2012 – International Youth Exchange „Gen(d)eralisation“ in Sajan (Kikinda), Serbia, 17.09.2012 – 28.09.2012

Gender equality is the basis of a functional democracy and has been the fundamental idea of the Youth in Action project “Gen(d)eralisation”, from 17th -18th September 2012 in Sajan (Kikinda), Serbia. Young people aged between 18 and 25 participated on this youth exchange to discuss the topic of gender equality in their home countries and to share their point of views with people from all over Europe.

The exchange included the EU27 (Czech Republic, Germany, France) and southeastern European countries (Albania, Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia). The result has been that there is no country with gender equality. All the countries strive to put that theme on their political agenda but especially in the Balkan region gender equality has not the priority. Also in Europe there is still a lot of work to be done for this issue. The discussion uncovered the problems included in this topic (for example the controversial women quota).

Through different ways of gaining information like a round table with regional politicians, a trip to the regional government in Novi Sad or the visit of the NGO “Centre for support of women” the participants were given a better understanding of the gender equality ambitions in Vojvodina. Every participant was willing to learn something and was highly engaged, especially in the second part of the exchange: the art workshops.

In four workshops Video, Photography, Graphic Design and Sculpture & Painting, the participants had the opportunity to choose a creative way to express their thoughts to the theme gen(d)eralisation. The result has been represented in an exhibition in the cultural centre in Sajan, which was highly attended. The “Video” group presented the movie “Why not she?”. The point of the movie was a forbidden love between two women because the society doesn’t accept their love. The “Painting &Sculpture” group displayed their results as a collage and also as a big sculpture that included all sculptures the participants produced. Posters illustrated the creative work done by the “Graphic Design” workshop and the “Photo” group reflected the theme “Gender in the streets of Sajan” in their pictures. The “photo” workshop achieved collaboration with the local people and this was the opportunity to give them a better understanding of the topic Gender Equality. So there was also a cultural exchange not only between the participants but also between the participants and the people from the region.

The kindness of the hosts and the experience in this intercultural exchange will let the participants and organizer look forward to repeating a youth exchange in Sajan

The following organisations were involved into the project implementation:

• AKT (Albania)
• BHXP (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• Tmelnik o.s. (Czech Republik)
• CULTURE GOES EUROPE (CGE) – Soziokulturelle Initiative Erfurt e.V. (Germany)
• Centre des Sureaux (France)
• LDA-Struga (Republik of Macedonia)
• Generator (Serbia)

Further project information are available here.

The project was realised in the frame of the Youth in Action programme of the European Commission: