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.
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.
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.
Searching for the funds, registtarion of civic organizations, self-presentation, presentation of results - all these questions were necessary, interesting and useful. Therefore, the mobilizers of the Women Support Centers were actively involved participated in the process of two-day online training.
The participants got acquainted with the procedure of registering the organization, with the necessary documents. Particularly interesting was the part of the training, which was devoted to the skills of self-presentation, presenting the results of activities and formulating these results in a success story.
“A very necessary project”, “You are really doing a big job”, “Training on these issues, should take place throughout Georgia”, “I am ready to cooperate”, “The conflict expert is already working in a second circle in our school. “Our school is always open for you", "Thank you very much for the work done", "We are waiting for you in Chokhatauri municipality, we promise to work actively"," We follow your work, and are delighted with your young people"- these and similar considerations were expressed or recorded in a chat during a meeting on the Zoom platform.
How did the impact of the pandemic affect family relationships? What problems do married couples have, and what resources are available for early prevention of domestic conflicts? - these issues have been discussed online with family couples living in Terjola, Senaki, Kutaisi, Khoni.
The participants believe that conflict situations are exacerbated by unemployment and psychological tension. As they say, the adaptation period was especially difficult for primary school students, who found it difficult to switch from an online format to attending lessons at school.
It was noted that a conflict situation could arise in any family. Such meetings, communication, and raising awareness on these topics reduce confrontation between couples and help prevent conflict.
They are already leaders, as they conduct the activities of Women Support Centers in 11 municipalities. They attended many trainings, but teaching and learning is never superfluous. Therefore, a two-day training was held for the mobilizers of the Women Support Centers, where they discussed topical topics: the phenomenon of leadership, civic activism, advocacy strategy.
The online space has become a platform for the participants to share their knowledge and information. They saw leadership, teamwork and advocacy issues in a new prism.
“Schools against challenges of gender equality, gender stereotypes and domestic violence” - a new publication - this publication was prepared by the monitoring and advocacy group of the Fund “Sukhumi” last year. It reflects the results of a research, carried out in 11 municipalities of Western Georgia. Active work is underway to implement targeted policies in schools against gender stereotypes.
In this process, our partner is the newspaper "New Education", which has been published once a week since 1998, and is distributed among subscribers - in schools and universities of Georgia, as well as in government and non-government organizations working in the field of education. An even wider audience is covered by the online version of the newspaper.
The Fund "Sukhumi" has 10 Women Support Centers in Kutaisi, Tskaltubo, Khoni, Terjola, Senaki, Poti, Zugdidi, Ozurgeti, Lanchkhuti and Kobuleti municipalities. The mobilizers of the centers have renewed their work - despite the difficult epidemiological situation, online and offline meetings were held. Specialists of the organization - a lawyer, a psychologist, a conflict expert - were actively involved in these meetings.
