Another six-month work cycle is over. New groups were formed in Samtredia, Vani, Senaki, Tsalenjikha and Zugdidi municipalities and the first meetings were held. Conflict management and violence prevention - these topics were introduced to young people, they discussed, expressed their views.

The training process was successfully conducted in the youth empowerment centers. There were discussions, role-games, interactive work.

- Such trainings are important for us, we meet active peers, discuss new topics, we have interesting discussions, which gives us possibility to hold discussions with arguments and gives more information, - said the young people at the end of the meetings.

The trainers introduced all the groups to the website "Digital Resource Center of the Services for Victims of Violence" created by the Women Fund "Sukhumi" - http://gbvdigitalresourcecenter.ge/ Knowing this is important for young people to provide timely information to those who need it...

The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot

 für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)

In April, the advocacy group of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" planned a series of information meetings to raise the awareness of active groups of citizens and referral entities on the elimination of domestic violence/violence against women and assistance to the victim.

The meeting at the City Hall of Senaki Municipality was attended by women victims of violence, single mothers and mothers with many children, teachers and the City Hall staff.

The participants of the meeting got acquainted with the results of two researches conducted by the Women Fund "Sukhumi" - on the promotion of women's employment and childcare services, as well as the correction of the behavior of a perpetrator.

At the meeting, a short presentation of the digital resource center of the services for victims of violence was made. The participants were given flyers with detailed information about the web page - www.sosfsokhumi.ge.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot

 für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)

In order to help, you must first find the one who most of all needs compassion, support, empowerment.

In order to empower, you need to know what she needs more!

You must offer what will strengthen her most.

In order to give the support more effect, you need to have allies.

This is a brief concept of the activities of Women Support Centers. The mobilizers of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" operate with this strategy in all ten municipalities (Samtredia, Terjola, Bagdati, Vani, Tkibuli, Senaki, Zugdidi, Tsalenjikha, Kobuleti, Chokhatauri).

The "discovery" of a victim of domestic violence remains a challenge to this day. They are everywhere, next to us, in front of us, but it is still difficult to see them. Because they are silent, they do not trust anyone.

There is a lot of work to do in terms of identifying cases of violence, because the scale of the problem is still not recognized in society. All information related to assistance to a victim of violence is important – the mobilizers of the Women Support Centers agree with this opinion, who meet monthly with women of different ages and professions.

Information is distributed quickly and reaches the addressee in a timely manner. Identified cases are recorded in the Women Support Centers of Tsalenjikha, Samtredia, Vani, Tkibuli and Zugdidi. The response process continues accordingly until the victim has received all available services. There are already results - some of the beneficiaries completed a course in psychology and some received legal advice.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot

 für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)

The Delegation of the European Union to Georgia hosted a high-level conference on "Women's participation in politics".

The meeting was held in hybrid mode and was attended by women in politics, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Human Rights, Chairman of the Parliamentary Gender Equality Council, activists of civil society organizations, experts, representatives of international organizations, and 12 embassies accredited in Georgia.

Ekaterine Gamakharia, a representative of the Women's Fund "Sukhumi", though online format, emphasized that political empowerment and participation of such marginalized groups as conflict-affected women, IDPs, and people living in remote regions are not paid sufficient attention, and the need to promote the political participation of this category of women is essential.

The last training from the cycle of trainings organized by the Women Fund "Sukhumi" was held In the Zoom format - this time for the heads of administrative units and specialists from the services of the municipalities of Tkibuli, Kobuleti, Chokhatauri and Tsalenjikha.

The training covered the following issues: the role of local governments in achieving gender equality, prevention and response to domestic violence; forms of civic participation, mechanisms of protection from violence, cooperation with the referral entities in identifying cases of violence and assistance to the victim.

The training participants were introduced to the innovative platform - the web page "Digital Resource Center for Victims of Violence" created by the Women Fund "Sukhumi". The web page gives information to the victim of violence and the person who is interested in her assistance about existing services, protection mechanisms and other relevant topics.

The pandemic prevented the work of the forum - theater. Now pleasant innovations have begun: the group was filled with new actors, new scenes were written, rehearsals and performances were updated. In March, the forum - theater held two performances in Kutaisi, in the open air.

The group of young actors is planning an even more active spring - they will travel to different municipalities, show the viewer scenes on actual topics, and then there will be discussions so that everyone can see the problems and ways to solve them...

The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot

 für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)

The lawyer of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" held consultation meetings for the beneficiaries of the Women Support Centers of Tkibuli, Terjola and Senaki.

The lawyer also gave three online legal consultations to the beneficiaries of the Women Support Centers of Samtredia, Vani and Chokhatauri - on the issues of changing the surname, also alimony and divorce.

The lawyer actively worked in the rehabilitation center together with a social worker and psychologist of the Women Fund “Sukhumi”. Women-victims of domestic violence living in the center, received the legal consultations on interesting issues.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot

 für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)

"Today I saw my responsibilities in a different prism; I realized that a lot depends on me in terms of having an active population in the community".

"I have heard topics that I have heard about, but it turns out I did not know them."

"Representatives of the Mayor are the implementers of our policies in their community, so it is important for us to help them to improve their skills"...

These are the evaluations of the participants. The online training was attended by 82 people from Bagdati, Vani and Terjola municipalities: representatives of the Mayor in the village (55 participants) and their assistants. They were provided with information on a variety of issues, including:

The psychologist of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" held offline meetings organized by Tkibuli and Terjola Women Support Centers. Online group meetings were held with the beneficiaries of Chokhatauri, Bagdati and Khurcha (Zugdidi municipality) Women Support Centers.

The work was also carried out in other directions: online sessions with two married couples, online individual psychotherapeutic sessions with participation of 18 beneficiaries from the regions and 13 from Kutaisi. In March, 5 people addressed a psychologist for the first time.

32 years old: “Thank you for your great work and your time. I not only got rid of fear, but also matured for big changes in my life, I began to enjoy the little things,” these are the words of one of the beneficiaries.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot

 für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)