On May 1, 2023, Ekaterine Gamakharia, the representative of the Women's Fund "Sukhumi", attended the presentation of the thematic inquiry report - "The Accessibility to Financial Resources for Women and Girls" presented by the GEC member, Ana Natsvlishvili, which was held at the Writers' House of Georgia.
The main speaker of the thematic inquiry group, Ana Natsvlishvili, together with the expert, introduced the inquiry outcomes and key findings. She emphasized the multi-sectoral format of work on the inquiry and noted that women's empowerment needs a systemic approach from the state, as well as a unified clear vision and policy. As elucidated, the inquiry included meetings with the representatives of the state institutions, the banking sector, civil society, and donor organizations. The Group held thematic meetings in 9 municipalities with the entrepreneur women, local authorities, and society, where the head of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" Tbilisi office also participated and shared information about the challenges of displaced and conflict-affected women with the inquiry group.
The thematic inquiry report is available here:
Ekaterine Gamakharia, the representative of the Women's Fund "Sukhumi" Tbilisi office, participated in the two-day seminar held during the Council of Europe Visibility Week on April 27-28, within the framework of the cooperation of the Council of Europe Congress and the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia. The seminar was held within the framework of the "Strengthening Participatory Democracy and Human Rights at the Local Level in Georgia" project, the main topic of which was the strengthening of inclusive communication.
One of the workshop sessions was dedicated to the participants of the local authorities using the "Living Library" method to get to know the personal stories of various vulnerable groups, the challenges they face, and their visions of solving the problems.
Ekaterine Gamakharia, the representative of the Women's Fund "Sukhumi", presented the challenges of the displaced woman to the representatives of the municipality, and spoke about the need for the participation of the displaced people, including women and girls, in the process of developing local policies, and the need to introduce municipal services and social programs to solve the problems they face.
Training courses continued actively. Another five meetings were held in the Youth Empowerment Centers of Bagdati, Vani, Samtredia, Chokhatauri and Senaki.
School directors, teachers, representatives of youth services took part in the trainings. The process was interesting and fruitful in all municipalities.
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 total number of participants of 10 trainings held in April is 266 people. Everyone showed great interest towards the training course. This is very important to us and always gives more effect to our work.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
Екатерине Гамахария, руководитель Тбилисского представительства Женского фонда «Сухуми», приняла участие в рабочей встрече гендерной тематической группы - женщины, мир и безопасность. Заседание проходило под председательством Тамар Лобджанидзе, аналитика программы «ООН-женщины» в Грузии и Регины Егоровой-Аскеровой, старшего офицера программы Kvinna till Kvinna на Южном Кавказе.
Представитель Тбилисского офиса Женского фонда «Сухуми» обратила внимание на проблемы передвижения населения, разделенного конфликтом с обеих сторон, ограничения, введенные на перевозки грузов для населения на линии раздела, а также на необходимость повышения информированности, навыков и компетенций в плане конфликто-сенситивных принципов для представителей госинститутов, в том числе представителей сектора безопасности, включенных в процесс восстановления доверия.
Ekaterine Gamakharia, head of the Tbilisi representative office of the Women Fund “Sukhumi”, participated in the two-day conference organized by the IDP Women Association "Consent". The conference on "Women and Youth for Positive Agenda’s Creators" was held on April 24-25.
The first day of the meeting was dedicated to the positive role of women and youth in the peacebuilding process, while the second day was dedicated to the situation and needs of the displaced women and girls.
The conference was attended by representatives of governmental and local self-government, as well as organizations working on peace-building issues and the problems of displaced people.
Ekaterine Gamakharia, the head of the Tbilisi representative office, reported on the panel discussion of the conference, which was dedicated to the state strategies and action plans for the IDPs. In her speech, she spoke about the commitments taken by the state in the fourth action plan (2022-2024) adopted by the United Nations Security Council, Resolution 1325, in the direction of the participation of displaced women in the peace-building and decision-making process, as well as in the state programs for women's economic empowerment. She focused on the problems of effective participation of IDP women in the decision-making process and economic programs and specific barriers characteristic of their vulnerable situation and etc.
The project is implemented with the support
of the UN Women organization
Mari left the Rehabilitation Center of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" full of happiness. She will never forget the lessons of a psychologist, the entertainment of children together with a teacher, the advice of a social worker and a lawyer. And, of course, relationships with other women ... I take with me lot of love and warmth”, she said before leaving.
Lika is also satisfied with the employees of the Fund "Sukhumi". Everyone who gets here becomes stronger, more cheerful, full of hope. They make new friends, supporters...
Ia Iashvili, the assistant of the Rehabilitation Center, the main mistress of this cozy house, spends whole days with women. Her observation are of particular interest:
“Children suffer from disharmonious family relationships the most. Some do not have a father at all, others have them, but it is difficult to communicate, they speak different languages, they do not understand each other. Sometimes I notice that the child is not eating. Not because he is not hungry, but because he does not want anything, he has no desires, no joy, he does not dream.
Local referral entities: members of the Gender Equality Council, representatives of local government, the police and the educational resource center, school teachers, medical staff gathered in the conference room of the City Hall of Vani Municipality.
During the meeting, a presentation was made on “National Referral Procedures for the Identification, Protection, Assistance and Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence against Women and/or Domestic Violence (National Referral Mechanism)”.
Important issues were raised during the conversation: municipal statistics in terms of arresting orders, identification of problems and assistance to victims.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
Monitoring was carried out in the Women's Support Centers of Vani, Tkibuli and Tsalenjikha.
Peacekeeping, gender policy, prevention of domestic violence and protection of victims - after listening to the main results achieved in these areas, the participants voiced their assessments.
According to them, the migration of women, online games have created a lot of problems, so the correct information on these issues is still relevant. They believe that the role of a non-governmental organization is important and call the activities of the Women Fund "Sukhumi" successful.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
In April, we added 10 people, at the moment there are 480 people in the database.
This month, the City Hall issued personal travel cards to our new beneficiaries. Each registered family received a 100-GEL food voucher for the store “Carrefour”.
We assisted 6 families. Housing rent was paid for one family that is in a difficult situation - a woman with three children lives in Kutaisi, her husband is fighting near Bakhmut and has not been in touch for more than a month.
Representatives of our organization working with Ukrainians actively participated in the meeting organized by UNHCR, where the problems of refugees from Ukraine were discussed.
The project is implemented with the support of the organization Brot
für die Welt - Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Germany)
