The advocacy group of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" held the second meeting from the series of information meetings in Terjola municipality City Hall. Among the participants there were women living in the municipality, representatives of the City Hall and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, heads of departments, members of the Gender Equality Council.

The participants received information about two researches of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" - “Importance of Behavior Change Programs of the Perpetrator at an Early Stage and Existing Best Practices” and "Development of Child Care Services - to Promote Women's Employment and Ensure Effective Prevention and Response to Domestic Violence."

A short presentation familiarized the participants with the web page created by the Women Fund "Sukhumi" - "Digital Resource Center for Services of Victims of Violence" - www.sosfsokhumi.ge. During the meeting, flyers were distributed, and at the end there was an active discussion - they talked about the situation in the municipality in terms of domestic violence and assistance to victims.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot

 für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)

In April, the advocacy group of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" planned a series of information meetings to raise the awareness of active groups of citizens and referral entities on the elimination of domestic violence/violence against women and assistance to the victim.

The meeting at the City Hall of Senaki Municipality was attended by women victims of violence, single mothers and mothers with many children, teachers and the City Hall staff.

The participants of the meeting got acquainted with the results of two researches conducted by the Women Fund "Sukhumi" - on the promotion of women's employment and childcare services, as well as the correction of the behavior of a perpetrator.

At the meeting, a short presentation of the digital resource center of the services for victims of violence was made. The participants were given flyers with detailed information about the web page - www.sosfsokhumi.ge.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot

 für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)

Salome is a mother of two children. She lives in Vani municipality. Traces of violence on her life were reflected as a black spot.

For her, it is very difficult to remember the pleasant moments, she can not even remember the concrete reason or situation when violence started. But she remembers well, how the first verbal abuse transformed into physical violence. She was psychologically debilitated and could only be silent. She endured.

They lived together for five years, nothing changed for the better. The husband systematically abused. Life has become unbearable. Salome, with two children, moved to her mother. Stress has left its mark. Depression intensified. During a year no one knew that she was divorced. She suffered, did not leave the house, did not talk to anyone about it.

A friend invited her to one of the information meetings of the Fund "Sukhumi". She could not imagine that after a long time, she would break the silence. She talked about her problem and shared her pain for the first time. She felt that she had supporters.

She could not imagine that anyone would help her. When she was offered to have a meeting with a ps

Another six-month work cycle is over. New groups were formed in Samtredia, Vani, Senaki, Tsalenjikha and Zugdidi municipalities and the first meetings were held. Conflict management and violence prevention - these topics were introduced to young people, they discussed, expressed their views.

The training process was successfully conducted in the youth empowerment centers. There were discussions, role-games, interactive work.

- Such trainings are important for us, we meet active peers, discuss new topics, we have interesting discussions, which gives us possibility to hold discussions with arguments and gives more information, - said the young people at the end of the meetings.

The trainers introduced all the groups to the website "Digital Resource Center of the Services for Victims of Violence" created by the Women Fund "Sukhumi" - http://gbvdigitalresourcecenter.ge/ Knowing this is important for young people to provide timely information to those who need it...

The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot

 für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)

"Civic Engagement and Women Participation" - a training on this topic was held with the members of the Women Initiative Group in Senaki.

The training was conducted against the background of active interaction from the side of the participants. They discussed the reasons of low civic activism. Heard information about the resources for civic engagement at the local level: how petitions are created, what is the purpose of settlement meetings.

According to the participants, the training was informative and productive, based on the information received, motivation and women's involvement will increase.

The project is implemented with the support of the USAID

An online information meeting was held with members of IDP Women Zugdidi Initiative Group. First of all, the participants discussed the current issues, and then listened to information about the planned training.

The training cycle starts in April and will be attended by members of the IDP Women Initiative Groups from all five target municipalities. Members of Zugdidi group will be among them. At the meeting, they got acquainted with the schedule and topics of the training.

The project is implemented with the support

 of the UN Women organization

There is a lot of work to do in terms of identifying cases of violence, because the scale of the problem is still not recognized in society. All information related to assistance to a victim of violence is important – the mobilizers of the Women Support Centers agree with this opinion, who meet monthly with women of different ages and professions.

Information is distributed quickly and reaches the addressee in a timely manner. Identified cases are recorded in the Women Support Centers of Tsalenjikha, Samtredia, Vani, Tkibuli and Zugdidi. The response process continues accordingly until the victim has received all available services. There are already results - some of the beneficiaries completed a course in psychology and some received legal advice.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot

 für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)

This time, the guests visited Khoni Municipality.

The meeting was attended by local government officials and USAID representative Giorgi Khechinashvili.

There was a presentation of a systematic data report of quantitative and qualitative research conducted by the Fund “Sukhumi” in Khoni Municipality, which reflects the public attitude towards women's participation in political and public life and economic activities.

The research was conducted in Khoni Municipality in December - January 2022.

The project is implemented with the support of the USAID

I thought about the question: "What makes me special and what special thing I did for my family, a group of people?"

- I was very impressed by a feature that every leader should use, but does not do: "To praise the staff, see their merit, appreciate them."

-I liked and thought about the desirable and undesirable qualities of a leader.

-The exercise using a self-presentation stages was interesting. I never thought such a sequence would be necessary.

-I saw the  examples of successful and unsuccessful public speaches through videos.

- I will definitely use the knowledge gained here in life.

In order to help, you must first find the one who most of all needs compassion, support, empowerment.

In order to empower, you need to know what she needs more!

You must offer what will strengthen her most.

In order to give the support more effect, you need to have allies.

This is a brief concept of the activities of Women Support Centers. The mobilizers of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" operate with this strategy in all ten municipalities (Samtredia, Terjola, Bagdati, Vani, Tkibuli, Senaki, Zugdidi, Tsalenjikha, Kobuleti, Chokhatauri).

The "discovery" of a victim of domestic violence remains a challenge to this day. They are everywhere, next to us, in front of us, but it is still difficult to see them. Because they are silent, they do not trust anyone.