The lawyer of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" held group and individual information meetings: in the village Didi Nedzi (Zugdidi municipality), Dimi (Bagdati municipality), Senaki and Tkibuli. The group meetings were attended by representatives of the City Hall, school teachers and representatives of civil society. During the meetings, a presentation of the web page - "Digital Resource Center of Services for Victims of Violence" was made.

In Tsalenjikha, an individual consultation was given to a woman about the status of a single mother and in Vani - about divorce to a woman who was a victim of violence. All meetings were organized by the Women Support Centers.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot

 für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)

These people need special psycho-rehabilitation. Our service is ready to help. There are 255 Ukrainian refugees in our base, and three psychologists work with them.

Despite the vacation, some activities were done in August.

Manana Gotsiridze: - in August, 2 meetings were held with Ukrainian families in Vani and 4 meetings in Kutaisi (6 families - 12 people). It was primary psychological consultation, taking of medical history, further invitations to psychological consultation. Products, hygiene items and clothing were delivered to them.

Anna Shalimova: - 2 online consultations were held in August, where further recommendations regarding the problem were given. I also had one face-to-face consultation in the office. One client for further long-term work was taken on her request. There was 1 acquaintance with a new family who recently arrived in Georgia.

The Rehabilitation Center of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" carried out a comprehensive work for women victims of violence with the participation of social worker, lawyer, psychologist and teacher, who works with children.

In August there were 6 people in the Center - 2 women with children.

One of the beneficiaries noted: “Many thanks for the comfort, for the service, for the advice, for the assistance provided. I didn't know what it was. You made me na my children feel happy”.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot

 für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)

In August, the psychologist visited the Women Support Centers of Bagdati, Kobuleti, Tkibuli, Terjola and Senaki. Group and individual meetings were held with participation of 50 beneficiaries.

9 beneficiaries from the regions received online individual psychotherapeutic consultations. Active work with 17 beneficiaries and one married couple was held in Kutaisi, in the office of the Women Fund “Sukhumi”.

Permanent work brings positive results for each beneficiary.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot

 für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)

Gogi Revia has a long experience of working in the local self-government of Zugdidi municipality. For the last ten years, he has been serving the direction of social protection, where, among other issues, significant attention is paid to gender equality. The budget of Zugdidi municipality was the first document where the program for financing victims of violence officially published in 2015.

"For an abused woman who is afraid of society to convey her first emotion to a man she knows or doesn't know at all is an embarrassing problem [in general], but because of my attitude, these women open up to me within minutes. They are sure what they tell me are confidential. I always offered them an effective solution and they were convinced. When there are one, two, ten or many other cases, I really have this confidence from them," - Gogi Revia, the head of the Social Protection and Gender Equality Department of the Zugdidi Municipality City Hall, tells us in the "Gender and Society" column.

Zaza Gochelashvili is a child and family social worker in Tkibuli municipality. He is also actively involved in the civil sector as a volunteer. He has a lot of experience working with minors.

"Mostly social workers are women, and I am one of the exceptional men, especially at the self-governing level, although I have male colleagues as well. Therefore, it is very important that two social workers in the municipality are a woman and a man,"- based on his own experience, he tells us in the column "Gender and Society".

Project work has identified many women leaders.

Mari Chitanava is one of them. Therefore, she was chosen as a main character of the article, published in our partner media publication Act2.

Mari is from Abkhazia. She is 26 and mother of three children.

When she was invited to the working meetings of the Women Fund “Sukhumi”, she refused, she was not interested and she did not have time. But then she nevertheless decided to join the IDP Women Initiative Group of Zugdidi. Her interest gradually grew. She became more and more active and attentively listened to information at live or online meetings and trainings.

A coalition project has been launched in five municipalities of western Georgia. The title of the project is: “Strengthening the capacities of the regional and local administrations in the processes of localization of the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security and enhancing the meaningful participation of IDP and conflict-affected women and youth in these processes”.

Despite the summer holidays, our women continue to work actively and take care of solving new problems.

Women Initiative groups are already working on issues that will be advocated in the near future.

Information meetings were held, where the advocacy plan was introduced and final versions were elaborated.

At this stage, the topics of advocacy are: "Additional placement of garbage bins in the IDP settlement located on Abkhazeti Street in Khoni", "Women's passivity and less involvement in economic activity." "

" Women's passivity, indifference, less involvement, mentality, lack of knowledge in economic activity."

The project is implemented with the support of the USAID

A network meeting on the ZOOM platform was held within the framework of the project "Women and youth for the implementation of the women's peace and security agenda at the local level". During the meeting, the foundation was laid for the creation of a regional network, which united the women initiative groups created in Kutaisi, Khoni, Tskaltubo, Zugdidi and Senaki municipalities.

The meeting was attended by the heads of partner organizations and members of the women initiative group from Eastern Georgia.

The participants were provided with information about the activities performed by the women initiative groups, the current situation was assessed and the challenges encountered in individual municipalities in the process of implementation of 1325 UN Resolution  were highlighted.

- Why is it important to create a network? What will the use of this tool change in the activities of the initiative groups and what are the expected results? - The discussion mainly continued in this direction.

158 people joined the mobilization meetings organized by the Women Support Centers in August. Issues of domestic violence, responses and effective mechanisms of victim assistance have become the basis for active discussions. Participants analyzed the facts of femicide. They noted: “We should not be indifferent when cases of femicide have become so frequent. This is an alarming indicator and requires a greater response from both the state and society”.

The meetings showed the necessity to strengthen the role of the Women Support Centers in terms of informing the population so that as many people as possible know that violence is punishable and the victim is not alone.

The Women Support Centers of Samtredia, Terjola, Tkibuli, Vani, Bagdati, Senaki, Tsalenjikha, Zugdidi, Chokhatauri and Kobuleti, along with informing the population, revealed eight new cases of violence during the month. The response has already begun, the beneficiaries are actively using the services of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" - this increases the guarantees of the victim's safety.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot

 für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)