“АctiveGirls“ as part of the European Week of Sport and European Cooperation Day

Marking the European Week of Sport, which is celebrated throughout Europe for the fifth time this year, and for the second time in Serbia, the “Support sport and physical activity of girls” project organized the conference “The importance of education and access to work with elementary-school girls in sports”.

The conference was supported by the Olympic Committee of Serbia and promoted as one of the many sporting and educational events organized throughout Serbia. The conference also marked the European Cooperation Day.

The attendees were greeted by Mr. Vladimir Batez, our celebrated volleyball player and Provincial Secretary for Sports and Youth, and Ms. Ágnes Dobrotka, Programme Manager at the Joint Secretariat of the Interreg-IPA CBC Hungary-Serbia, within which the project is being implemented.

As the representative of the Lead Beneficiary, Batez indicated the activities the Secretariat was implementing through EU projects, which complemented the efforts to improve the situation in the field of sport in Vojvodina and make it accessible to all. Ms. Dobrotka emphasized the importance of European cooperation through cross-border cooperation and projects implemented in the field, marking the European Cooperation Day. One of the significant project activities was research conducted in Vojvodina with the aim of identifying the barriers that girls faced in playing sports and why they quitted sports. The research results were presented by prof. Dragan Atanasov PhD on behalf of the Faculty of Sport in Belgrade. The elementary school “Bora Stanković” in Karavukovo by (Odžaci Municipality) was presented as an example of best practice, and Jelena Ignjatić, teacher of physical education, presented all activities organized by the school within school sports, sports sections and other extracurricular activities.

On behalf of the project team, Tamara Glisić-Krivošija presented the mentoring programme to be launched within the project. The mentors included in the programme were our prominent athletes who, with their accolades, were at the very top of Serbian sport – Aranka Binder (archery), Dajana Butulija (basketball) Antonija Nadj Kosanović (kayak), Jelena Erić Rakonjac (handball), Maja Ognjenović (volleyball) and Vukosava Djapić Atanacković (athletics). The mentoring programme was involved elementary-school girls from 6 municipalities of Vojvodina: Odžaci, Novi Kneževac, Čoka, Mali Idjoš, Vrbas and Apatin.

The project is co-financed by the European Union under the Interreg-IPA Cross-border Cooperation Programme Hungary-Serbia 2014-2020 in the amount of EUR 179,235.28. The project partners are the Provincial Secretariat for Sports and Youth, Municipality of Szentes, Szeged Tisza Squash Sport Club and the European Affairs Fund of Autonomous Province of Vojvodina.