Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

When they found themselves in an awkward position being busy moms and unhappy with their current employment situation, two sisters and a godmother decided to leave their jobs and take things into their own hands. This was how an imaginative line of children’s clothing called Gugadžina was born.

The head of this charming team is Marija Marjanović, a professional costume designer and a mother of three.

Marija: A few years ago, I found myself on maternity leave from a job I knew I would never go back to. At the same time my sister Olga lost her job, so we found ourselves in a position that desperately needed to change. Fortunately, something wonderful came out of all this.

Olga Pankeričan is in accounting, and she is responsible for the managerial and financial part of the Gugadžina family.

Olga: Many times I have found myself torn between my role as a mother and as an employee. Of course, the importance of these two roles is not comparable – that is why I decided to stop looking for a job and become my own employer. When it comes to our little business I am the least popular; I deal with the finances, paperwork, and I hold everyone together.

Milica Pajić graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts, Department of Ceramics, and represents the creative part and, as her colleagues like say, the biggest baby in this story.

Milica: At the time that this idea was born, I was pregnant which only made me more motivated. We assembled the team, I started drawing, and Olga started making “plans on paper”…and it all began! (…) Of course, we started working without any capital. We presented our idea to our families, and they immediately tried to discourage us. Luckily, we ignored their negative reactions. As it often happens, when family businesses are concerned, we all gathered around and managed to “scrape together” approximately EUR 2000, with our parents promising to disown us if we gave up.

Marija: We heard about a closed Factory in Aranđelovac that was selling its machines, so we bought everything we could with the money we had. The fabrics, we collected from all over the place – around the house, from our grandmothers’ closets…We found a bunch of interesting fabrics that had been there waiting to be used since the 70’s. However, soon we faced another challenge; we needed someone who knew how to use all these machines we bought.

(…)

The complete text can be found on mojafirma.rs