In the last few years, RWF is supporting Pushbackmap collective through our Special Focus program. The collective’s focus is on documenting and revealing systemic, institutional violence and pushbacks at the internal, external borders of the European Union and other places. By illegal and violent expulsion as well as denying them asylum procedures and international protection, the officials are destroying the dignity of people on the move.
Focus on Focus
Focus on Focus: Okular – Feminist school Girl Power
Organization “Okular” from Ćićevac, founded by local activists who share ideas of equality, nonviolence, and philanthropy, has created, in the last year, with the support of program Special Focus a feminist school for girls and women form rural areas with the ideas of them starting their own feminist activists actions. On this occasion, we spoke with Aleksandra Milutinović about feminist school, activism and creating solidarity with younger activists.
Focus on Focus: Surviving healthcare
Although healthcare gained a public highlight, besides the diagnosis stating that it has never been worse and that there are expectations of further deterioration of public healthcare for cheap privatization, the obstacles and acrobatic navigating through healthcare remains a mystery of its kind. Through our Special Focus program, we have supported a research action of two activists, Marija Jakovljević and Jelena Veljić, and we have discussed the reasons, experiences and a certain exhaustion of their guide.
Focus on Focus: ACC Hero Maričić – Heroines of Kraljevo
Alternative culture center “Hero Maričić” is a collective near Kraljevo. Founded on the idea of antifascism, a nonformal collective gathers diverse people as it also hosts unplugged concerts, cooking of benefit dinners for different causes (survivors of floods…), supports local young artists from local high schools providing a gallery space, hosts different lectures, photography workshops, and it is also a place of distribution of clothing for Roma population, but also a space for friendships, chatting, and a stop of many travelers.
Focus on Focus: Jelena Jaćimović Jaćim i Aleksandra Mališić -“Hey, We Corrected This For You!“
Exhibition “Hey, we corrected this for you!” is focused on raising awareness about the problem of secondary victimization of women survivors of sexual violence. It was exhibited in Sava pathway in Kalemegdan in March 2022, and supported through the Special Focus program. During the hype of public discourse of violence against women, as well as its inadequate answer and discussion on the topic, one of the most successful campaigns remains the initiative #nisamprijavila. The exhibition by two feminist activists, Jelena Jaćimović i Aleksandra Mališić, continues this story by giving the answer to the question „why didn’t she report it?
Hleb Theatre – Stage play “Marija Ručara”
Towards the end of 2021, stage play Marija Ručara premiered at Cultural Centre Magacin, performed by Hleb Theatre. It emerged from the poem of the same name, once being forbidden and destroyed, written by Aleksandar Vučo and Dušan Matić. Through our program of Special Focus, it was our pleasure to support the development of this stage play, making connections between the position of women workers in 1930s and today, orbiting around the basic human needs of which people are deprived by the capitalist cruelness in diverse manifestations. On this occasion, we talked to Sanja Krsmanović Tasić from Hleb Theatre, who staged this play and performs in it.
Focus on focus: Self-educational university “Svetozar Marković” – A cycle of educational programs “Women workers, activists, theoreticians”
In 2021, we have supported the work of Self-educational university “Svetozar Marković” through a series of encounters devoted to women workers, activists and theoreticians working in the late 19th century and early 20th century, as well as the translations of their texts published in “Little self-educational reading book No. 6”. On this occasion, we are talking to Irena Ristić and Saša Perić about self-education, as well as about the significance of the translated authors today.
Focus on Focus: Volunteering Centre of Vojvodina – Travellers/Companions: Women’s Activism on Western Balkan Route
Volunteering centre of Vojvodina, an organization from Novi Sad, which, in addition to volunteering, promotes progressive practices and values such as anti-fascism, struggle against xenophobia, racism, nationalism, has recently organized a series of meetings of women activists supporting people on the move, with the support of our program Special Focus.
Focus on Focus: Collectivism and equality – “Far-right in Serbia 2000-2020: Politics, activities, groups”
In 2020, among the activities supported through our Special Focus program was also a research by a non-formal collective called Collectivism and Equality, with a goal for a deeper understanding of the local far-right actors. On 9th of May, Victory Day, we are happy to share an interview with the collective, as well as the results of their research, the publication called “Far-right in Serbia 2000-2020: Politics, activities, groups (available in Serbian only).