A “Rijeka Feminist Spring” training was held in Rijeka from November 10th until November 13th, organized by PaRiter and sponsored by the Mediterranean Women’s Fund and the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County. The training brought together 15 feminists who had, within these three days, thought about elements of feminism and learned new skills of efficiently carrying out activist and advocacy projects.
Subjects such as gender and sex, women and the media, political participation of women, violence towards women, as well as ecofeminism, reproductive rights, justice and conducting advocacy activities have been discussed. The training also hosted lecturers of various profiles and throughout the weekend workshops were held by Ana Ajduković from the Centre for Women’s Studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka, Tajana Broz from the Center for Education, Counseling and Research, Nataša Vajagić from the Centre for Civic Initiative Poreč, Katarina Mikulić and Marinella Matejčić from PaRiter.
The training was designed and conducted as a combination of short lectures and interactive work in order for the participants to be able to instantly learn through various forms of group work. A feministic pop quiz, whose winner was the Štucavice grop, was held the second evening of the training. The last evening of the training was marked by a documentary film about body autonomy followed by a brief discussion.
One of the participants Antonella concluded : „The training was really great, only once I had talked more to people around me I realized how much knowledge I gathered about topics of which I knew nothing about, as well as broaden my knowledge in topics I knew something about. I also realized that it is quite possible to react in an activistic manner and that every step forward counts. I didn’t have the possibility to see this before or get the energy for activism as I did in the workshops. Besides, I met really amazing people and this is something that I will last forever- the stories, discussions, friendship and experience“.
The result of the training, other than those more difficult to measure like changes in attitudes and acquired knowledge, are also activist actions that the participants have designed themselves and that should be conducted within the next few months.
