This publication, more than any other, is a product of team effort.
We worked together, with pleasure and interest. Talking about your own positive results naturally causes such feelings.
In 2013-2016 Fund “Sukhumi” implemented a very challenging, important and ambitious project “Gender Advisory Councils – increasing women’s role in social changes of regions”. The project turned out to be more successful than expected - establishing Gender Advisory Councils in Kutaisi, Ozurgeti and Senaki helped increase women’s role and also brought some social changes to regions.
Moreover, state legislation now makes provisions for establishing gender councils.
How did we start? What did we do? How did we achieve our goals? The book tries to answer all these questions.
In this book we will tell you about the roads we took, our rich three-year experience, changes that we witnessed at the end of the project, the impact on society, government agencies and media, the people who contributed to these changes.
Georgia is in second place in Eastern Europe after Moldova for the early marriage of girls. It is followed by Turkey and Tajikistan.
As an exception, the marriage of a person who has reached the age of 16 was allowed by her consent and only with the consent of the court in the presence of such reasons as pregnancy. Since January 2017, the marriage of persons under the age of 18 has been completely prohibited by law.
These and other issues were aired in the informational bulletin of the fund "Sukhumi". The electronic version of the newsletter is published within the framework of the project "Strengthening of Women's Rights in Western Georgia".
"Communication" comes from the Latin word "komunikare", which means - we will make what is said understandable to all... Why we do not understand each other, why do we perceive the situation differently? This question is directly related to the knowledge of communication and the answer is this: because we do not know, or simply, misunderstand the forms of presenting information.
The bulletin contains examples of effective and ineffective communication, there are given the necessary information and advices.
The electronic version of the bulletin of the Fund "Sukhumi" is published in the framework of the project "Strengthening of women's rights in Western Georgia" and is distributed at different meetings.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
Women migration is a question that concerns everyone in Georgia equally, since there is no family whose member or loved one is not away.
There are many stories on this issue, some with a good ending, some with a bad ending. Statistically, of the people who were in the migration, 67% are women. Although, without it, it is clear that the leakage of women abroad over the past years has increased even more.
The bulletins contain several stories, the issue of responsibility of family members and society.
The electronic version of the bulletin of the Fund "Sukhumi" is published in the framework of the project "Strengthening of women's rights in Western Georgia" and is distributed at different meetings.
"Emotion management is the main segment in the prevention of violence" - this is the topic of the newsletter of May.
It says: "Emotion is an internal state of the individual and is aimed at a certain subject. Emotional personality depends on temperament, although the level of her education, upbringing and development plays a big role. "
The article gives examples - heard at the meetings of the Fund "Sukhumi". The necessary advice is presented.
The electronic version of the bulletin of the Fund "Sukhumi" is published in the framework of the project "Strengthening of women's rights in Western Georgia".
Gender stereotypes – dominant view about the qualities and roles of women and men - are one of the topical issues at the meetings of the fund “Sukhumi”. That is why the February issue of the newsletter was dedicated to it.
The bulletin explains why we are interested in this topic, gives examples and presents tips on how to deal with stereotypes. As psychologists say, gradually, step by step!
The electronic version of the newsletter is published within the framework of the project "Strengthening of Women's Rights in Western Georgia".
The conflict of generations is one of the topical issues at the meetings of the fund “Sukhumi”. That is why it became the topic of the November bulletin.
"I do not understand when he changed. She does not hear me at all. I do not know how to cope with it. I do everything, but he still does not obey," - mothers say.
In the process of education there are no standard recipes that can be useful to everyone. Although, there are approaches that should be envisaged for many mothers. The bulletins say exactly about this - the test and advice are presented.
The electronic version of the bulletin of the Fund "Sukhumi" is published in the framework of the project "Strengthening of Women's Rights in Western Georgia".
Advocacy is one of the segments during the prevention of violence, this is the theme of the newsletter of the Fund "Sukhumi" in August.
The word "advocacy" comes from the word "advocare" and means "call for change, their support."
As the publication states, advocacy is: to activity protect one's own and others' interests, actions in order to achieve change, influence public opinion, unite, support for implementation of changes
There are cases of successful and unsuccessful advocacy in the publication. There are also tips on what you should know before the start of the campaign.
The bulletin is published in the framework of the project "Strengthening of Women's Rights in Western Georgia".
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt – Evangelischer Entwicklunsdienst (Germany)
When fund "Sukhumi” started to work on the stories of women peacemakers within the framework of Georgian-Abkhaz women’s joint peacemaking project, we were not fully aware how to form it. One thing we knew for sure – they would not be dry and impersonal stories about women and women’s organizations fighting for peace. Our main target was not only the provision of information, but also the motivation of new women groups to increase the rows of peacemakers.
As it turned out, there are numerous examples of confrontations, bloodshed and destruction. We see split-up societies, millions of refugee families. It is rather hard to find true life stories of women behind the dry reports of historians, Human Rights’ Defenders, and International Institution.
Gradually, we started collecting the stories.
The first one was the story of Malala Yusufzai- a girl from Pakistan, whom Thalibs tried to kill because of her thirst to freedom.
Then there was Sharm Thong from Burma – a sixteen year-old girl, whose evaluations were heard from the high UN tribune by the world authorities.
Mother Hawa from Galkayo was an ardent defender of refugee women.
Visaka Dharmadasa, whose story might be Familiar to mother, who lost their kids.
. . . And other names, who were defined by the one of the authors as "women, fighting until their last breath”.
This collection consists of only eight stories, different eight problems, faced by women of different age, social status, and race.
Our beneficiaries, groups of refugee women, had the possibility of getting acquainted with the collected stories. At one of our meetings, the oldest participant lady expressed the common idea, "Today I made sure that women all over the world are united by the similar problems. I have seen myself in these stories many times-I recognized my pain, my dreams. Honestly I felt envious toward the women who are brave, so true to their own nation.”
We hope that this spirit will be shared by those, who will read our collection of stories. It is only the first collection of women-peacemakers stories that will be enriched with new names and experiences.