This is the room of the day rehabilitation center. Courses on polymer clay are held here.

This time the work is interrupted by the psychologist's conversation. The psychologist of the Fund "Sukhumi" - Manana Gotsiridze conducts individual conversations with women. They have a lot of questions and always get competent answers.

And today the topic of conversation with the group is stress and advice from a psychologist:

In this hard period, each of us has felt stress. There is no escape from stress. In such a situation, it is necessary to be able to control emotions, otherwise emotions will begin to control us. There are two golden rules to avoid stress:

Rule No 1. Calm down, give an opportunity to the brain, to take control over the body and organs of speech.

Rule # 2. Focus and direct energy on the things that are necessary to be done.

The psychologist and lawyer of the Fund "Sukhumi” are called right people. Their advice and help is essential in solving problems for many people.

During a month consultative services carried out active work the Women's Support Centers, - there were live meetings and remote consultations. Thus, 43 people received assistance.

In addition, the work was carried out with members of four crisis families. 17 beneficiaries passed individual therapy with a psychologist, a lawyer consulted 7 people.

The results are clear: resolved problems, overcome stress, peace in the family ... Based on this, a psychologist and a lawyer are really the right people for those who need help.

Another online round table was held in Tkibuli. Referral entities: members of the City Council Gender Equality Council, representatives of local self-government and police, kindergartens, schools, educational resource center, medical staff attended the meeting. They got acquainted with the presentation of the research of the Fund “Sukhumi” aimed at monitoring of the services available to victims and discussed the developed recommendations. During the meeting, they also spoke about the statistics of arresting orders in Tkibuli municipality, identification of violence and the services for victims’ assistance.

A roundtable discussion was held in Bagdati with participation of the representatives of local self-government and civil society. During the meeting, a presentation was made on Bagdati working group, its activities and results. The report on the needs assessment and recommendations of the population in the process of public administration reform in the municipality has aroused great interest. Participants also learned about the work of civil society organizations registered in Bagdati in direction of informing the local population about public administration reform.

Interesting accents were placed on the round table, especially regarding the barriers that hinder the use of electronic services. According to the participants, this is related to the low level of awareness and the problem of internet providing. Special attention should be paid to these issues.

Due to the pandemic, informational meetings were held with a limited number of participants in Zugdidi Municipality: IDPs and local citizens of the villages Shamgona and Ingiri and various settlements of the city. The aim of the meeting – familiarization with the online platform – Voters’ Advice Application, which makes the pre-election programs visible and shows the citizen which political entity is closest to his position. The participants of the meeting expressed different attitudes towards the topic of elections, but they were interested in the idea of ​​the application.

The Monitoring and Advocacy Group of the Fund "Sukhumi" is actively working on qualitative research. The topic of the research is: Challenges related to services offered to women victims of violence (in the field of child care services); Experience in promoting employment and economic activity; Barriers for women victims of violence after leaving the shelter / crisis center.

During the research process interesting information was collected about the services provided by the public and non-governmental sectors.

Domestic violence - how open is the society for the discussion of this topic, what prevents the identification of the problem, how informed the population is about the response mechanisms, whom they address when necessary - these issues were discussed during the meetings in Bagdati, Tsalenjikha, Vani and Zugdidi municipalities. When talking about the problem, it was highlighted that the work should be done with the population in terms of identifying families of risk groups and early response.

According to the participants, such meetings will significantly improve the quality of information and will contribute to the prevention of violence.

Mobilizers of the Women Support Centers of the Fund "Sukhumi" hold monthly informational meetings with representatives of various communities and discuss mechanisms for responding to violence.

In July, the meetings were held interactively in Chokhatauri, Tkibuli and Samtredia municipalities. The participants highlighted the problems in this regard. A lawyer and psychologist of the Fund "Sukhumi" were involved in the work.

In parallel with the facts of violence, social problems were also raised and women activists decided to advocate them.

A member of the Women Peace Coalition – organization “Imedi”, held four meetings in Zugdidi Municipality - mainly in compact settlements for IDPs to inform the voters. The meetings covered the villages of Zugdidi Municipality: Kakhati, Anaklia, Ingiri. The moderators talked about the positive results of using the online application, introduced the instructions for the use of applications and familiarized with the questionnaire developed by the Fund "Sukhumi".

Citizens were interested in the information on the online vote-o-meter. They also presented issues that can be addressed by the municipality. Contact persons have been identified who will meet with citizens again after the launch of the platform.

From July 10 to July 20 - Khurcha, Koki, Shamgona, Ingiri (Zugdidi Municipality) - these villages were covered by meetings for the introduction of the Voters’ Advice Application, which were held by members of the Fund “Sukhumi” Women Initiative Group.

The meetings were attended by citizens of different age categories in small groups. They expressed interest towards the novation envisaged by the project, established active feedback and highlighted the issues that are interesting for political parties. Migration was named as one of the most acute problems.