SERBIA:In the unforgiving, macho world of Serbian politics, Gordana Rajkov, diminutive, blonde and 60 years old, is making considerable waves.
Ms Rajkov is poised to become the first person with a disability to win a seat in the Serbian parliament, a decade after returning from Ireland, her refuge from the war that destroyed Yugoslavia.
In a country where many people believe women's rightful role in politics is to hold the arm of a powerful man, she is determined to fight prejudice with a determination that she honed in Dublin.
She arrived in the city in 1993, and was soon part of a protest outside the Dáil against plans to cut funds for the Centre for Independent Living, which aims to help people with disabilities play a full part in society.
"I am personally very attached to Ireland," she says. "It was where I got the name for the Independent Living movement, which I used later here. I worked at the centre in Dublin. It was a great experience, and I tried to transfer that to Serbia when I came home." Ms Rajkov has used funds from the Irish Government to break new ground in projects for people with disabilities in Serbia.
"We have set up a personal assistance service in Serbia, which has enabled 70 disabled people to employ 70 previously unemployed people as their helpers. That wouldn't have happened without Irish aid," she says.
After first planning to run in tomorrow's election as an independent candidate, Ms Rajkov finally decided to campaign with the G17 Plus party, which is expected to take about 7 per cent of the vote and which could play an important role in talks to form a new government.
Sceptics say Ms Rajkov's candidacy may attract a few votes to G17 Plus, but will hardly change attitudes in a country that has long felt people with disabilities should be neither seen nor heard."For a long time, disability has not been on the list of government priorities," Ms Rajkov says. "But these years of war and bombing mean the number of disabled people here grew, and their position is getting worse and worse."
Ms Rajkov knows that many people regard her concerns as trivial, but hopes that by securing election to parliament she will at least make disability more visible.
And then, she adds, "our leaders will at least have to adapt the Serbian parliament - or jump over me to get inside."
