Family conflicts, violence against women, victim protection mechanisms - meetings on these issues were held in the Women Support Centers of Vani, Senaki, Kobuleti, Terjola and Zugdidi.
Participants noted that openness on the facts of domestic violence has been increased, but at the same time, active work is still necessary to inform the population, since many do not know how to respond in case of violence, what is their responsibility.
Participants believe that such meetings are necessary to fill the information vacuum, and to make society ready to resist violence.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
The monitoring and advocacy group of the Women Fund “Sukhumi”, in cooperation with the Women Support Center, held an information meeting on violence in the hall of the main library of Tsalenjikha The meeting was attended by the officials of Tsalenjikha municipality: deputy Mayor, chairman of the City Council, deputy chairman, employees of the City Hall and City Council, representatives of the society.
The participants of the meeting were provided with information about a research carried out in Tsalenjikha municipality, which concerned the prevention of violence against women/domestic violence and an effective response in terms of facilitating the employment of women - childcare. They also received information about the importance of correcting the rapist’s behavior at an early stage and about existing best practices.
The meeting was held in the mode of questions and answers. The participants spoke about the need to strengthen coordinated work to prevent violence in the municipality.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
A meeting, organized by the monitoring group and the Women Support Center of the Fund "Sukhumi", was held in Tkibuli. The meeting was attended by representatives of the municipal services and various groups of society.
The series of meetings “Involvement of society in combating domestic violence” aims to increase the role of local governments of partner municipalities in the eradication of violence and assistance to victims.
The meeting presented the conclusions of the researches, conducted by the Women Fund "Sukhumi": the need to implement the programs correcting the rapist’s behavior at an early stage; strengthening the women-childcare services. Presentation of a digital resource center of the services for victims of violence was prepared (http://sosfsokhumi.ge/).
During the direct dialogue, it was noted that the society should think about the measures against violence. Women's economic empowerment programs were recognized as important. A positive assessment was given to the decentralization of social work, the result of which was a department for children's rights. After the reorganization, it was formed into a municipal service and this shows the importance of this direction in the issue of strengthening the family.
It was noted that the cooperation between the Women Fund "Sukhumi" and Tkibuli municipality has positive dynamics, the directions of the future partnership are outlined.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
Women Fund “Sukhumi” Tbilisi office representative - Ekaterine Gamakharia has participated in first in-person working meeting organized by the WAVE network in Vienna (May 12th, 2022) to kick off the new OSCE-funded project on supporting women survivors of violence in conflict and post-conflict areas. The aim of the project is to develop a toolkit to capture the promising practices of women’s NGOs in preventing and responding to gender-based violence during and after the war. The project participants have exchanged thoughts about importance of the toolkit, devised its goal and the potential target audience, the structure and the practices to be incorporated in the final document.
The WAVE members involved in the project are the Sexual Assault Crisis Center (Yerevan, Armenia), Women Fund Sukhumi (Kutaisi, Georgia), Foundation United Women Banja Luka (Banja Luka, Bosnia & Herzegovina), and Centre “Women’s Perspectives” (Lviv, Ukraine). More information about the project, available at the following link: https://wave-network.org/new-project-supporting-women-survivors-of-violence-in-conflict-and-post-conflict-areas/
Ekaterine attended the last session of the WAVE Advisory Board Members meeting (May 11th), where she has possibility to share her ideas on how to make the projects implemented by the WAVE and extensive expertise accumulated in the network member organizations more accessible and beneficial for the women’s organizations.
We lived and developed quite well We communicated, laughed, studied, rejoiced, adored our city and our country! It was before coming of the "Russian Peace"...
February 24 forever turned our lives upside down and broke all plans. Despite the fact that our region is Russian-speaking, we have never asked anyone to free us or save us!
Since February 25, the entire region of Melitopol has been under occupation. Life in the occupation is ... not life, it is survival.
Now some words about the vulnerable segments of the population, especially in villages and suburbs... People have not had pensions for several months, food supplies were running out, medicines are also running out, there have been no social and preferential payments for the third month already...
"Citizen participation in local governance" - this topic was discussed with the members of Kutaisi Women Initiative Group.
Legal acts, principles of self-government financing according to the European Charter, self-governmental unit and its powers. These and many other issues were explained by lawyer Tamuna Fachulia (Tamar Pachulia).
The participants got acquainted with the work of the website of the Digital Resource Center of the services for Victims of Violence (https://sosfsokhumi.ge/).
One of the participants of the Women Club - Natia Jimsheleishvili talked about her success story, the way she passed - how she achieved success.
The project is implemented with the support of the USAID
The ordinary meeting in Baghdati was held as part of the cycle of information meetings planned by the monitoring and advocacy group. It was attended by representatives of local government, teachers and kindergarten educators. The organizer of the meeting is Bagdati Women Support Center.
In order to assess the problem of combating violence against women / domestic violence and assist the victims, the participants were provided with information about a research that was conducted in Bagdati municipality and related to the promotion of women's employment: what childcare services exist, what needs to be improved for women's economic independence. As noted, the research concretely showed the real barriers for women from vulnerable groups.
Participants also learned about the importance of correcting the rapist’s behavior at an early stage and about existing best practices. It was noted that a strategy needs to be developed as it takes time to receive effective results.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
In the beginning of May, three training sessions were held on actual issues: problems of tolerance among young people and ways to manage conflicts. Interesting trainings with discussions and role--games were held in Senaki and Zugdidi Youth Empowerment Centers. Online, but active work was carried out with the youth group of Vani municipality.
All meetings were attended by 65 participants. For them, this is a space for communicating with successful peers, getting acquainted with important information, discovering new opportunities, so they look forward to the next meetings.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
"The importance of inter-agency cooperation and coordination on the issues of domestic violence/violence against women at the local level" was the topic of the training held in Borjomi.
The training was attended by the representatives of local self-government from 15 municipalities of Western Georgia (Kutaisi, Tskaltubo, Khoni, Samtredia, Terjola, Bagdati, Tkibuli, Senaki, Zugdidi, Poti, Tsalenjikha, Lanchkhuti, Chokhatauri, Ozurgeti, Kobuleti).
On the first day, together with getting acquainted with each other, many things were interesting and important:
- Presentations of the research conducted by the Women Fund "Sukhumi" on: ”The importance of correction of the rapist’s behavior at an early stage” and the rapid assessment of the needs of the Mayor's representatives in 10 municipalities of western Georgia;
- Information about the website “Digital Resource Center of the Services for Victims of Violence” - http://sosfsokhumi.ge;
- Presentations and discussion of programs implemented by municipalities against violence towards the women.
