One difficult year has passed since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. The Women Fund “Sukhumi” once again expresses solidarity with Ukrainian women and their families!
During a year, we helped and continue to help Ukraine, refugees from this country:
In first days of war we collected 10000 GEL and sent parcels.
On March 8, we held an action of solidarity in Kutaisi and other municipalities.
We prepared video clips.
We have helped the women from the occupied city of Melitopol. We sent them 55800 UAH (hryvnia) and there, women volunteers bought food and medicines for the citizens.
In April, when the first refugees from Ukraine appeared in Georgia, we have created a support group and started helping them.
We have distributed packages with the necessary products and hygiene items to 465 beneficiaries (226 women, 170 children and 69 men). 23 families received assistance in payment for accommodation, 11 families received payment for utilities. We help in paying for the cost of surgery, medical procedures, in the purchase of medicines.
On February 22, the Women Fund „Sukhumi“ participated in the preparatory consultation for the forthcoming 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in 2023 which focuses on “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”.
The consultation with all stakeholders, including Women CSO, international organizations and International NGOs was organized by the Government of Ukraine together with the UN Women. During the consultation the gendered implications of war on women and girls both inside and outside of Ukraine, as well as their role in leading and driving change was highlighted.
During the panel discussions different topics were explored, namely how technology and digital solutions are playing an integral role in addressing the socio-economic needs of war-effected women across the region, and how technologies and digital economy could efficiently facilitate gender responsive recovery and development and reduce existing gender digital gaps.
We, the people of Georgia, strongly oppose the bill initiated by the members of the Parliamentary The majority, is also endorsed by the Speaker of Parliament and other MPs. We declare that the attempts to adopt this Russian bill attack not only the independent civil society organizations and the critical media, but the people of Georgia themselves.
This bill aims to leave defenseless the abused children and women; people with disabilities, minorities, scientists, workers, and the youth; to not provide assistance to socially vulnerable families, farmers, miners, internally displaced, homeless, illegally laid off, detained, and other people fighting for their rights; to mute the voice of the people living in the peripheries of the country that can only communicate their troubles through the independent media.
Council of Europe Office in Georgia and the Governmental Administration hosted on 13 February a conference to present the recommendations provided to Georgia by GREVIO, the independent expert body which monitors the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), as well as by the Committee of the Parties to the Istanbul Convention. At the event, representatives of non-governmental organisations and academia together with the State agencies and Maria-Andriani Kostopoulou, GREVIO member and second vice-president of GREVIO, discussed the steps to take to implement the 16 recommendations approved by the Committee of the Parties to the Convention in December 2022. The recommendations are the most pressing as indicated in the first GREVIO baseline report on Georgia published in November 2022. Georgia is to submit a report on the implementation of the recommendations to the Committee of the Parties by the end of 2025.
In order to implement the National Human Rights Strategy for the years of 2022-2030, the Government of Georgia started working on the development of the new National Human Rights Action Plan. Members of the state agencies listed under the Government Decree N143 of March 2, 2022, representatives of international/donor organizations, as well as respresentatives of more than 80 NGOs attended the meeting, among Women Fund “Sukhumi”.
At the end of the meeting, the importance of the involvement of international and local non-governmental organizations in the drafting process of the National Human Rights Action Plan was once again underlined and the timeframe for their feedback on the first draft of the action plan was discussed. However, during the discussion, the representatives of local non-governmental organizations drew attention to the main challenge of cooperation on the part of state agencies, which implies not taking into account the recommendations offered by civil societies in the state policy. Of course, it makes each of us lose the motivation to work together.
Our representative - Linda Chikhladze participated in the info-sharing meeting of the Secretariat of the Sustainable Development Goals Council.
The non-governmental organizations participating in the meeting received information regarding the mechanisms for promoting the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Among them, the activities and structure of the Sustainable Development Goals Council, the four thematic working groups included in it, and the opportunities and importance of being involved in them. Linda Chikhladze shared the best practices of the Women Fund “Sukhumi” work with them.
The addressee of these messages is Sophia Tsirghvava, an employee of the Women Fund "Sukhumi", who works with Ukrainians. Words of gratitude are written in the common chat. In this chat, Sophia gives them all the information they need (for example, about a vacancy, or about UNICEF assistance for children)...
The assistance of our organization is very important for every person who has been brought to Georgia by a disaster.
Our support is:
Assistance with food and hygiene products - in January, 45 families received such packages.
Utility costs – were paid for 9 families.
Housing rent – 13 families received assistance.
Teachers, parents, members of the Gender Equality Council took part in the information meetings held in the schools of Tkibuli and Senaki municipalities.
The topic of conversation was the importance of society's participation in elimination of the problem of violence against women. In this process, a certain role is assigned to the website of the Women Fund “Sukhumi” - "Digital Resource Center of Services for Violence Victims" https://sosfsokhumi.ge/Here you can find a lot of information that will help to determine ways of violence prevention or ways to respond to it. Participants noted how important the activity of each member of society is for problem solution.
The project is implemented with the support the Equality Fund (Canada)
A little boy came with his mother. Children are often brought here, so there are a lot of toys in the room of the psychologist Manana Gotsiridze. The bunny also sat calmly on the shelf. Ukrainian boy suddenly shouted: bunny! Then he asked the psychologist: “can I hold him”? “Oh sure”. He hugged and caressed ... Manana Gotsiridze understood why and told him, if you want, I will give it to you. Mother fell into an awkward situation and began to “justify” – “he had such bunny at home, and he loved him very much”...
The boy left happy.
Everyone is satisfied after the meeting with the psychologist of the Women Fund "Sukhumi". Someone has fewer problems and the rehabilitation process is completed faster, someone needs more visits.
Meetings with Ukrainian refugees are one of the important areas in the work of Manana Gotsiridze. In January, she met 6 families - 17 people. An initial consultation was carried out, an anamnesis was collected and everyone was invited to continue free psychotherapy. They were also given the necessary products, household chemicals, warm clothes.
