Brus' Dazzling Smiles

Bojana is 33 years old and, as the vast majority of young people in Serbia, is well aware that there is no guarantee of a safe future for her, which is why she will have to fight for it. After completing her dentistry studies in Niš, Bojana returned to her hometown of Brus for her internship and, through pure luck, just as she was done with it, European PROGRES published its call for proposals supporting women’s entrepreneurship.

Namely, Bojana is one of the 45 women to whom the European Union and the Swiss Government provided equipment, mentoring support and professional business management assistance through the programme “Time for Successful Women”. This intervention, worth over 350,000 Euros, provided its beneficiaries with jobs, while simultaneously creating the potential for the opening new jobs in their start-ups.

Statistics show that the current employment rate of women stands at 37.5%, vis-à-vis 51.5% among men^[1], and that women are on average paid 4.5% less than men^[2], wherefore incentivising women’s entrepreneurship in Serbia is one of the goals of the National Gender Equality Strategy.

European PROGRES’ support to improving the women’s economic status and their status in the labour market does not boil down only to the direct employment of the beneficiaries, but also entails raising the awareness of women at the local level that they can start their own business. “We believe that our beneficiaries are a positive example for other women in their communities and that they will give rise to the trend of local women building their careers as entrepreneurs,” says Ana Nedeljković, the European PROGRES Good Governance and Gender Equality Sector Manager.

Bojana regards the process of applying for support as somewhat difficult. Like most other people with modest work experience, she found the drafting of the business plan, one of the mandatory steps in this process, challenging. This is why European PROGRES organised mentoring support and training for the future entrepreneurs, male and female alike.

The dental equipment is very expensive as well and Bojana would have been unable to launch her business on her own. Thanks to a donation worth nearly 10,000 Euros, she received a dental chair, the sine qua non of any dental office, and all the necessary equipment a modern dental office needs.

The young entrepreneur speaks modestly about her achievements, but there is no doubt her business is doing very well – she has enough patients considering she just started and is able to cover all the expenses and even support herself. Many familiar faces frequent her office – her relatives, friends and acquaintances are now also her patients. Their number is growing every day, as talk of Bojana’s good work spreads through Brus.

Bojana is frank about starting and running her own business: “Launching a private business is a scary venture,” she says. “I won’t sugar-coat it and tell you it’s not hard. It’s hard and the road is full of obstacles. But if you believe in yourself and your dreams, if you devote yourself and work hard and are willing to compromise on the moves, but never on the goal, you will definitely succeed.” And, with Bojana’s enthusiasm and ambition, Brus will definitely soon become a municipality with the most dazzling smiles in Serbia.