Civica Mobilitas at “Bitola open city 2016”

The regional forum for cooperation of civil society organizations and activist from the Pelagonia and Southwestern region was held on 24 June 2016, in Porta Jazz – Bitola as part of the program of the 15^th edition of the festival “Bitola open city 2016”.

The forum was organized in two parts, a workshop and a public debate. The workshop was titled “Photo-voice – a tool for civic activism at local and regional level”. The tool could be used for identification of the potential problems in the community by taking pictures. Then, the photographs which visualize the problem are used to influence institutions to engage in solving the problems. In addition to institutions, they can influence citizens to raise their awareness about the problems that surround them.

In addition to the presentation of the tool, the participants, divided in five groups, went to the field to record the problems.

The second part of the forum was dedicated to a public discussion on the topic “Gender gaming for equal rights” with the journalist and civic activist Ana Jovkovska. She explained the current situation of the equality of women in Macedonia and the world. Jovanovska talked about the question if the world we live in was truly equal; if we lived in a political ideology of equality. “If we continue with this pace of life, we should wait for 75 years to reach equal valuation of men and women for the same job in Macedonia”, Ana Jovkovska said.

The issue of religion, or how to find out if the religiousness is an authentic or imposed choice, and the issue of positive discrimination were initiated in the discussion.

The organizer of Bitola open city 2016 and co-organizer of the regional forum was the Youth Cultural Center – Bitola, an institutional grantee of Civica Mobilitas in the Pelagonia region.