“The school should be interested in the concept of a safe school. The law on general education clearly states that the school must take responsibility for the violence,” mentioned one of the teachers, a participant of the event.
Teachers, parents and representatives of education resource centers from different municipalities attended a round table, which was held on the initiative of the Fund “Sukhumi”. The topic of the meeting was: “Nonviolent, safe environment in schools and the role of resource centers in promoting non-formal education”.
The participants discussed the existing challenges. During the meeting the recommendations were announced – their consideration will contribute to strengthening of cooperation between resource centers and schools, as well as the formation of a safe school model.
March was an active month for the forum-theater: casting, rehearsals, performances...
After the casting, new actors appeared in the group, who have already joined the work.
After a long pause, the first trip was in one of Kutaisi parks - the performances were held in the open air.
A new initiative of the Fund "Sukhumi" will be implemented soon - a puppet theater will be created. The scenario on the basis of Georgian fairy tale "Gvriti" (turtledove) is already written ...
Forum-theater, shadow theater, puppet theater – this is a variety, offered by the young actors to the audience.
The newspaper "New Education" actively publicizes the work of the Fund "Sukhumi". The first article, published in March, presents a mini-film "Gender stereotypes and the role of schools in their elimination."
The second article "Online Conference - Conflict Management and Violence Prevention" is dedicated to the final conference of the five-month work with the youth of Western Georgia.
Collaboration with the newspaper began in February and 4 articles have already been published. The wide audience of “New Education” got acquainted with the direction of work with youth and saw the importance of non-formal education in the process of breaking stereotypes, managing conflicts and preventing violence.
Familiarization with local and central services, identification of problems for advocacy - these issues were discussed at mobilization meetings in March.
An active communication was held with members of local governments in order to receive information. The meetings were conducted by mobilizers of the Fund "Sukhumi" Women Support Centers in Kutaisi, Tskaltubo, Khoni, Terjola, Senaki, Poti, Zugdidi, Ozurgeti, Lanchkhuti and Kobuleti municipalities. The meetings were also attended by a lawyer, a psychologist and a conflictologist of the organization, who provided the participants with information on the mechanisms for the elimination of violence.
The Fund "Sukhumi", with participation of members of Gender Equality Council of Sanaki municipality, held a round table on: “Strengthening the role and functions of the Gender Equality Council in the process of introducing local gender policy”.
The meeting discussed the strategy and various initiatives that will give more effect to the work of the Gender Equality Council. Particular attention was paid to planning of the existing resources for implementation of the plan for 2022, as well as to the issue of maximum involvement of the units responsible for the implementation of the plan.
“Strengthening the role and functions of the Gender Equality Council in the process of introducing local gender policy” - a round table on this topic was held with participation of representatives of Khoni Gender Equality Council, local self-government and civil activists.
The municipality makes important changes in terms of reorganizing the Council, creating thematic groups, choosing their strategies and initiating local programs with target on vulnerable groups. Particularly important for the participants was the question of how the budgetary support of the issues, envisaged in the plan should be carried out, as well as the issue of maximum involvement of the units responsible for the implementation of the plan.
Women Support Centers had variety of activities these days. The 8th of March was marked by events of various formats: information meetings with the villagers, round tables in kindergartens and schools, meetings with representatives of local governments, literary evening.
During the meetings, it was emphasized that this is the International Day of Women's Solidarity, a global celebration of their economic, political and social achievements.
According to the meeting participants, lots of changes happen in our everyday life from year to year. These are changes in legislation, in municipal programs, but women's rights are still violated, cases of violence are still frequent, the level of human security is still low and therefore advocacy and solution of many problems are necessary. This is what the Women Support Centers in 10 municipalities of Western Georgia are doing.
The Fund "Sukhumi" presents its new rapid assessment report – “Dashed hopes of the fire-affected population in the Gali district: Needs and response strategies”, which discusses priority needs and human security concerns of the population affected by the wildfires that broke out in January 2021 in the Gali district.
Ekaterine Gamakharia, Head of the Tbilisi Representative Office of the Fund "Sukhumi" has participated in a meeting organized by the Association “Peaceful and Business Caucasus”. The meeting was dedicated to the situation of the fire-affected population in Gali district. The representative of Fund “Sukhumi” has made a presentation and informed meeting participants about key findings and urgent needs of fire-affected population reflected in the organization’s recently published rapid-assessment report.
The meeting was attended by the civil society organizations working on the issues of IDPs and conflict-affected population, representatives of the de jure authorities of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, and the fire-affected persons.
The response strategies and actions of joint efforts were actively discussed during the meeting.
Violence is very often caused by gender stereotypes, so it is necessary to solve them, and the school can play a major role in this process.
“Gender stereotypes and the role of schools in their solution” is a short film prepared by the Tbilisi Representative Office of the Fund “Sukhumi”. The film shows one of the directions of the Fund "Sukhumi" - work with youth and the results of this work, the experience and the lessons learned.