MAAA MEMBERS' SUCCESS STORIES

Tanja Tomic, Alumna

Tanja Tomikj has been devoted to community services, especially in promoting gender equality in the country and the region, for over 15 years. As a Member of Parliament she served as a Coordinator of Women Parliamentarians Club and promoted the idea of re-establishing the Caucus for support of persons living with HIV and AIDS. During its mandate the Caucus, together with two NGOs, managed to influence the Government to increase the budget for antiretroviral medications by 192% (from 6 million MKD for 2013 to 17,5 million MKD for 2014) and the general program for HIV for 175% (from 8 million MKD in 2013 to 22 million MKD in 2014). She is also an active member of IRI’s Women’s Democracy Network (WDN) and has served as a member of the International Council of WDN in the period of its founding (2007-2009).

“In 2014, I was chosen to participate in the International Visitors Leadership Program, which took place in four different cities in the USA. The topic of the program was “Women Leaders: Promoting peace and security” and it was a real pleasure to be part of a group of women from 90 different countries. The experience I gained during the 3 weeks of the IVLP program provided me with direct insight on how the civil society in the USA works and the many initiatives which are carried out with no or very limited funds. The great work of different women’s organizations in the USA is done mostly by using the power of the people, by mobilizing the community on grass root level. The changes achieved by such actions are fascinating and the improvement in the daily lives of people are tremendous. It showed me that human capital and motivation is actually the strongest moving power in the society.” – says Tanja

The program inspired her to found a network of women for new policies IDEM, an NGO that is now a part of a regional network of women’s organizations “Network of women for new policies in the Balkans”. The network is focused on promoting gender equality and improving the conditions for women in the region. She is also the founder of the webpage www.ednakvi.mk, a web page created to provide support, information and knowledge about successful women. The fb fan page https://www.facebook.com/ednakvi.mk/ already has over 9000 followers and is still growing and she hopes that we will manage to bring real change for women.

Additionally, a database of women experts was created (http://ekspertki.ednakvi.mk/). The database was promoted on February 6th 2019, with the support of MAAA and the US Embassy in North Macedonia. The database currently includes 60 women experts in different professional areas and aims to increase their visibility and strengthen their capacities through different training seminars. One such training for public speaking has already been organized for the women experts in Skopje and two more are planned for next year.

Tanja is determined to continue her activism for promoting gender equality and improving the position of women in the country.