Members of Khoni women's initiative groups got acquainted with the results of the research, which was aimed at "assessing the quality of human security" envisaging gender aspects, and got acquainted with the conclusions and recommendations, which they will try to advocate in cooperation with the local government. Khoni Youth Club discussed two project ideas developed within the grant competition. Activities to be implemented within the project were defined at the meeting. In the near future, the youth club will start implementing a project funded by the USAID grant competition and various types of activities. The meeting was hosted by Khoni public school N3.
The formation of youth groups started in April. Initially, the work covered 4 municipalities: Zugdidi, Tsalenjikha, Senaki, Chokhatauri, Terjola, Samtredia.
Trainers of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" conducted 4 trainings in these municipalities. The trainings were attended by active, motivated students. They know about our organization from graduates and want to get involved in the work of the Youth Empowerment Centers in order to learn more and acquire new skills.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
Domestic violence against women is a problem that is directly connected to security risks and affects the functioning of each sector/sphere of society. Elaboration of correct indicators will ensure early identification of cases of violence and prevention of violence. - This is stated in the introduction of new publication.
Title of the publication: “Risk indicators of domestic violence against women (review of official statistics).” Challenges, recommendations and an overview of official statistics are presented here. This publication is placed on the web-page https://sosfsokhumi.ge/
The project is implemented with the support the Equality Fund (Canada)
“The phenomenon of domestic violence” became the main topic of meetings of psychologist Ekatarine Kvachakidze. Domestic violence is the most common form of violence. Some researchers argue that the rapist himself witnessed violence in childhood. This is the theory of “learned behavior.” Bad habits, drugs, alcohol, etc. contribute to violence. We discussed these issues at a group meeting with teachers, where everyone expressed their opinion.
Recent researches have shown that many rapists control themselves more, while women accept their fate, become passive and do not seek a way out.
The aim of the meeting with a psychologist is for women to overcome the “weak woman” within themselves and continue to live with new vision and strength.
Individual and group meetings were held at Women Support Centers of Kobuleti, Vani, Zugdidi (Koki, Didinedzi), Tsalenjikha (Pakhulani).
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
The members of the women initiative group of the village Pakhulani held another meeting. The conversation touched on the problems and needs of women and the importance of sharing the experiences of the initiative groups in different municipalities. During the discussion, it became clear that the problems are identical everywhere. The members of the group discussed future plans, noting that such meetings are important in the process of identifying problems and finding ways to solve them.
In order to exchange and share information and discuss common problems, exchange meetings were held between women initiative groups. The women's group of Tskaltubo visited the women initiative group of Senaki. The participants got acquainted with each other better, discussed the needs and problems of women. According to their assessment, the mentioned format is important and interesting in terms of mutual experience sharing. It is an interesting phase in youth groups. Senaki group works on a project idea. The young people prepared two projects, which they will present to the competition commission.
During the meeting of the working group of IDP women and girls, the participants once again worked on advocacy plans, reviewed the planned activities to solve the problem step by step, finalized the plan and distributed responsibilities. These are the opinions of the group members:
“I feel that a literate citizen is gradually growing within me.”
“My view on problem solution has changed. Before that, I thought that all I had to do was to write an application and then wait to see whether the local government would take care of us or not.”
“We need the right information in order to achieve our goal. I love the education I get here.”
Within the framework of our project members of the working group study ways and methods of achieving the goal - using the example of their own problems.
On April 13 and 14, members of the working group of IDP women and girls attended a training on: “Budget advocacy and citizen participation in self-government.” All four groups – 80 people – took part in the training.
What is the budget, what does the local government program mean, what benefits are provided, what services can IDP women and girls living in Kutaisi use to improve their living conditions - the training participants were informed about these issues. They expressed their opinions:
“It was a necessary and useful training that made many things obvious for us.”
“We learned about responsibilities of local government, what can we demand and what local government cannot do.”
“It turns out that you need to follow the application procedure and register on time.”
“We have found that only application is not enough to satisfy a request or requirement.”
“We learned that it is important to have the right information.”
The project is implemented with the support of USAID local governance program
A meeting with members of the working group of IDP women and girls was held on the topic “Determining the dynamics of the advocacy plan”.
Participants were once again given the opportunity to review a sample advocacy plan, clarify responsible persons, outline planned activities, and propose a reasonable time frame for starting the advocacy process.
The group members noted that they would definitely use the theoretical knowledge acquired within the project to effectively carry out advocacy.
