Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

The Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Citizens’ Association “Serbia in Motion”, with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), have organized the 41^st Belgrade Ignite event under the title “Get Involved no. 6”, dedicated to the topic of social inclusion. The event was held on Wednesday, 7 November 2018, at the Belgrade Impact Hub, and the organizers have thus traditionally marked the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and motivated participants and visitors to fight for an inclusive society.

The 41^st Belgrade Ignite was opened by Dragana Jovanović Arijas, Manager of the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, reminding the audience that this was the sixth such event dedicated to the topic of social inclusion: “This is one of our favourite initiatives, which is obvious every year, because the hall – just as tonight – is always full. We have a wonderful opportunity to get to know new presenters and to learn from their stories, but also to be inspired by them for the difficult work all of us in this field do every day. The examples we will hear tonight show us that when we get involved in the lives of others – our own stories gain a new dimension, become more purposeful and have a better outlook for a happy end.”

The visitors of Belgrade Ignite then had the opportunity to hear the personal stories of the presenters about how they are, through their everyday efforts, building a society of equality for all, and to receive answers to the questions: what does active aging involve and what are the benefits of IT literacy for the elderly; how does an interactive audio game dedicated to the problems of blind and vision impaired persons work; what are the difficulties faced daily by trans persons in Serbia; how did organic agriculture contribute to the employment of women in Babušnica; how are high-quality higher education internships organized; how to improve the employability of young Roma; what innovative approaches can be used to mitigate the difficult living conditions of homeless persons.

Through dynamic five-minute presentations at the 41^st Belgrade Ignite “Get Involved no 6”, Bojana Turajlić Vignjević, Nenad Mirković, Helena Vuković, Karolina Stamenković, Jovan Jovanović, Fatima Kamberović and Igor Mitrović presented themselves to the audience.

Video recordings of their presentations are available on our YouTube channel.

Nevena Tarlanović, an activist in the field of human rights and the right of youth with disabilities, presented the audience of Ignite with the photographs of Jérôme Cid, a French artist living and working in Belgrade, dedicated to the topic of accessibility of public spaces. This photo project was implemented with the aim of contributing to the elimination of architectural barriers in Belgrade, i.e. to motivate citizens – particularly students of architecture – to become actively involved in resolving this issue, and thereby contributing significantly to the quality of life of all citizens of Belgrade.

More information can be found on the website srbijaupokretu.org and the Facebook page www.facebook.com/BelgradeIgnite.