Anita Ogulin
Name of the organisation
The Anita Ogulin and ZPM Association, formerly known as the Ljubljana Moste-Polje Association of Friends of Youth, is a humanitarian organisation that has been active all over Slovenia for more than 20 years. The greatest credit for the operations of the organisation went to its president Anita Ogulin. Together with her team of colleagues, donors, partners, media, godparents, and supporters, Anita created the ZPM MP that we know today – a Slovenian humanitarian organisation. The management board therefore decided to rename the organisation, giving it a name implying the meaning of a national humanitarian organisation that is synonymous with sacrifice and transparency.
Life of Anita Ogulin
The life of Anita Ogulin began in the village of Obrije, in a family of four. Both of her parents were disabled. Her mother was visually impaired and her father was completely blind. Because Anita’s family faced obstacles on a daily basis due to the parents’ health constraints, humanitarianism and a strong sense of empathy accompanied her from an early age. As a child, she took over the care of the farm on which they lived, and at the same time became a guide for the blind and visually impaired. She was accustomed to a strict regime of getting up early, performing demanding physical tasks, and taking care of family obligations, which were balanced by a love of books and the written word, as well as songs on the radio and fairy tales.
After completing her primary and secondary education, she continued her education at the Faculty of Public Administration. After graduation, she worked in various professions, from production worker and secretary to commercialist; she spent the longest time working as a journalist.
She was a journalist for 15 years, working at the newspaper “Glas kolektiva” of the SCT construction company and as an associate of the “Glas Ljubljane” radio, as well as the author of many interesting articles and news from other newspapers and magazines. Her career came to a halt when she suffered a serious car accident in 1998 and retired on grounds of disability. After her recovery, she decided to devote all her energy to children and families in need.
The embodiment of humanitarianism
As a volunteer at the Moste-Polje Association of Friends of Youth, she redirected her assistance and support to socially disadvantaged children and adolescents. She was the initiator and long-time president of the Commission for Social and Humanitarian Issues at the Slovenian Association of Friends of Youth. For more than 40 years, she acted as a pedagogical leader, accompanying children and adolescents during specialised camps, holiday retreats, winter holidays, trips, excursions and professional excursions, which helped her to better understand the problems and challenges in the field of implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. From the very beginning, she also participated in the Children’s Parliament project, teaching children and adolescents positive values such as respect, solidarity, and justice. For her work with children and adolescent, she obtained a child care certificate according to the methodology of Dr. Maria Montessori.
Based on her experience gained through working with children and families, she was the initiator of the establishment of the “Palčica” safe house, free learning assistance programmes, several scholarship funds, as well as numerous other campaigns and projects. She also designed “Where there’s a will there’s a way”, a project verified by the Social Chamber, set out to help families in need. Under her leadership, the ZPM Ljubljana Moste-Polje created the Sponsorship in Slovenia programme; since its inception, the programme has helped 13,000 children from socially disadvantaged families to achieve a brighter future with the assistance of their “godparents”.
Anita was a great advocate of children’s and human rights and, above all, a proponent of many systemic changes that would make survival easier for children and families in need.
From 1992 to 2015, she was the secretary of the Moste-Polje Association of Friends of Youth, where she worked as a volunteer. Since 2015, she has served as the voluntary president of the Ljubljana Moste-Polje Association of Friends of Youth.
In 2024, the Moste-Polje Association of Friends of Youth was renamed the Anita Ogulin and ZPM Association in her honour.
Her achievements
During her life, Anita Ogulin has received several awards, one of the most recent being the “2023 Business Leader” award which has been traditionally awarded by the AmCham Slovenia business community for several years.
11 years ago, she received her first “Slovenian Woman of the Year” award. That same year, the former President of the Republic of Slovenia Dr Danilo Turk also awarded her with the Order for Merits, an award for merit in the civil field in Slovenia, for her selfless humanitarian assistance to children from all over Slovenia. In 2012, she was awarded the Delo “Personality of the Year” award and the title of the “Slovenian of the Year” by Nedeljski dnevnik; that same year, the Institute for the Development of Social Responsibility (IRDO) awarded her with the special HORUS award. Later in life, she also received the “Honorary Citizen of Ljubljana” title and the “Name of the Year” title at Val 202 due to her humanitarianism and selfless assistance to people.
In 2024, the editorial board of the “Jana” journal presented Anita Ogulin with a special statuette of the honorary Slovenian woman of all times. The President of the Republic of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar, awarded her with the Golden Order for Merits. She received this award as a sign of gratitude and respect for her life’s work, dedicated to volunteering and helping people in need, which marked the Slovenian society and inspired us all in charity, solidarity and compassion.
