Projects overview 2009-2016
Production of TV show Robin Hood
April 2009 - April 2010, supported by RBF (53.313,40 €)
- Aim of this grant is do support more transparent, accountable and functional public services system in Montenegro with the focus on municipal, high and supreme courts, health, education and minority rights.
- To increase accessibility of media and civil society in decision making regarding public services, especially regarding minorities
- To train group of 4 people who will professionally conduct investigative reporting regarding performance of public services and responsibility of institutions of the system as well as their openness to the citizens concerning their complains.
The project has resulted in 35 (1 hour 15 minutes length) TV shows out of which 3 were “Specials”. Final show was specifically dedicated to the topic “Citizens courage and activism in relation to fighting corruption in the system”. The project was fully realized with on the air coverage of 108 subjects mainly related to inertness and insufficient performance of institutions, and in several cases directly related to misuse of power and corruptive dealings. The project have enabled establishment of citizens-media-NGO network and have increased interest from people and their access to our show (in form of reporting the problems) by 30% in comparison to the last season. In terms of numbers, more than 20.000 citizens were directly influenced by problems presented on Robin Hood, and the number can’t be strictly measured, because in certain cases we have dealt with issues concerning the society as a whole (organized crime, corruption, misuse of power in high positions) and with system flaws (health and education reforms). And in terms of relevance of the issues covered it is visible that this season featured issues of more significant societal impact and with relevance to more citizens and their relations to system, than in previous seasons.
Citizens and media criticism of negative social phenomena: Investigative Reporting and Monitoring
December 2009 – July 2010, supported by FOSI (22.491,00 €)
The aim of this project is to build civic courage among media, journalists and citizens, as well as enhance their freedom of speech, critical thinking, researching and problem presentation skills. Project also strives to:
- support young journalists to advance in their skills to receive adequate support and keep-up motivation for investigative journalism
- increase the visibility of under-represented and marginalized groups in our society such are LGBT population, Roma and people living with physical disability, and specially young people from those groups.
- opening space for individuals from specially marginalized groups to have their voice strong and heard so that they can give their critique of contemporary issues, provide overview of situation in their community, enter into dialogue on any given issue on equal bases as any other member of our society would have chance to.
We have published research stories, reports, analysis, photos dealing with the topic relevant for Montenegro: Masonic Lodges in Montenegro, bills for electricity, that contain unconstitutional accounts, asking, "How real cost NATO?" Freedom of the media (for example, trials of Veseljka Koprivice), Parking official police vehicles in improper places, and the topics of regional interest: What is the region of interest dubious investors? As a region, and welcomes the tourist season? It is noteworthy that 40% of topics were raised by site visitors, and so the desired interactivity and participation of citizens was visibly present.
In addition to these topics, the young participants of investigative journalism school successfully implemented research and published their works on the following topics: The fate of teenage mothers, Homophobia, who are all taxi drivers?, Change names in Montenegro, the Roma Education, Bullying in Montenegro Montenegrin citizenship, corruption in the health sector, implementation of the Bologna Declaration, the economic crisis in Montenegro, Students and stimulants, Bullying, Student Activism. Participants’ investigative story in the video form entitled "The fate of teenage mothers" was broadcasted on TV Atlas. Also, the portal is very open to publishing research findings and NGOs and so many topics published and promoted media further action by publishing the portal (eg actions related to the law on volunteerism, the situation of Komanski most, the situation in the PSEA, the shares and complaints about illegal construction, abuse of power and discrimination in the workplace, the Regional Initiative laws on access to information, environmental protection, human rights, EU integration, RECOM, and other ...)
During almost 6 months since the launch of the portal we have published 836 texts and received 946 comments from visitors of the portal. Texts written exclusively for the portal e-Balkan.Net present in about 15% of the total number of texts, while others are editorial news articles, texts blogger / less-known columnist, article from friendly media, and information / notifications / actions of NGOs sector. 23 texts from our site are quoted: daily "News", a monthly magazine "New Bar Newspaper," the e-newspaper, bitno.ba, 6yka.com, h-alter.org, zenicablog.com, humanrightshouse.org, balkanshumanrights. org. Many articles and links to articles on the portal visitors passed through social networks like Facebook.
