As part of the project implemented by the Institute of Ethnography SASA, supported by the World Bank and the Entrepreneurship Training Institute (Germany), the first of three planned two-day training sessions for trainers, titled "Training for Personal Initiative, Transformative Leadership, and Women's Entrepreneurship," was held in Belgrade on September 21 and 22, 2024. This training is intended for Roma women, focusing on their personal and economic empowerment. The training is structured to emphasize the specific challenges faced by Roma women in Serbia. By combining training in personal initiative, transformative leadership and women's entrepreneurship, the program aims to create resilient and effective leaders who will advocate for and implement inclusive policies and practices within their communities. Additionally, this training seeks to contribute to the broader goal of building a peaceful, equal, and inclusive society where the rights of individuals, especially marginalized women, will be recognized and supported.
Participants in the training, which is based on an interactive and participatory methodology emphasizing learning through practice, included Roma women from Belgrade, Novi Sad, Pirot, Kostolac, Valjevo, Osečina, Kragujevac, Niš and Smederevska Palanka. The training was led by Dr. Milena Jokanović (Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade) and Dr. Bojana Bogdanović (Institute of Ethnography SASA), under the supervision of Mona Hafner and Alexa Schweimler from the Entrepreneurship Training Institute (Germany).