On July 6-8, representatives of the Women's Fund "Sukhumi," Ekaterine Gamakharia and Tea Thorinava, embarked on a working visit to Vienna. The purpose of the visit was to participate in a workshop centered around the practical guide developed by partner organizations in 2022, titled "Preventing and responding to gender-based violence during war and in post-war settings: Experiences and recommendations of women's NGOs." The toolkit can be accessed here https://wave-network.org/wp-content/uploads/Toolkit-Georgian.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1rCpxvDqw8HCIz-iBwYSlKCsF9ITicwIkEr-DVCBOI3ZP5eYZv_ATu3IA . The workshop aimed to plan the development process of a training module that would contribute to enhancing the knowledge of individuals interested in the best practices and strategies for preventing and responding to gender-based violence in conflict situations, as outlined in the guide, and their practical implementation.
The workshop involved representatives from the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), the WAVE network, and partner non-governmental organizations: the Sexual Assault Crisis Center in Yerevan, Armenia, the Women's Fund "Sukhumi" in Kutaisi and Tbilisi, Georgia, and the "United Women of Banja Luka" Foundation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On July 1, at the initiative of the President of Georgia, the Tbilisi International Women's Conference (TWIC) was held. The conference was opened by the President of Georgia and women leaders from different countries of the world are attending it.
Within the framework of the conference, the conversation touched on such issues as conflicts, peace, security and European integration of Georgia. Ekaterine Gamakharia, the head of Tbilisi representative office of the Women Fund "Sukhumi", was invited to the meeting.
Fund "Sukhumi" organized a round table in Terjola, which brought together local referral entities: members of the City Hall Gender Equality Council, representatives of local government, police, health and education.
The invited lawyer acquainted the meeting participants with the referral document, with the duties and functions of specific authorized persons.
The meeting also discussed the situation in terms of facts. Problem identification and victim assistance.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
Women Support Centers continue, informational meetings with various target groups. The aim of the meeting is to identify the needs of women and local problems. Mobilizers are actively involved in the follow-up process, which includes case study and referral.
In parallel with information meetings, five new cases were identified in Zugdidi, Bagdati, Samtredia, Tsalenjikha and Terjola Women Support Centers during a month. New needs were also identified, which will be advocated together with community activists.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
The members of Tskaltubo women initiative group analyzed the problems that can be advocated with local resources. They also worked on advocacy plans, which increase the possibility of solving problems. The members of the youth clubs existing in Tskaltubo public schools No 1 and No 4 evaluated the progress of the mini-projects. They talked about how the audience received the scenes of violence presented with elements of forum theater. According to their assessment, the audience thought with them, discussed and looked for a solution.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs held the final event of the campaign against child marriage, titled "Don't Deprive of childhood." During the meeting, the Department of Human Rights Protection and Investigation Quality Monitoring of the Ministry of Internal Affairs delivered a presentation. The presentation aimed to inform the invited representatives from governmental and non-governmental sectors, as well as local and international organizations, about the measures undertaken within the campaign. Our representatives, Linda Chikhladze and Nino Korinteli, were present at the meeting.
The presentation of the monitoring tool on the evaluation of measures for the prevention of violence against women and in the family was held, organized by the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia and the Council of Europe.
The monitoring tool is based on the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. Its purpose is to assess the impact of the state's prevention mechanism on issues of violence against women and domestic violence, as well as to identify specific achievements and challenges. The document will assist state agencies in planning and implementing future steps.
The meeting was attended by our representatives, Linda Chikhladze and Nino Korinteli.
Women Fund “Sukhumi” presents a new monitoring report “Assessment of Effectiveness of the Municipalities’ Preventive Measures to Combat Violence Against Women/Domestic Violence.” The preventive measures undertaken by the target municipalities and the quality of their cooperation and coordination with different actors of the referral system was assessed and analyzed in the report. The study outlines the key challenges, such as the problem of identification of vulnerable families’ for proper intervention to prevent violence; Insufficient communication and coordination between municipalities and referral mechanism actors; lack of municipal programs to tackle domestic violence against women; necessity of awareness raising of population about gender-based violence, and provision of professional trainings to representatives of different agencies. Specific recommendations, addressed to the relevant agencies were developed based on the study findings.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
Women Support Center mobilizers took part in the training: "Evidence Based Advocacy", held in 10 target municipalities.
The training was aimed at strengthening the skills necessary for advocacy. Particular emphasis was placed on identifying and ranking the problems. The essence, stages and forms of evidence-based advocacy were discussed in detail.
Using practical examples, the participants discussed the factors hindering the advocacy process, identified target groups and stakeholders.
It was noted that participation in the training is important for representatives of the Women Support Centers, as they are actively involved in the process of forming municipal policy and advocating for local problems.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
“The training format allowed us to talk about the reasons of the problem, when we behave correctly or incorrectly. It is necessary that everyone understands their direct responsibility.
“I would focus on the information received, interesting methods and a good environment during the training”...
This is part of feedback from the training for medical personnel.
The training in Kutaisi was attended by 15 participants from Khoni, Tsalenjikha, Senaki, Chokhatauri and Zugdidi municipalities.
“The role of medical staff in violence prevention and victims protection” - this was the topic of the training, and together with the trainers, the participants actively discussed issues related to violence against women and children...
The training was held within the framework of the project "Digital Resource Center of Services for Violence Victims”.
At the meeting, the participants were also informed about the practical guide/toolkit: "Preventing and responding to gender-based violence in war and post-war settings - experiences and recommendations of women's NGOs", which was developed by the WAVE Network in collaboration with its four WAVE members in 2022 by the support of the OSCE. The Toolkit describes best practices and the strategies employed by the women's NGOs to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in different phases of conflict.
- Strategies during Wartime and emergency response settings were shared by Ukrainian and Armenian partners Sexual Assault Crisis Center (Yerevan, Armenia), Centre “Women’s Perspectives” (Lviv, Ukraine);
- Strategies during Protracted conflict were described by the Women's Foundation "Sukhumi" (Kutaisi, Tbilisi, Georgia);
- Strategies during Post-war and long-term perspective were based on the experience of the Bosnia-Herzegovina partner. Foundation United Women Banja Luka (Banja Luka, Bosnia & Herzegovina)
(A practical guide is available here https://www.osce.org/secretariat/530695)
The project is implemented with the support the Equality Fund (Canada)