During this period the portal visited by 30695 unique visitors. Site visitors are mainly from Montenegro (around 48%), followed by Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and the United States (with a share of around 20%) and then to a much smaller percentage of the other countries of Europe and the world.
Web portal www.e-Balkan.net
April – December 2010, supported by Council of Europe - European Youth Foundation (10.000,00€)
The Internet portal – youth section aims at creating platform for and motivating young citizens of ex-YU to share their information, opinions and understanding of joint past and of reconciliation process, as well as of key issues in our contemporary societies, specially social issues, corruption and political/public power misuses.
The objectives are:
• to provide various information and points of view across the region related to issues of reconciliation and cooperation in the region, Human rights, Rule of Law and democratization.
• to create opportunity for young aspiring journalists, writers, activists and researchers to express themselves and share their findings with wide audience across borders.
• to provide alternative point of view on daily issues and in relation to CoE Values and EU standards, specially related to citizens’ rights, freedom of speech, transparency and accountability of public institutions work.
• to mentor and co-educate young aspiring journalists on the concepts of investigative journalism in practice.
Youth Section (Youth view and Bloggers Box) on portal hosted 126 articles from 36 young authors from Albania, BiH, Croatia, Kosovo, MNE, Serbia, generating 31372 visits to portal (in reporting period). Alongside visits to the portal, young people were taking discussions to social networks (Facebook and Twitter) were they shared links to those texts and commented with their friends. The inputs were various, for illustration here are some examples> analyses of implementation of Law against discrimination and analyses of political situation in Croatia; sketching situation for youth in divided community of Mitrovica in Kosovo; analyses of process of creation Serbian youth national council, challenges of youth work and discussion over values that young people is Serbia are sharing today; main inputs from BiH were related to motivating young people to participate in elections that took place in late 2010; young contributors from MNE were writing about student life and politicized daily agenda for youth; overview of political situation in Albania. The texts encompassed serious and professional analyses by young people, but also satirical overviews of situation from their specific points of view. In addition, portal hosted 10 young photographers that presented their work on the topic “World around me”. Other media (printed daily Vijesti from MNE and several online media from the region) re-published dozen of texts from e-Balkan.net
Bloggers Box covered wide range of daily issues and mostly in highly critical and satirical way. Contributors to Bloggers Box are not only young people (although statistics provided above only included inputs from youth) and this created special place for intergenerational interaction. Editing team prepared and published information about Youth Magazine of EYF - YO!, Youth in Action Program and convention of human rights of CoE.
Online school of investigative journalism “Media N-GAGE” announced on 6th September attracted 34 applications from the region (none from Kosovo though). Mentors Veselin Kljajic (SRB), Semsudin Radoncic (BiH), Faik Ispahiu (Kosovo) and Darko Ivanovic (MNE) selected 19 candidates to take part in on-line school. After three months of individual work candidate-mentor 9 articles were ready for publishing, while 4 needed more time to complete their work and further 6 gave up due to personal reasons and obligations. This base of young researchers/journalists will enable e-Balkan.net to advance youth voice promotion.
Robin Hood – reaching out
July – December 2010, supported by U.S. Embassy (16.695,00 €)
The aim of the project is to create conditions for improving the civic involvement in dealing with the society problems through their interactive cooperation with the TV show, Web-portal and local public meetings.
Thirteen episodes were broadcasted during reported period covering key issues as reported by citizens. In addition to 20 major cases that were presented in the air, around 20 more were solved off the air and around 300 new cases were preliminary investigated.
Added element to the show allowing further reaching-out is open lines at the end of each episode for citizens to present their issues. Even such short presentation of cases allows resolution as number of institutions are solving issues promptly and thus avoiding the situation in which they would need to explain themselves publicly.
The “E-RobinHood” section featured 18 cases presented by citizens from Montenegro, but also from other countries from the region, and visited by more than 4000 readers in the reporting period.
The pilot concept of Robin Hood introducing local public meetings was tested through research conducted by CEMI - organization from Montenegro with extensive expertise in running public opinion pools. The results indicate the prevailing optimism among citizens, despite a significant number of problems that they are encountering. Most citizens are informed about the events on TV, while the show Robin Hood is being watched by the 78% of the population, of which 47% often or always watch the show.
