Ekaterine Gamakharia, the head of Women Fund “Sukhumi” Tbilisi Office was privileged to represent Women Fund Sukhumi and civil society organizations as a panelist at a remarkable side event organized by Canada, Chair of the Forum for Security Co-operation, and Ireland, Chair of the Human Dimension Committee. The event was dedicated to the crucial topic of „It's about people': Mental health impacts of war on civilians and military personnel.“
Among panelists were Mr. Oleksandr Klen, Clinical Psychologist at the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Dr. Julijana Stojanova, Deputy Head of the Human Resources Department, Ministry of Defence of the Republic of North Macedonia, Mr. Andrew Gardner, Deputy Head of Human Rights Departments, ODIHR, and Major-General March Bilodeau, Surgeon General in the Canadian Armed Forces.
Maria Sosnitskaya from Ukraine. The war brought her to Georgia. In Women Fund “Sukhumi”, she learned about courses of working with polymer clay and became interested. Now she is studying this interesting work with other students. Maria is satisfied with the teaching methods. According to teacher Maka Jishkariani, she is a talented, diligent student and can turn this hobby into a source of additional income.
Maria is going to apply for a grant announced by CareCaucasus. Our 10 Ukrainian beneficiaries will take part in the training, after which they will be able to write a grant project. In the previous competition, three Ukrainians received a grant for small business activities. We believe that the these results will also be successful.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
The little Ukrainian boy has been in Georgia with his mother for two years now, but he still hasn’t got used to the situation. He misses his father, his family... His behavior shows stress. So his mother took him to a psychologist. Drawing, touching pebbles, sand - with the help of these methods the psychologist studies his emotional state. This is how the first sessions go. Gradually the boy becomes bolder, his fears disappear, and he builds better relationship with classmates at school. Of course, mom is very grateful.
Psychologist of the Women Fund “Sukhumi” held meetings with representatives of 7 families. She spoke with 15 people - refugees from Ukraine who survived the war - and felt their experiences. The main thing in working with them is to overcome trauma, cope with the crisis... Some of them were for the first time and the psychologist learned about their needs, and with some of them she continued the process of psycho rehabilitation. Refugees from Ukraine mention that such support is of great importance.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
The support in figures is following:
There are 357 people in our database.
In October, 22 new people were added.
We paid utilities for 4 families.
We paid rent for 7 families.
One of the oncological patients was given 300 GEL for medicines.
The second patient was reimbursed for the MRI - 326 GEL.
15 people received psychological consultation.
36 families received food vouchers.
The Women Fund “Sukhumi” does all this for refugees from Ukraine. Everyone is grateful for this support.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
A traditional meeting was held with the members of both Khoni Women Initiative Groups. The participants talked about the International Day of Girls Child and their rights, as well as the needs of women living in rural areas. During the meeting it was mentioned that girls' rights are not properly protected in Georgia and women living in rural areas are facing a lot of infrastructural, social and educational problems. During the meeting held with the members of Khoni youth club, the leader of the club presented a presentation about the International Day of Girls, introduced information about the history of the creation of the holiday and its meaning; One of the club members spoke about women living in rural areas in the format of a presentation. Based on the interviews, she introduced the participants to an ordinary day of a woman. Young people exchanged opinions, discussed problems and needs, and a discussion was held about gender equality.
The members of the youth club of the village Didinedzi discussed gender issues seen through the eyes of young people. They talked about how much information their peers have on the mentioned issue and named the existing problems and challenges in terms of gender. The members of the Women Initiative Group of the village Didinedzi spoke about the advocacy of the identified problems. They discussed the issues in detail and negotiated the future plan.
During October meeting the members of the Women Initiative Group of the village Pakhulani - Tsalenjikha municipality spoke about the problems identified during the advocacy. They reviewed the direction in which the work should be improved to solve the problems identified by them.
Ekaterine Gamakharia, the head of the Tbilisi representative office of "Women's Fund Sukhumi," participated in the 25th international conference organized by the WAVE network in Madrid. The conference focused on the topic of "Institutional violence and its impact on women's rights in Europe." Approximately 200 women's rights defenders from various European countries discussed institutional violence against women, female migrants, and disabled individuals who have experienced abuse at the hands of state structures.
During the conference, Ekaterine Gamakharia took part in a parallel panel discussion with representatives from the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) and non-governmental organizations that are partners of the WAVE network. These organizations, including the Center "Women's Perspectives" in Lviv, Ukraine; the Sexual Assault Crisis Center in Yerevan, Armenia; and the "United Women of Banja Luka" Foundation in Bosnia & Herzegovina, provided insights into the project. Gamakharia had the opportunity to share information about the toolkit titled "Prevention and response to gender-based violence in the war and post-war period: Experience and recommendations of women's non-governmental organizations." The toolkit describes the experiences and best practices of women's organizations in Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina in preventing and responding to violence against conflict-affected women in war, protracted conflict, and post-conflict settings. The toolkit can be accessed here
Training on the topic of peace was held with the members of the youth group of the village Koki - Zugdidi municipality. The participants talked about meaning of peace. With the help of a simulated exercise, they discussed that dialogue, communication, cooperation, trust, tolerance are necessary for peace. The training showed how important the involvement of young people in peace processes is. The Women Initiative Group of the village Koki is working on advocacy of identified problems. During the meeting, the participants shared with each other the results achieved in terms of advocacy, they talked about the direction in which the work should be improved.
