On March 27, representatives of the Fund Sokhumi held an information meeting in the Municipal Assembly (Sakrebulo) of Terjola with the participation of local active civil groups, as well as those responsible for gender policy in Tkibuli and Baghdati.

The main issues of the meeting were the guidelines of the document of the local gender strategy, which, upon completion of the project, will be presented to the society and local self-governments. The participants of the meeting listened to the information about the studies ordered by the Fund Sokhumi and the work performed under the project. They talked about local gender policy, mainstreaming and challenges.  Emphasis were placed on gender policy and experience of municipalities, the role of gender equality councils and the engagement of local self-government bodies.

"I'm glad that Terjola is hosting a discussion about the local gender strategy. We are ready to work actively to form a council of gender equality”, - said Nino Janelidze, the chairperson of the Municipal Assembly.

The meeting was held within the framework of the project “Learning from Visegrad 4 experience to advocate for equal, inclusive and democratic local governance”.

The project is implemented with the support  of the Visegrad Fund

In March, with the aim of monitoring the of Georgia on “Elimination of Domestic Violence / Violence against Women, Protection and assistance to Victims," meetings were held with the support of the Ministry of Internal Affairs: focus groups with participation of representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Ozurgeti and Terjola municipalities, in-depth interviews with inspector-investigators in Khoni and Senaki municipalities. The recommendations adopted at the meetings will be sent to the appropriate structures for further reaction

An informational meeting on the topic "Decentralization - local self-government - gender policy, Georgia" was held in Poti City Hall. Representatives of Fund "Sukhumi" provided attendees with information on the current situation regarding the above mentioned topic and the organization’s experience.

Among participants of the meeting there were active members of society, representatives of local self-government of Poti and the media. They actively joined in the discussion on gender policy issues.

The meeting was held within the framework of the project - “Learning from Visegrad 4 experience to advocate for equal, inclusive and democratic local governance”.

The project is implemented with the support  of the Visegrad Fund

Fund "Sukhumi" organized a meeting on the topic "Local Gender Policy - Prospects and Challenges" in the meeting room of the regional administration of Guria.

The meeting was attended by members of Gender Equality Councils of Guria municipalities, government officials, colleagues invited from Imereti, media and NGO representatives.

Participants of the meeting exchanged information and experiences on positive practice of gender mainstreaming in municipalities, assessed challenges in the work of local gender Equality Councils.

"We would like to learn from a positive experience of other Councils, especially the pilot Gender Advisory Councils of Fund „Sukhumi”, the one of which worked for three years in Ozurgeti. We think that information exchange system would be very useful for all, - said attendees.

The information meeting was held within the framework of the project "Learning from Visegrad 4 experience to advocate for equal, inclusive and democratic local governance". During the next stage, a strategy will be developed and gender mainstreaming at the local level will be advocated.

The project is implemented with the support of the Visegrad Fund

A meeting of experts, involved in the research, was held in Budapest on March 7-8 in the frames of the project “Learning from Visegrad 4 experience to advocate for equal, inclusive and democratic local governance”. Experts shared Visegrad countries experiences on gender mainstreaming, public participation in local governance and advocacy of political reforms and started work on a draft of the Policy-oriented Strategy for reforming local governance and gender mainstreaming in Georgia. Future project activities were planned.

A representative from the Visegrad Fund attended the meeting. She got acquainted with activities held in the frames of the project with interest and emphasized that the Visegrad Fund welcomes information sharing on gender issues, expanding of partners’ network and a tendency of gender mainstreaming in local governance.

The project is implemented with the support of the Visegrad Fund

Tskaltubo WSC chose the Rugby team of the Tskaltubo club “Dinozaur” as a face of the campaign.

The project center “No to violence against women!” was leaded by the preparatory work – informational meetings with the rugby team “Dinozaur” and with representatives of local self-government. There were published informational leaflets and poster-calendars with the photo of rugby players. There were planned activities on a rugby stadium, but due to the bad weather the rugby match was not held. So the project was corrected – activities of the center conducted two activities. This is informational meeting with the parents of the kindergarten children. On December 3 in the international day of the people with disabilities in the inclusive center of Tskaltubo. There was held competition of the paintings on: “Family without violence”!

All participants of the meetings heard information about a campaign about how the violence effects children’s psychics. According to the attendants, these meetings were actual and useful.

Group of civil initiatives of Khoni was actively involved in the campaign of 16 active days, organized by the fund “Sukhumi”. Leaders of the group conducted informational-educational meeting in Khoni library with pupils of upper grades of Khoni public school on December 6. They spoke about the reasons of violence, its social results, ways of prevention.

How to overcome the violence, where is the role of society – interesting discussion was held regarding these issues.