The results of the research indicate the need for live recording of the show in all municipalities in Montenegro or introducing a local Robin Hood programs. Also, considering the great rating and estimation of efficacy of the show, it is recommended, if possible, to post the show on the internet. The show was estimated by the citizens as a very successful and it has been proved that there is a general need among citizens that this program, possibly with expanded capacity, continues to operate. The results were very favorable towards the idea and majority envisaged active participation at such local meetings through identifying issues to be investigated and attending public meeting.
The research results were presented at Robin Hood Show and at central informative piece “Dnevnik”.
Monitoring of Public Services in Montenegro
August 2010 – March 2012, supported by RBF (86.382,81€)
Aim of this project proposal is to contribute to creation of more transparent, accountable and functional public services system in Montenegro with the focus on Judiciary, Health and Education, and specific mainstream issues of minority rights.
Specific objectives are:
- To increase citizens engagement in investigative reporting, monitoring and “Whistle-blowing”
- To increase accessibility of media and civil society in decision making regarding public services, with special focus on minority rights in the areas of Judiciary, Health and Education
- To train group of activists to efficiently and effectively monitor basic courts and primary health centers.
- To increase awareness of public institutions on the need to constantly improve their transparency and accountability and on the role external monitoring can have in it
The project involved 16 young trained monitors spending 1041 hours in 26 Primary Healthcare centers in 15 municipalities in the period 10th October-30th December 2011, and in the second round 222 hours in 21 institutions in same 15 municipalities in the period 9th—31st January 2012. The monitors were observing 595 cases in 13 Basic Courts during first round 7th November-29th December and 208 cases in 15 Basic Courts since 10th-31st January 2012. The project managed to generate interest of public and of relevant decision makers for the identified flaws in the work of public institutions in Health and Judiciary. The results of field monitoring were presented on Robin Hood live show at RTCG (National public service TV) at Prime Time (Friday at 20.00) on 20th January http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IBG9xqWOrs and 24th February 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8nO241DV3w, and with re-runs the following Saturdays. The reports with raw statistical data are also published on the web-site (www.gamn.org) and main printed media (Vijesti, Dan, Dnevne novine http://www.vijesti.me/vijesti/za-zastitnika-prava-pacijenata-niko-nije-c... http://www.dan.co.me/?nivo=3&rubrika=Povodi&clanak=317156&datum=2012-01-... http://www.dan.co.me/?nivo=3&rubrika=Hronika&datum=2012-02-28&clanak=32…) published the results and picked up on specific findings with follow-up researches.
Main success of the project was that monitors’ presence and their interest influenced changes in practice. That’s how monitors recorded that Primary Healthcare centers management made sure that working hours of those institutions and individual doctors are published in visible places after first monitoring visits and that judges even though they were without toga on first proceeding monitor observed were taking it on for the following if monitor was staying. Additionally, as project is done in partnership with Ministry of Health, the minister promised concrete changes in all observed areas in alive show and he asked us for second round of monitoring assessing the findings highly important and useful. Finally, the awareness of citizens of their rights and power of citizens’ control over work of institutions is raised. This is evident from the comments we got directly from the citizens but also from their immediate actions (e.g. when patient opened the door of doctor’s office and loudly commented “Should I call monitor and tell her that you don’t want to give me prescription” which resulted in doctor urging him back to the office).
Project has created strong base of young trained monitors with solid experience that are motivated to identify and point-out the flaws in the system. They are also the strongest base for sustainability of the project, as they can train additional people working with them side-by-side for few weeks. Additionally, project enabled insides into several possible avenues for future research for investigative journalist that 35mm is gathering.
Let’s get to know each other - the stories of young Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians living in Montenegro
December 2010 – March 2011, supported by FOSI (2.888,50 €)
Aim is to contribute to breaking the stereotypical image of young Roma and thus decrease level of discrimination they are facing in Montenegrin society.
Educational workshop for a group of 13 young investigative journalists of Roma in Montenegro was held on 11 December 2010. symbolically marking the 10th December International Human Rights Day. The workshop program included interactive activities on human and minority rights, as well as the specific problems that the Roma population faces in Montenegro. In particular, their experience and specific vision were presented by panelists Sergio Baftjari, Forum MNE, Samir Jaha, Young Roma and Alekanar Sasa Zeković Roma Scholarship Foundation.
