Our representative, Linda Chikhladze, was invited to the professional day meeting of the National Agency for Crime Prevention, Execution of Non-Custodial Sentences, and Probation. During the meeting, the Minister - Rati Bregadze, the Deputy - Buba Lomuashvili, and the head of the agency, Lado Kheladze, summarized the results of their activities and discussed the priorities and main directions for the agency's development. These include the introduction of technological innovations, strengthening crime prevention measures, promoting the development of human resources, infrastructural renewal, and improving services for beneficiaries.
Representatives from legislative, executive, and partner local and international organizations also participated in the meeting.
The Georgian Parliament and the EaP Civil Society Forum Georgian National Platform co-organized a conference dedicated to the EU integration of Georgia. The conference fully addressed the implementation of the 12 recommendations of the European Union. Linda Chikhladze from the Women's Fund "Sukhumi" attended the meeting, along with representatives of other local non-governmental organizations and the opposition parties.
The work of women's mutual assistance groups is gradually becoming more active. Meetings were held in all ten groups. Project Assistant Nino Chabukiani met with members of the group in five municipalities (Tskaltubo, Samtredia, Kobuleti, Terjola, Chokhatauri) - the meetings focused on the needs and problems of women, advocacy and cooperation with local government.
Women know that they need to study more to advocate for their interests, so a new component was added to the meetings - digital literacy courses. The courses have already started in the municipalities of Kobuleti, Terola and Chokhatauri. During the meetings, the women learned how to search for the necessary information on the Internet, got acquainted with the unique platform - sosfsokhumi.ge, which contains the necessary materials for victims of violence. This work helps to increase the digital competence of the team members.
A member of one of the mutual assistance groups is currently undergoing psycho-rehabilitation at the Rehabilitation Center of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" in order to return home stronger and work more actively in the group.
The project also envisages transfer of mobile phones with an SOS application to make it easier for women to protect themselves and their children. In July, telephones were given to women living in Terjola municipality. The Mayor of Terjola Manuchar Robakidze and Deputy Chairman of City Council David Gogberashvili took part in the action of support.
The project is implemented with the support the Equality Fund (Canada)
Another information exchange meeting was held at the initiative of the Mandatory Service. During the meeting, the Mandatory Service presented a summary of their half-year results and shared the latest news. The meeting was attended by our representative, Nino Korinteli, who shared the findings and challenges from our new monitoring report titled - "Assessment of Effectiveness of Municipalities' Preventive Measures to Combat Violence Against Women/Domestic Violence."
Chokhatauri a meeting with local referral entities (services of the City Hall: department for the protection of children's rights, interdepartmental commission, gender equality council of the municipality, representatives of the City Hall in administrative units, as well as kindergarten and school teachers, family doctors). The participants of the meeting were introduced to the guide "Prevention and response to gender-based violence in war and post-war conditions - experience and recommendations of women’s NGOs", which describes the experience of 6 partner organizations of the WAVE network.
Attention was focused on the experience of the Fund “Sukhumi”, which tells that in condition of prolonged conflict, “no war, no peace”, an environment of violent behavior appears when family conflicts and violence against women increase.
Fund "Sukhumi" has successful practices that have received international recognition: public awareness regarding the problem of violence and the introduction of a gender responsive early warning system (GREWS), identification of cases and provision of services, strengthening the rights of women and girls and promoting coordinated actions of local referral entities, launching a digital resource center platform on existing support/assistance services, strengthening institutional mechanisms of gender equality at the municipal level.
The meeting participants noted that the prolonged conflict left its mark on various spheres of public life. According to them, governmental structures, public institutions and civil society organizations are the main actors responsible for the protection of women and girls during and after the war.
Opinions were exchanged regarding the most acute challenges in terms of prevention and effective response to violence against women/domestic violence.
For detailed information about the guide, the participants were given the link: https://wave-network.org/wp.../uploads/Toolkit-Georgian.pdf
Members of the women group of the village Pakhulani - Tsalenjikha municipality discussed the actual issues identified according to the results of the conducted research. Insufficient garbage bins in the village were identified as a problem. The second issue is the lack of fast internet. There is internet in the village, but it is of low quality, therefore the members of the group work to advocate the introduction of such company that will have a quality internet and television package.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs held the final event of the campaign against child marriage, titled "Don't Deprive of childhood." During the meeting, the Department of Human Rights Protection and Investigation Quality Monitoring of the Ministry of Internal Affairs delivered a presentation. The presentation aimed to inform the invited representatives from governmental and non-governmental sectors, as well as local and international organizations, about the measures undertaken within the campaign. Our representatives, Linda Chikhladze and Nino Korinteli, were present at the meeting.
The presentation of the monitoring tool on the evaluation of measures for the prevention of violence against women and in the family was held, organized by the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia and the Council of Europe.
The monitoring tool is based on the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. Its purpose is to assess the impact of the state's prevention mechanism on issues of violence against women and domestic violence, as well as to identify specific achievements and challenges. The document will assist state agencies in planning and implementing future steps.
The meeting was attended by our representatives, Linda Chikhladze and Nino Korinteli.
Psychologist Manana Gotsiridze worked in three directions in June:
- She met 5 beneficiaries of a day rehabilitation center who are learning how to work with polymer clay. She did some work with them to get rid of negative emotions, to reassess priorities and increase self-esteem.
She had daily interaction with the women in the rehabilitation center. Intensive work was carried out with traumas using various methods: art therapy, elements of cognitive-correctional psychology, psychological exercises and associative cards.
- 12 individual psychotherapy sessions were held online and 15 sessions with women living in Kutaisi. Three of them were new, and with the others, the previously started work continued.
35-year-old Khatuna passed psycho-rehabilitation for more than 6 months. After the death of her husband, she did not want to live, even her daughter irritated her, nothing pleased her, she did not believe that after the sessions of the psychologist there would be any positive changes. But working with different methods gave results: fear and irritation gradually disappeared, new priorities, new goals appeared. She thanks the psychologist for her humanity and professionalism, patience and invaluable assistance.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
