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)

In August, people almost leave the city, but there are many guests. It was they who attended the performances of the forum theater in Kutaisi.

Two performances were held. The viewer got interested in this format. Some have not seen or heard about the forum theater at all. Some of the audience actively joined the scenes. Unfortunately, everyone refused to take pictures, so only the actors and episodes of the scenes are visible in the photos.

Open-air performances play a big role as a mechanism for informing society and preventing violence.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot

 für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)

"I was lucky that I was connected to the Fund Sukhumi”. The day when I was presented with the phone, will follow me for the rest of my life. Thanks to these amazing people I got my faith back".

The Women Fund "Sukhumi” has a tradition of telling people: 'You are not alone. It's a motivation for me to continue life with hope."

This was the feedback of the action, within the framework of which 10 women from vulnerable groups were given mobile phones equipped with the SAFE YOU application and a SOS button as a gift. The action covered 7 municipalities: Terjola, Bagdati, Tkibuli, Samtredia, Senaki, Zugdidi and Kobuleti. Local self-government representatives also participated in the action. All this helps to better understand the social situation of the beneficiaries.

The project is implemented with the support the Equality Fund (Canada)

The presentation of the new website of the Women Found "Sukhumi" was held in the conference hall of Terjola City Council. The meeting was attended by members of the City Council, local referral entities, community representatives.

Participants noted that the website "Digital Resource Center of Services for Violence Victims" includes all information that victims of violence need, the main thing is that many people know about it, so that the functions and contact information of the website can be used by everyone for whom it is vitally necessary.

The project is implemented with the support the Equality Fund (Canada)

On August 12, the world celebrates International Day the Youth.

This day was founded by the resolution of the United Nations Assembly on December 17, 1999 and on August 12, 2000 the civilized world celebrated the International Day of Youth for the first time. The United Nations called on the international community to recognize the intergenerational relationship and solve the problems of people of different ages jointly, to raise the awareness of young people about existing problems, risks and ways to solve them.

This date is specially celebrated by the Fund "Sukhumi", which has been working with young people for a long time and gives great importance to this direction.

The members of the youth initiative groups held information meetings, made presentations, provided their peers with comprehensive information about this important day, showed short films and at the end of the meetings organized a discussion on what challenges the new generation sees in today's reality.

The project is implemented with the support of the USAID

Stop domestic violence! - says one.

Violence is not the solution! - says the other.

These are posters made by children.

The third thing is one of the diagrams of the research.

To the question: who should make decisions in the family? The answers were distributed as follows: women - 12%, men - 32%, both - 56%.

All above mentioned is the work of those teenagers who pass a six-month training course in the youth empowerment centers.

The centers operate in 10 municipalities - Samtredia, Terjola, Bagdati, Vani, Tkibuli, Senaki, Zugdidi, Tsalenjikha, Chokhatauri, Kobuleti.

Ways of conflict resolution, violence prevention, early marriage - these and other topical issues will be discussed at the trainings. Then the children get a kind of homework: who will expand the topic? Who will create an original form of saying? How can the information about a problem be disseminated?

The Center for Psychosocial Services of the Resource Officer of the Educational Institution informed the representatives of international, professional state and non-governmental organizations operating in Georgia about the results of the activities carried out in the last 6 months and the current projects.

Our representative - Linda Chikhladze also attended the meeting, who shared the experience of working with up to 100 schools of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" in Western Georgia in the field of violence prevention, gender equality and establishment of a tolerant environment. She also expressed personal sympathy for piloting of school mediation and, according to her own experience, focused on the need and timeliness of Peer Mediation in public schools.