After preliminary identification of the topics discussed during the workshop, and with the professional support of portal editor journalists selected 10 research stories, including: Young talents in Roma FC; positive examples against the negative aspects of customary law in the Roma community; Teachers of Roma origin (if not teachers, then RTAs) Representation Roma children in kindergartens; Marriages among young people in the Roma population (not juvenile) - positive examples; NGOs - died young Roma activism; Positive aspects of women; ratio Herceg Novi municipality, according to a Roma family in HN (giving the land to build a house); Culture & tradition Roma (with a focus on positive examples of functioning of the Council of Elders) Personal documents or topics related to the Roma identity in Montenegro. An average of 200 unique visitors of the portal read each of the stories.
(Under)represented
May - September 2012, supported by Internews (8.723,49 €)
The project aims to increase the visibility of under-represented and marginalized groups in our society such are LGBT population, Roma and people living with physical disability, and specially young people from those groups.
The objectives are:
• To Reach-out and mentor young journalists of different backgrounds through on-line school to publish their first work in the field of Human Rights of specially discriminated groups in their communities
• To Reach-out and recruit new columnists from the identified groups to share their views with wider public.
• To Publish around twenty articles from journalists and columnists and around 20 photos/videos on the subject “(under)representation” sent by portal’ visitors.
Six young journalists have successfully completed the online school of investigative journalism. Through communication with mentors young researchers have come up with the final version of the texts and they are, as they say, very proud on it. The articles attracted amazing response. A positive reaction of the audience is clear on the basis of responses on social networks (sharing, likes). Some of the comments were: “Well done”, “These are the topics that should be discussed. Bravo”, etc.
We have reached and motivated 15 people to write about problems the project is focusing on. More than 50 written text sparked incredible reaction from the audience.
The huge success of the last Raul Kevrić’s text (http://e-balkan.net/fokus/16794-zato-nisam-sluao-nika-vujiia.html) created a real boom in the media market. For a few days he had a near 10 000 hits. The text was transmitted by portals E-novine, Vesti.rs, Index and 6uka. (http://www.e-novine.com/stav/71912-Zato-nisam-sluao-Nika-Vujiia.html, http://www.vesti.rs/Intervju/Zasto-nisam-slusao-Nika-Vujicica.html, http://www.index.hr/black/clanak/zasto-nisam-slusao-nicka-vujicica-covje... http://www.6yka.com/novost/28765/zasto-nisam-slusao-nika-vujicica) Following the publication of texts, Raul was offered a part-time job in the Croatian newspaper 24 hours – which is a major break-through for this struggling author who can’t find job as lawyer due to his physical disability.
Also it should be noted that a lesbian girl (she remained unknown to general public due to stigma and discrimination present around LGBT population) wrote for our portal and for the first time publicly shared her views. Her approach brought certain insides and had realistic lure which created for the first time public debate with general positive opinion on LGBT in Montenegro. Comments were highly affirmative stating that their view of LGBT is changed and that they see them as normal after writing of this girl.
Finally, portal featured story of blind-father and challenges he meets in this role. This topic wasn’t discussed before in Montenegro and Goran Macanović has made his first public appearance on the subject.
Texts by journalists under the project (Under)represented have sparked many reactions of the other media (social networks and other portals). In several cases debates started on pages of E-Balkan continued and re-opened on other places.
We connected with the Association of youth with disabilities of Montenegro and we regularly published their statements so we directly introduced the audience with the problems faced by people with disabilities. We opened a topic on the rights of persons with disabilities, LGBT people, blind parents, Roma people, and we have contributed to creating a positive opinion on presented issues.
Through their engagement in this project several authors benefited greatly: Raul Kevrić got job offer on article writing and Marijan Pap was investigating new areas as journalist and his texts were shared by other media bringing him additional recognition (e.g. http://www.e-novine.com/intervju/intervju-drustvo/70041-Pussy-buni-Hrvat...)
Through communication with the columnists we have developed a network of young journalists across the Balkans willing to write on topics of human rights of specially marginalized groups. We connected them in order to exchange experiences. This method is effective for young journalists as they improve their knowledge through informal communication. Additional element is the fact that we didn’t focused on just one marginalized group so we have set the theme of solidarity between different marginalized groups.
