Why did you apply to participate as a mentee in the Mentoring Programme for women in the media in the Western Balkans?
There are several reasons, but I would point out the two main ones:
Firstly, I work as a producer at RTV PULSE and I have participated in the production of several shows tackling the issue of gender equality. I have realized that there are a number of specifics there that have an impact not only on the production but on viewers as well. First, in the region where I live, the birth rate is higher than in other areas inhabited by Serbs; second, girls marry younger and become mothers at a relatively young age compared to the average; third, the status of women is stuck somewhere between traditional and modern, and the role of the media is to help to empower and free women from the antiquated Balkan restraints, to fight for society to recognise their contribution at home, at work and in the public area, and thus to become equal with men, not just on paper.
Secondly, I graduated from the Faculty of Law and I have always been interested in “women's rights”, their implementation and protection.
Has working with your mentor contributed to your personal and professional development?
The most important thing about my mentor, Maša, is that she found a way to understand my needs in a specific and, for her, unknown environment. Afterwards, all her advices and recommendations were important and useful because they were specific, practical and applicable.
Please describe briefly your success working together in a mentoring pair.
Now I find much more online coverage about gender equality and in all the news, reports, shows that RTV PULSE produces I insist on the so-called "women’s perspective" and adequate representation of women as interlocutors and heroines of our stories. Thanks to the support of our company’s management, I believe I am on the way of raising the issue of gender equality as one of the priorities of our production.
Have you come up with new ideas, launched new activities, collaborations and/or projects, or do you intend to start them, as a result of networking with people gathered around our programme?
As I have already said, everything is specific and practical with Maša. I have just started working as an author on a remarkable story “Woman in the eyes of a gynaecologist”, about a distinguished doctor who, instead of spending his retirement days walking or playing with his grandchildren, came from Leskovac to Pasjane in order to provide gynaecological and obstetric services to patients, as well as to teach his younger colleagues the profession, or better said, a humanitarian mission.
I am also preparing a more serious project based on field research on the position, problems and needs of women of Serbian nationality in Kosovo Pomoravlje and the Gnjilan region.
At the beginning, I didn't even know what to expect, but now I can only say that I really can't find the right words to express my enormous gratitude to you and my mentor Maša Mileusnić, to whom I owe a great deal, for all her practical and realistic advice, explanations, support and sharing of her extensive journalistic experience ... Thank you once again for a wonderful experience, which I would recommend to anyone who wants to make progress in both their professional and personal development.