Reception at the Government of Serbia to mark International Women’s Day

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, a press conference was held in the Government of Serbia on the topic of economic empowerment of rural women. Also, awards were given to members of Ethno Network, as well as to the institutions and companies that contributed most to the „1000 Women initiative“.

For the past eight months, 341 women have worked on products that companies or government institutions use as business gifts for their partners and guests. In this way, we have helped to engage women from the countryside as a vulnerable social group, but also to preserve our cultural heritage. I believe that by working together with the Government and all our partners, we can contribute to better results in creating equal opportunities for women and men in Serbia” said the Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihajlovic as chair of the meeting. She said that, as part of the „1000 Women initiative”, talks will be launched with the National Employment Service in order to support the training of rural women. Moreover, talks would be conducted with Serbian embassies abroad, so they can equip their spaces with handicrafts of rural women, as has already been done in one of the conference rooms in the Government building in Nemanjina. Mihajlovic announced that she will talk about the position of women in the country in a few days at the United Nations conference in New York, where she will present everything that Serbia has done in the field of gender equality in the last three years. She will also present this initiative as a positive example of achieving equal opportunities for women and men.

Speakers of the conference were also Violeta Jovanovic, CEO of NALED as well as CEO of Coca Cola HBC in Serbia, Aleksandar Ruzevic, who said that this initiative occupies a special place in the company’s socially responsible agenda, and invited other companies to support this initiative in order to reach and surpass the number of 1000 women in the country who have been given jobs in this way.

At the end of the press conference, the Deputy Prime Minister presented acknowledgments to the companies that supported all actions by engaging local artisans, to the state institutions that employed more than 10 women through the initiative, as well as to all representatives of local craft associations that are contributing to the preservation of Serbia’s cultural heritage.

An exhibition of handmade works by women who are members of Ethno Network, was organized in front of the Press room of the Government of Serbia.