Open ideas for Montenegro: CIVIC ENGAGEMENT for ANTI-CORRUPTION AND TRANSPARENCY
November-December 2012, supported by UNDP (8.660,00 €)
The overall Goal is three-fold:
1. Empower the citizens to take a decisive role in identifying both problems and solutions
2. Demonstrate that solutions to problems citizens face when interacting with the authorities can be relatively cheap
3. Showcase that such solutions, when rooted in the needs of the population, can be sustainable and effective.
The objective of this activity is to ensure maximum possible outreach throughout Montenegro, in order to engage the citizens in the process of defining problems they face in their communities, such as access to health, education, employment, information, justice, etc. and design possible solutions with the help of new media and technologies. The intentions is to reach out to those citizens which tend to be left out of the public consultations, either because they do not have access to internet, they find the administrative language indecipherable or they do not believe their contributions will be taken into account by the executive.
Six consultation workshops were held with 84 participants in Podgorica, Kotor, Tivat, Petnjica, Plav, Berane from November 13 until December 31, 2012. Citizens were proposing creative IT solutions for solving problems in following areas that they identified as highly relevant for their local communtiies:
• TIVAT -Problems with the work of local government; -Education and youth problems; -Ecology; -Volunteerism; -Tourism.
• KOTOR -Traffic infrastructure; -Municipal Issues; -Ecology; -The problems of young people; -Local government.
• PLAV -Unemployment; -Issues in Education; -Tourism; -The local governments; -Problems in Health Care
• BERANE –Unemployment; -Problems in Health Care; -Municipal Issues.
• PETNJICA -Problems with communications; -Problems in Health Care; -Unemployment; -Education; -Tourism; -Problems with infrastructure.
• PODGORICA -Problems with infrastructure; -Problems in sport and youth problems; -Inspection services; -Municipal issues; -Problems in the operation of public service.
“Media shaping perceptions – Youth and violence”
October 2013 – February 2014, supported by European Youth Foundation (9.000,00 €)
The main aim of the project is to change the way how youth are being reported about in media.
The objectives of the project are:
- To raise awareness of editors and journalists of their role in creating stereotypical (negative) image of youth and thus to change their practice.
- To raise awareness and competences of young journalists for reporting about youth.
- To raise media literacy of young people and public through youth-led campaign “There is more to Youth than…”
What we did:
- Through a detailed monitoring report we identified many examples of unethical reporting on children and young people and numerous glitches in the work of journalists and editors. You can find the report at the following link (http://www.gamn.org/images/docs/cg/monitoring-medija-35mm.pdf ).
Additionally, during the round table we pointed precisely at these mistakes and engaged in dialogue with journalists and editors in order to find solutions with the aim that the same mistakes would not be repeated. Through our report we have informed the public how the media report about youth and about the rights of children and youth. In this way we were able to demonstrate which unflattering picture of children and youth is portrayed in the Montenegrin media in order to draw from this lesson for the future.
- Through training for young journalists engaged in school based media projects we raised awareness and competences of 20 participants. Additionally, the space was provided on the e-Balkan portal, as well as in their school papers, for those young people to send the message and show in which way they want the media to report about them. Thus, we flooded the internet portal e-Balkan.net with articles written by young people for young people and for adults.
E-Citizens’ Problem Solving Maps
October 2013- October 2014, supported by U.S. Embassy (16.560,00 €)
Project idea derived from the TV-show “Robin Hood” which is helping Montenegrin citizens’ to solve their problems within the society and with public administration. During last six years “Robin Hood” became not just innovative but effective way to communicate with citizens. It has solved more than 1,500 out of 7,000 cases reported by citizens who faced malfunctions of existing administration system and public institutions in Montenegro, corruption, misuse of power, discrimination and endangering of citizens’ rights.
A key purpose of project was to continue innovations and create an open source platform for mapping all the public administration problems reported by citizens’. A key rationale to create such platform for smart phones lies in two facts: a) Montenegrin citizens are very active mobile phone users and b) number of smart phone users is constantly increasing. Namely, during the last ten years Montenegro is showing extremely high mobile phone penetration rates – up to 161,56% (among the highest in EU). Additionally, according to the recent social surveys, Montenegrin citizens are expressing increasing political activism aspirations in addition to the decreased trust in the public institutions. These findings imply strong public demand for quality public social services alongside skepticism in regards to their actual quality.
