Two meetings were held in May with members of Kutaisi initiative groups. On May 18, a meeting was held for the women's group and on May 21, for young people. Formation of a new group and the project presentation took place.
The women’s needs research was discussed in the women's initiative group, since the members of the group were included in the process. They noted that they got acquainted with the problems of women living in the city and saw how many families and children need help. During the research, the formats of focus groups, in-depth interviews and questionnaires were used.
During the meeting of of Zugdidi Women Initiative Group, the technical side of the women's needs research was assessed. Participants talked about how they planned the process of conducting the research, what happened, what problems they faced and what were the obstacles and the contributing factors during the work.
Each speaker spoke with specific examples: about the difficulties of work, about conducting an interview, a dialogue with a respondent. The group members received advice on the basic principles of facilitation and discussed future plans.
The meetings were held in the Women Initiative Groups of Koki / Khurcha and Zugdidi. An online training was held for the third group of Zugdidi municipality - the youth initiative group of Koki - on the topic “Prehistory of Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, its subsequent development and consequences”.
The project is implemented with the support of the USAID
The newspaper "Khoneli" published an article about the active work in Khoni municipality in the framework of the project “Bridging the Gap: People to People Initiatives for Conflict Resolution”.
There are three initiative groups in Khoni - two women and one youth group. The author of the article is a member of one of the women groups, journalist Guranda Tsaguria, who is actively involved in the work process.
The groups were formed in March, and since then they have been working actively. In May an online training was held for young people on the topic of conflict reasons in Abkhazia. Informational meetings were held with women. The meeting participants talked about needs research - how they planned the work, what turned out to be difficult, etc. This is the first research conducted by women groups. They received good experience and the most important thing is that a document - an assessment of women’s needs will be prepared, as well as recommendations will be developed and presented to local government.
The head of Tbilisi representative office of the Fund “Sukhumi” - Ekaterine Gamakharia has been involved in the High-level Opening Session of the OSCE Conflict Cycle Seminar (Conference), where she, along with the Foreign Minister of Sweden, Anne Linde; Secretary General OSCE, Helga Schmid; Undersecretary of State for Security, the America, Asia and Eastern Policy, Marcin Przydacz and Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia, and America, Miroslav Jenča gave a speech on the “Main challenges and opportunities for inclusive processes and partnered engagement with women’s civil society in the field”.
Ekaterine Gamakharia briefly talked about women’s organization’s role and contribution in peacebuilding in Georgia. She highlighted some favorable factors for women’s participation in the Peace Process. At the same time, she stressed existing challenges and barriers for “meaningful participation” of the women, that requires proper attention and response.
“Prehistory of Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, its subsequent development and consequences” – this topic was discussed at online trainings conducted with the Youth Initiative Groups of Senaki, Tskaltubo and Koki (Zugdidi municipality).
Participants learned what was the prehistory of conflict and how the events were developed. They asked questions: why it was impossible to manage the situation, who was guilty, why did they come to such consequences.
Trainer Keti Vasadze explained to the participants how important the confidence raising is in peacebuilding, what steps should be taken in this direction.
At the end of the trainings, the participants expressed their mood and attitude towards discussed issues:
“It was interesting for me to consider the conflict stages. Peace building always makes sense, I saw the role of youth, we must be involved in building trust. "
Members of Tskaltubo Women Initiative Group were included in the survey process, which was held in different formats. During the group meeting, the participants evaluated the work done. In their opinion, everyone was able to conduct a survey using quantitative and qualitative methods.
In the second part of the meeting, the participants received additional information on how to technically plan, prepare and conduct focus groups and what should be done in order not to lose the main focus during the internal discussion. The types of active and passive participants, the basic principles of facilitation were considered interactively, with specific examples.
Tolerance and conflict - this topic was discussed at the information meeting of the Youth Initiative Group. Through self-presentation, the participants answered the questions: how tolerant I am and what is the degree of my tolerance. During a conversation on specific cases, they noticed that it is difficult to remain tolerant in a conflict situation, it is necessary to apologize, forgive, forget the insult. According to them, any person should feel responsibility, respect others - this will reduce conflict situations in society.
What difficulties accompanied the survey process, what experience was gained and how satisfactory are the results - the participants of the meeting of Senaki Women's Initiative Group shared the opinions with each other during the feedback.
- I didn't have any experience, I got involved in the survey process for the first time and gained valuable practice, I differently saw the problems that worried women.
- It is not easy to conduct focus groups, manage a group, facilitate. But I was able to do it. All participants were actively involved in the process.
After the exchange of opinions, the participants received relevant recommendations, which will further strengthen their technical skills.
"I received the correct information about the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict."
"I am an IDP from Abkhazia, but I know very little about reasons and duration of conflict. This training gave me the opportunity to learn more. "
“I have heard only about the consequences of conflict. I always wanted to know more about the history of conflict. Thank you for this training and for answering my questions. "
This is a feedback from one part of the training participants. The training was conducted by the conflict expert Keti Vasadze.
“Prehistory of Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, its continuation and consequences”
- the participants of the online training on this topic were members of the Youth Initiative Group of Khoni municipality.
Women and girls needs research in 6 municipalities of Western Georgia - Kutaisi, Tskaltubo, Khoni, Senaki, Zugdidi and Tsalenjikha - was completed.
1000 respondents were interviewed through the questionnaires, 24 in-depth interviews and 24 focus - group meetings were held for qualitative research.
In May, the systematization of the research results will be held, and this will become the basis for the analysis. In frames of the project, it is also envisaged to develop a plan and further work to advocate the needs of local target groups at local and central levels.
