Nevladijada 2025 is being held in Vrnjačka Banja, which gathers around 100 participants from Serbia and the region, in order to strengthen cooperation between civil society organizations, develop team spirit and promote healthy lifestyles through sports, games and common values. Conceived as a space for meeting and connecting organizations that share common values and commitment to work in the community, Nevladijada is organized by Proaktiv from Niš, an organization that since 2010 has been actively encouraging civic activism and strengthening the capacities of the civil sector in southeastern Serbia.
Nenad Stojanović from the organization Proaktiv sees Nevladijada as mutual encouragement of civil society organizations, empowerment and exchange of positive experiences from local communities. “We have actually turned some sports disciplines into what is important to us for the realization of projects. How to better choose the target group, how to choose a local problem, how to be faster, agile, to share roles in the team and to use resources better”, Stojanović explained.
“The Akt program supported one part of this event, the other part was supported by the participants themselves. Through the Akt program, we want to strengthen other organizations and we do this with the help of training, mentoring, counseling, in order to actually diversify the resources,” explained the representative of the Helvetas organization Svetlana Radosavljević.
Reminding that we are witnessing changes and turbulence in Serbia and throughout the world, she emphasized that it has become necessary for non-governmental organizations to have different sources of funding, so that they can achieve their missions and visions. As she pointed out, “organizations can be financed by donors, but even more importantly, they achieve good cooperation with the business sector and receive support from citizens, which is why they exist.” “The goal is self-sustainability and for the organization not to depend on one donor, but to have several sources of funding,” said Radosavljević, who is an advisor for building the capacity of civil society organizations in the Akt program.
She sees the goal of Nevladiade as an exchange of ideas among civil society organizations, so that they can be innovative, gain new acquaintances and friendships that will later serve them to build new projects.
As the first competition of civil society in Serbia, Nevladijada will organize 10 challenging disciplines over the course of three days, including activities in the water, on the ground and in a closed space, which develop team cooperation, resourcefulness and creativity, with numerous opportunities for informal networking and exchange of experiences.