Activities included: Development of open-source platform, Testing of platform and Technical improvements of software; Media focused activities announcing and promoting platform use and Launching the open-source platform; Investigation of reported problems, verifying the facts, inquiring responsible bodies and providing feedback to citizens, as well as Administration of platform; Meetings with municipalities and relevant institutions and Practical presentation of platform to municipalities and institutions; Evaluation of platform use; Administration of platform.
Reporting about Roma and Egyptian children
August 2013 – February 2014, supported by Unicef (16.675,00 €)
The aim of the project is to show journalists how to avoid stereotypical coverage of this population and that they reveal a number of successful Roma and Egyptians, whom little is known about. Therefore the project looked into how to create sustainable mechanism to build competences of young journalists to report about children and young people from Roma and Egyptian population beyond usual stereotypical images and thus to contribute to their better integration in Montenegrin society.
• Within the project we had a two-day training for journalist from seven different media and journalism students. Through numerous training activities journalists had the opportunity to find out where journalists make mistakes when it comes to reporting about Roma and Egyptians children, and how to overcome these challenges.
• We created positive media campaign with reporting about Roma and Egyptian identified as positive examples in areas such are education, sports, employment, culture, activism etc. and initiate public dialogue on anti-discrimination of this population. In the past few months we flooded Montenegrin media with 32 articles on Roma where they were positively represented.
• To roundup the story we did a quarterly media monitoring, December-February, Montenegrin print media (Vijesti, Dan, Dnevne novine, Pobjeda). We explored how the media wrote about the Roma and Egyptian children in this period and as a final product, we have published a Report on the representation of Roma and Egyptians in Montenegrin media.
Let’s get informed about our Rights!
February – July 2014, supported by Unicef (5.861,00 €)
Project goal is to raise awareness of high-school population about their rights particularly according to criminal justice for minors’ legislation in Montenegro. Therefore project directly responded to the lack of implementation of provisions from juvenile justice legislation and to the need to build citizenship spirit among high-school age population through enhancing their understanding of own rights.
• Within the project we had a two-day training for 14 multipliers and peer-promoters. Through numerous training activities children had the opportunity to find out relevant information and ensure understanding of involved high-school pupils regarding Rights of Children in situations when they can potentially fall in conflict with Law and when different services are taking measures against them. The group also decided on design and key information on info-flier. We also strengthened children’s communication skills for further activities.
• We organized 6 information sessions in schools by working pairs of trained multipliers on Rights of Children when in conflict with Law. The workshops were attended by 177 pupils who gained new information and know who could be asked for further support if in risk of getting in conflict with law.
• We disseminated the 1000 info-fliers to interested pupils in schools.
Professional rehabilitation, active policy of employment of persons with disabilities
March – December 2015, supported by Employment Agency (50.500,00 €)
The overall objective of the project is to ensure the social inclusion of people with disabilities, by increasing their employability and better access to the labor market.
Key activities were: 1. Implementation of programs in the field of entrepreneurship for a group of 10 people with disabilities; 2. Realization of visits to successful local entrepreneur; 3. Individual mentoring for a period of 3 weeks to finalize business plans and presentation of business ideas; 5. The organization of the fair business ideas; 6. Grants for self-employment through the implementation of three best projects. 7. Video documentation of the project and promotion.
Podgorica without Hate
January – July 2015, supported by European Youth Foundation of Council of Europe (9.000,00 €)
The main aim is to create genuine youth documentary on what kind of (multicultural) society & city we want to live in.
The purpose of this video documentary is to showcase that youth from different, and usually perceived as conflicting, national identity groups can work together and produce something valuable. Also the purpose of the video would be to show that young people are more than those who enter into fights and that they also have solutions and ideas of how they would like the city of Podgorica to function without Hate.
