Within the project “Young Women for Peace in Kosovo and Serbia” has completed the second part of the Spring School of Feminism. Twenty-one young women from Kosovo and Serbia have been part of this module by being committed to cooperatively bring positive change in the community where they live for both women’s rights and peacebuilding.

This school started on November 3, and ended on November 06, 2017. The opening of this module was carried out by the “Do not Hold” performance, which received very much attention, after which we continued with the discussion together with the actresses . The participants of this school have shown how they have experienced within themselves this performance and the issue of sexual harassment in the countries where they live.

On the second day we started with the lecturer Jeta Krasniqi on the subject of “Sexual Conflict Sexual Violence” which started with the history, definitions, consequences and treatment of international norms. Whereas, the second part of the lecture is focused more on gender violence.
The lecture was completed with a discussion on the government commission for the verification and recognition of persons raped by the case of Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.

In the second part of the day, we continued with the activist Xhejrane Lokaj, who with her personal stories and the way she confessed her personal life and sacrifice has inspired all the young women and captivated her with her very powerful stories . At the end of the lecture
Xhejrane made a great message to young women saying that the biggest challenge of all is the ones that have no courage to change and that girls’ education should be the priority of activist movements.

On the third day we started with exercises “Zumba” by Fjolla Dumani, which activity has been energetic and educational for our bodily movements. Fjolla has brought group innovation to how we can look after our body and how to use dance to get rid of
the stresses of the day.

After this session we continued with Igballe Rogova with her strong lecture “Co-operation and movement of women from the 90s”. The stories described by Igball have been touching and inspirational at the same time.

In the rest of the day, we continued with Valdete Idrizi on “Peace and Activism” this session started discussing peaceful activism in divided communities with a focus on women with questions and answers and an exercise that has sparked great interactivity between the group.

The day ended with a joint initiative of young women from Kosovo and Serbia with a panel discussion on “Patriarchy in which we live”. During this panel was discussed about the experiences of women in the region, showing for their similarities and the sacrifices and ways they fight the patriarchy in their society.

The last day ended with a more artistic session “Theater Based Education” and “Forum Theater” by Zana Hoxha Krasniqi. Participants learned about theatrical techniques for building forum theater performances, the discussion process with the public, and their use in communities.

Many girls have expressed that this approach is something new and extremely creative, and one has expressed her interest in the changes that can be made in the community and henceforth looks at the forum theater as the most influential way.

In the end, the spring school of feminism ended with many positive comments, evaluating it as a very important experience in their personal and professional aspect. A participant from Serbia, Milena Baran pointed out: The feminist spring school is a special experience for me, and a bit initial to the different things in my life. There I met with sisters of the same mind, friends, activists with whom I will be happy to cooperate. I am absolutely certain that the relationship we have created with the school will keep us and will bring us very beautiful things in the future.

All participants in the end have been certified to have successfully completed the second part of the spring school of feminism, organized by the Center for Art and Community – Artpolis / Kosovo in cooperation with the Alternative Center for Young Girls / Serbia with support from Kvinna till Kvinna .