{"id":16,"date":"2019-05-07T03:06:38","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T03:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecradlemagazine.com\/sr\/contributors\/"},"modified":"2019-05-07T03:06:38","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T03:06:38","slug":"contributors","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thecradlemagazine.com\/sr\/contributors\/","title":{"rendered":"Contributors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Marija Vrebalov<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Marija Vrebalov was\nborn on May 9, 1972 in Novi Sad, where she finished Svetozar Markovi\u0107 Toza<\/em>\nElementary School followed by the 7. April<\/em> Medical\nHigh School. During those years, she trained rhythmic gymnastics and competed.\nShe first enrolled at the Faculty of Medicine and, later, at the Faculty of\nAgriculture, University of Novi Sad, in the Department of Field and Vegetable\nCrops. She started working while still at the university. In addition to the\nBBC School for the Promotion of Equality and Nonviolent Communication, where\nshe obtained her diploma in 2005, she has attended and completed several\ninformal forms of education, seminars, schools and trainings on political\nengagement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2000, Marija was\nin a car accident which would leave her with a permanent, complete physical\ndisability. In 2003, after a long period of rehabilitation, the Media\nDevelopment Loan Fund (MDLF) from New York hired her as a translator. In 2004,\nthe Democratic Party in Novi Sad appointed her to the position of the president\nof the Democratic Party\u2019s Departmental Council for the Disabled, as a non-party\naffiliated member. Since 2003, she has been a consultant for accessible\nenvironments, under the Feng Shui principles of Design for All, having\ngraduated from the New York Institute of Art and Design. She has also worked on\nthe Development Fund of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina since the\nbeginning of 2007. A year later, she was taken on as a consultant for the\nPublic Art & Public Space project at the Faculty of Architecture in\nBelgrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a non-party\ncandidate in the 2008 elections, she was appointed Deputy Chairman of the\nAssembly of the City of Novi Sad as the first disabled and the first female\ncandidate, a position she was reelected to in 2012 until the restructuring of\nthe city government. From 2008\u20132012, she was the Chairperson of\nthe Committee for the Implementation of Public Call Procedures for the Selection\nof Cultural Projects, a member of the Committee for the Allocation of Funds for\nSocial Protection, a member of the Council for Persons with Special Needs and\nthe initiator for the establishment of the same council in the Novi Sad\nAssembly. In the same period, she was a member of the City Accessibility Team,\na member of the Urban Planning, Business and Housing Council, and an active\nmember of the Team for Drafting, Designing, Writing and Implementing the City\nAccessibility Strategy 2012\u20132018. She was named a Councilor in\nthe new parliament for the period 2012\u20132016. In the 2016 elections, as a\nnon-party candidate and the first woman on the list, she was reelected for the\nperiod 2016\u20132020. In\nthis term, she will be a member of the Council for Persons with Special Needs.\nSince March 2018, she has been a member of the Accessibility Working Group at\nthe European Capital of Culture\u2019 Foundation 2021. She has also been a\nconsultant on architectural accessibility projects for Beogradski kej, Bulevar\nEvrope, a public toilet on Kralj Aleksandar St., Radulova\u010dki Environmental\nCenter in Sremski Karlovci and many other projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marija has\nbeen a Personal Assistance Service supporter since 2009, and involved in media\ncampaigns and social media usage for advocacy and self-advocacy in the field of\ndisability and other civil rights. Her life story was published by the Living\nUpright Center in The life stories of women with\ndisabilities in Vojvodina<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marija is fluent in English.
She is the mother of one child.

For more information about Marija\u2019s work, please visit:
Instagram: @marijavrebalov and @mvfengshuitopsecret
Facebook: Marija Vrebalov
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