The project team gathered a group of 15 young Albanian pupils from Gymnasium “25. maj” and a group of 15 young non-Albanians pupils from high school Gymnasium “Slobodan Škerović”. On weekends during two months (set of up to 12 workshops) we conducted a parallel training sessions with single national identity groups. Youth workers have worked with students through a combination of non-formal education methods in order to raise their understanding about own identity, as well about others and about non-violent communication. Additionally, single identity groups were encouraged and facilitated to explore the past of Montenegro and Europe, and the challenges of multiculturalism in modern Europe and in contemporary Montenegro. The particular focus has been put on developing critical thinking of the involved young people and enabling them to explore where is the core and what is the cause for hate and towards whom and why is it directed in their individual and community cases. Throughout the realization of program the participants were asked to identify positive examples of multiculturalism and co-existence in their community and to photograph or record them. After the first phase was concluded the participants have had one joint meeting in Podgorica on 30th April (set of 2 workshops) to get to know each other better, exchange opinions and explore jointly the challenges and opportunities of living in today’s Podgorica, Montenegro as members of different national groups. Finally, the joint group has been gathered for three-day video production seminar on 15-17th May where they prepared a scenario for the joint video “Podgorica without Hate”. The idea was to create video that would promote positive side of multi ethnicity and examples of multi-ethnic values among young people in Montenegro through teamwork. During the seminar the plan of recording the needed material was developed and smaller multinational teams assigned for each task. After the joint seminar the participants were supported to complete the tasks. Finally, with our technical support and professional help, they recorded 5minute video “Za(o)tvoreni um”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byG5uROdt2g&feature=youtu.be
The video was broadcasted on the TV show Robin Hood on Friday 26th June 2015 and featured on online outlet (regional portal e-Balkan.net, YouTube channel and social networks) as well as, in order to promote the idea of living together in peace, understanding and respecting other and sharing vision of “Podgorica without Hate”.
Balkan Without Hate
March 2016 – March 2017, financially supported the Erasmus+ Youth in Action programme of the European Commission (80.369,00 €)
The project explored how young people and youth work can benefit from the creation of genuine youth documentaries on what kind of (multicultural) societies they want to live in.
The purpose was to showcase that young people from different, and usually perceived as conflicting, national identity groups, can work together and produce something valuable.
The main target group was youth workers who have been actively working in youth civil society organizations. The project identified youth workers who needed practical and innovative tools in order to advance their youth work practice and tackle more effectively the issues in their respective societies. The young people from different communities were also a target group. The project's long term vision was to see the young people become integrated and engaged in creative and constructive ways to become active citizens.
The participants were selected based on the criteria of their attitude towards exploring and reflecting upon their own and others’ youth work practice. It was important that they were also willing and motivated to engage the project in their own communities / countries during the follow-up phase. Some of the engaged youth workers were selected on the basis of having had previous knowledge and experience on using digital media and new technologies.
One of the needs for this project has been the rise in most European countries of incidents inspired by xenophobia, Islam phobia and anti-Semitism. The Balkans is known for frequent conflicts and disagreements, especially when it comes to disagreements along ethnic and religious grounds. This historical situation has contributed to the increase of hatred and xenophobia that has targeted increasing numbers of refugees from Syria and other countries.
The project also responds to the need to include innovative and creative tools in tackling these issues. The project is focused on developing different ways for using video-production in youth work. It is also focused on putting young people at the forefront as active promoters of ideas and leaders of peaceful and progressive societies in Europe.
The main aim of the project is to explore how young people and youth work can benefit from the creation of genuine youth documentaries. The theme of the documentaries is based on the kind of (multicultural) societies they want to live in.
The purpose of ‘Balkan without Hate’ is to showcase that young people from different and conflicting national identity groups can work together and produce something valuable. The purpose is also to show that young people are more than those who enter into fights. It is to show that young people have solutions and ideas of how they would like the Balkans and Europe to function without hate.
The practical approach of the project ensures a deep learning process as well as a profound awareness process for the youth workers as participants. They will be motivated (and supported by the promoters) to further mobilize the young people they work with using the outcomes of the project.
The project relates closely with the Youth on the Move initiative under the EU 2020 goals - strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The project will support youth workers to mobilize young people in order to empower them through active participation and use of video production and media.
The project gathered partners from across the Balkan region and other countries in an effort to deal constructively with the past and to simultaneously take a step forward looking to the future. The plan involves 4 to 5 people per country. This is to support the process of sharing experiences and exploring by-doing, the use of video production in youth work, particularly in dealing with divisions, growing nationalism, hate, intolerance, and discrimination. The youth workers participating in the project, explored the use of video production and jointly made a movie on the theme of ‘Balkan without Hate’. This movie is to be disseminated and used to encourage young people, through creative expression, to get involved in creating a better world and oppose hate in society.
