The round table, which was held in Chokhatauri, was attended by the leaders of the municipality, members of the Gender Equality Council, representatives of the police, educational and medical institutions. They got acquainted with the document  “Monitoring of Services for the Victims - Support Services for Victims of Domestic Violence and Existing Challenges” prepared by the Fund “Sukhumi”.

It was noted that the situation in the municipality in terms of cooperation of local referral entities is not bad. There are also budget programs, which gives possibility to see the victim's problems, respond to them, and help the victim in employment in the long - term prospect.

Insufficient response from the side of the society itself to the facts of violence was mentioned as the biggest challenge, and a serious need for information and educational work was highlighted. It was said that the experience of the Fund "Sukhumi" in this regard will be very useful for the municipality.

In May, the psychologist received 56 phone calls from Kutaisi and from those regions where Women's Support Centers operate. It shows the alarming - traumatic stressful situation of people.

10 online and 8 offline individual psychotherapy are provided for the beneficiaries, 3 of them are teenagers.

During a month, the lawyer of the Fund "Sukhumi" also actively worked together with the psychologist. Online group meetings and consultations with beneficiaries and meetings with members of the crisis families were held.

Everyone is happy to note the importance of this support, which is free and often people get this service from the comfort of their homes.

Online trainings on: “Problems of tolerance among the youth. Conflict management. Bullying” were held with youth groups of Kobuleti, Tkibuli, Samtredia, Vani and Terjola.

All groups differ from each other, but they are united by the fact that they really like non-formal education, the issues that are discussed. All participants are motivated to get as much information as possible and learn new skills.

There are leaders, who successfully complete their "homework". In May, they held informational meetings with peers on the topics of tolerance, conflict and bullying. Similar meetings are continued ...

In May, the work on the performance "Gvriti" (turtledove) was completed: the dolls were created, text and music were written.

Young actors recorded their roles in the studio. Active rehearsals were held in Kutaisi, Meskhishvili Theater.

The main rehearsal and premiere will take place soon - "Gvriti" prepares for a meeting with the audience.

The forum theater and the shadow theater of the Fund "Sukhumi" have always had a lot of audience. Now the viewer will wait for the performance of the puppet theater with interest.

The mobilizers of the Women Support Centers held information meetings in Senaki, Samtredia, Tsalenjikha, Chokhatauri and Tkibuli municipalities.

Women – meeting participants in different communities listened to information about victim assistance services, as well as about legal mechanisms, responsible for cases of violence. During the meetings, it is often necessary to record stories that require a response. Based on specific cases, a psychologist and a lawyer of the Fund "Sukhumi" are involved in the response process.

Violence victim faces many problems.

It is not a secret that the state can offer only temporary shelter and legal responsibility for the rapist. After leaving the shelter, the victim, with the minor children, is in the hardest situation and the friendship network is vital for her. It gives her a feeling of more or less stability and security.

 The Fund “Sukhumi” has always expressed an idea of ​​multidisciplinary cooperation and coordination in order to respond to the problem of violence against women and domestic violence. Number of round tables, information meetings or civil forums were held, permanently emphasizing proper coordination and consolidation of resources in the field of violence prevention, especially in direction of victim assistance.

The Fund "Sukhumi" has established the following model - a non-formal group is successfully functioning. It is conditionally called the social partners network for victim assistance.

It includes: specialists of social directions of the fund, psychologist, lawyer; social service structures of local self-government, especially the Department for the Protection of Children’s Rights;

Mobilizers of Women Support Centers of the Fund "Sukhumi" meet with representatives of different groups of society. Informational meetings were held in the municipalities of Kobuleti, Zugdidi, Terjola, Bagdati and Vani. The participants of the meetings listened to information about the problem of violence and programs that act in direction of victim assistance and support. They also focused on the problems existing in the communities and ways to solve them. The mobilizers highlighted the issues for advocacy.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot

 für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)

“It is necessary to talk about these topics at our age”, “Non-formal education gives us what we do not receive at school”, “I will definitely share this knowledge with everyone” - this is the feedback from the participants at the end of the training.

In the first half of May, 5 online trainings were held with young people from  Tsalenjikha, Chokhatauri, Bagdati, Zugdidi and Senaki municipalities on the following topics: reasons of conflict, tolerance and bullying.

Groups like this format, they are motivated and active, they are involved in discussions. Their frankness should be noted. Leaders are ready to hold informational meetings with peers and share their knowledge. They choose topics out of three directions presented at the training, and most important is that they are very serious and responsible towards their work.

Live meetings would be much more interesting with group work and role-games, but the Covid pandemic does not yet provide such an opportunity.

The Fund "Sukhumi" has 10 Women Support Centers in Terjola, Vani, Tkibuli, Bagdati, Chokhatauri, Samtredia, Kobuleti, Zugdidi, Senaki, Tsalenjikha municipalities. A two-day workshop was held for the updated staff of mobilizers. All discussed topics were necessary and relevant: selecting target groups, working with the audience, identifying problems, filling in a victim questionnaire and responding to it, conducting advocacy campaign, legal mechanisms for victim support, working with local governments, municipal programs and state services for violence prevention and victim assistance, informing, self-presentation, facilitation and moderation.

“The work of the mobilizer seemed difficult to me, but now I already know how to go step by step. The workshop showed me the sequence of the process”, mentioned one of the mobilizers at the end of the workshop.

The article in the newspaper "New Education" starts like this:

Within the framework of the project "Strengthening the Women's Rights in Western Georgia", the Fund “Sukhumi” has started to establish youth centers in 10 cities of Western Georgia (Kobuleti, Senaki, Tsalenjikha, Zugdidi, Samtredia, Vani, Terjola, Tkibuli, Bagdati). In agreement with local governments and resource centers, the Fund “Sukhumi” cooperates with youth departments, on the basis of which youth empowerment centers are established.

Link: https://bit.ly/3ew5m3x