complex position and challenging roles of a modern woman, but also the man, with an emphasis on traditional, post conflict and transitional societies.
“A modern super woman – ‘The plus woman’ is taking many roles and competences from men, thus a modern man is getting more frustrated and weaker, the so called ‘Minus man’ ”, was one of the cons against the greater emancipation for women.
“What do you want for your mothers, sisters and tomorrow for your daughters?! Don’t we all want them to be well educated, excellent in manners and style, good-looking and well trained in social skills, equally as we want them to be good mothers, sisters and daughters?! And can they be good, if they are not happy with their look, education, eloquence and visible role in a society?!”, advocated the other side.
The well prepared and exciting debate sparked a heated atmosphere, equally among the debaters and audience. Moderator Ivana Aritonovic summarised the rich palette of the presented arguments and views, emphasising the importance of the public debating gender balance issues in the local community.
Furthermore, the debate has not been practiced in our local community, in particular, among the youth population. The 8th March debate at the CRZ was a unique opportunity to introduce North Kosovska Mitrovica secondary school youths with this old and important communication and knowledge-gained tool.
The 8th March activities were crowned by a public campaign. North Kosovska Mitrovica BMK activists, paid a visit to the city’s Technical and Grammar School, with hundreds of flowers and BMK message cards for the ladies – both, teachers and students. They used the opportunity to introduce the teachers, for the very first time, to the YMI Project and BMK activities. The positive attitude and spirit of the BMK activists were welcomed by the teachers’ spontaneous and strong applause.
The ‘Be A Man Club’ continues its activities. New members have just returned from the nearby mountain of Kopaonik, where they participated in a three-day workshop on gender balance and violence prevention issues.
It was the first time for the group of twenty young boys from Mihajlo Petrovic Alas Technical School from Kosovska Mitrovica to learn about the differences between gender and sex. As they grew up in a traditional society, many of them were challenged to make a clear distinction between an acquired cultural pattern of gender and sex, which is genetically inherited.
On the other side, while discussing violence prevention, the majority of participants were familiar with the different forms of violent behavior. They cited various TV programs, school, social initiatives and trainings that help recognize various forms of violence. And while having no trouble in raising their strong criticism against peer violence both, at a global level and in their community, the young men had identified during the workshop that some of their own manners in certain situations could be interpreted as violent; such as random verbal violence they had expressed in arguments with their family or peers.
During their free time activities in the snowy mountain resort, the BMK activists enjoyed both in indoor and outdoor activities; a chess tournament, movie nights, step dance, snow ball fight, walks and more.
The trip to Kopaonik followed the first BMK public campaign activities in 2012 aimed at rallying new members from Mihajlo Petrovic Alas School.
More workshops on the peer violence prevention program and gender balance issues are to take place in the following days.
Second Cycle of Workshops Completed in Kopaonik
20. March 2012.