The project had 3 phases, the ‘Preparation’ phase saw the partner organisations selecting the youth workers who would participate in the project. The participants were asked to identify positive examples of multiculturalism and coexistence in their communities and to photograph or record them. This would be used later in their youth work practice. The partners had meetings with the participants before the actual training in Montenegro. This phase lasted for 5 months.
The ‘Mobility’ phase was for 10 days and was a training course held in Montenegro. It consisted of sessions on youth work practice regarding: identity & diversity, non-violence, multiculturalism, value of peace and conflict transformation, dealing with the past and the war history of Europe and Balkans, and youth activism in a ‘hate’ context. There were also more technical sessions on video-production. During the 10 days the participants made a movie titled ‘SIGEMBR’. The movie represents the Balkans / Europe with having a ‘virus of xenophobia’. It was designed to be a teaser to encourage young people in the home communities of the youth workers to get involved in becoming active and recording their own visions of the ‘cure for the virus’.
The third phase was the ‘Follow-up’. After the training in Montenegro, the participants went back to their home countries. They presented their experience and the SIGEMBR movie to their organisation to get the support from the organisation for the next step in the follow-up phase. This next step included small scale campaigns in each involved country to recruit young people to explore the same or other related issues through watching the SIGEMBR. They would then create their own even more relevant movie based on their own context. This phase lasted for between 3 and 6 months.
The nature of the project meant there were very concrete outcomes that can be useful for youth workers everywhere. The participants were encouraged to use and adapt the new tools to their realities and share it with their organizations on local, national and international level. The organizer and trainer team and the reinforced partnerships with all the involved organizations served as a networking tool for creating a sustainable network of multipliers in the use of video in youth work across Europe. The host organization and partners promoted the results of the training through different channels of communication, newsletters and to the media.
Innovation and Impact
The innovation of this project lies in the experience, knowledge and attitudes gained and developed during the whole project, as well as the created joint product in the form of the short movie ‘SIGEMBR’. The innovation is in the concept of creating a movie that the youth worker participants take away and show to the young people they work with in order that those young people create a response movie.
The outcomes of the training course and the subsequent follow-up activities and movies were announced on the websites of the all the organizations involved, on blogs, YouTube channels, and social networks. Participants acquired new skills and knowledge about new technologies and the digital media world.
On the European level the impact is in young people from different European countries being empowered to take up their role in promoting their vision of Europe (and particularly Balkans) without hate and in shaping the societies to match this vision. The project increased the participants’ positive awareness of other cultures and hate-related issues in different European contexts.
The partner organizations benefited from the transfer of knowledge and skills from their youth worker participants in multiplying the use of video production in their youth work practice. They were also able to work with the young people on leadership and active citizenship for the purpose of building societies without hate.
The most important impact of the project was the movie SIGEMBR on the topic of ‘Balkans without Hate’. The movie is being used as an innovative educational tool to start off in depth discussion on the identified issues.
Link with the Council of Europe
European Youth Foundation: The project ‘Podgorica without Hate’ was funded and supported by the European Youth Foundation.
This project inspired ‘Balkan without Hate’ which was financially supported the Erasmus+ Youth in Action programme of the European Commission.
Marginalized by the system: No more
February 2016 – February 2017, supported by the Delegation of European Union to Montenegro (52.990,15 €)
NGO "35mm" (member of Civic Alliance) conducts the project "Marginalized by the system: No more", whose main activity is Civic Institute, which may be addressed by citizens of Montenegro if some of their rights are violated. The project is financed by the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro.
Goal of the project is to support marginalized groups in Montenegrin society to exercise their human rights and freedoms they already have as workers, patients, and consumers. The project will directly contribute to mentioned groups whose rights were violated, to seek and receive respect and fulfillment of rights they have, addressing nongovernmental organizations and institutions that are part of the network and members of Civic Institute.
Civic Institute will provide direct information, legal and other forms of assistance to workers, patients and consumers who address them. Then, they will involve relevant institutions in a dialogue about the status of workers, patients and consumers. Also, while developing cooperation between nongovernmental sector, media and citizens, Civic Institute will also monitor and report about violation of rights of workers, patients, and consumers. Members of Civic Institute are: Media Trade Union, NGO Roditelji, NGO "Krug života", Center for the protection of consumers, Union of Free Trade Unions of Montenegro, CAZAS, Foundation Ruka prijateljstva and NGO "Bolji život" (Better Life).
