Experience of Georgian self-help groups on the demarcation line

Ukrainian community mobilizers have returned from Georgia with a clear action plan for self-help groups in their communities. The Georgian experience proved to be extremely useful and usable.

April 10, 2017. At the end of the study visit, our community mobilizers had an opportunity to meet with the self-help groups in the village of Ganmukhuri, which is located close to the demarcation line with Abkhazia, the territory controlled by the Russian Federation troops. The representatives of self-help groups shared their experience in implementing projects and talked about specific needs of the communities that live along the demarcation line and therefore encounter the issues of internally displaced persons or those living in the occupied territories.

Abkhaz children who are trapped in the occupied territories and not willing to go to Russian-language schools almost every day cross the demarcation line to go to the Georgian school in Ganmukhuri. Children can move freely across the border but Georgian schools have 12 grades while Abkhazian education system requires only 11 years of schooling. After completing 11^th grade, a child reaches the age of majority and is subject to general border crossing restrictions imposed by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. Therefore, senior high school students cannot attend school in Ganmukhuri every day.

At the same time, the youth of Ganmukhuri are very engaged. They have established 2 self-help youth groups to develop and prepare projects and initiated fun quest night events where young people socialize with each other and a number of other projects.

The Ganmukhuri self-help groups did not register a community fund. They partner with the NEFA Foundation based in the town of Anaklia to provide funding for the projects of Ganmukhuri self-help groups.

After the visit to Ganmukhuri, Ukrainian community mobilizers and self-help group leaders met with representatives of the Women’s Information Center and the Tasso Foundation to discuss the visit and share the most impressive and inspiring initiatives that they would like to bring back to their communities. Tetiana Sihayeva, a community mobilizer from Vuhledar town, reports that the regional government has approved her idea of setting up a youth center in their town and even allocated necessary funds to the town budget. Tetiana got this idea before the trip to Georgia. Inspired by the trip, she shared her experience and impressions with some representatives of the local government and encouraged them to cooperate with self-help groups. This gave a new boost to the negotiations process with the regional authorities and the results came quickly. All the participants had a great experience and were inspired by the success of their Georgian colleges to strive towards new achievements.

—

The Community Mobilization for Empowerment in Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts Component is co-led by the Ukrainian Women’s Fund and UN Women and funded by the European Union within the Restoration of Governance and Reconciliation in Crisis-Affected Communities of Ukraine Project (implemented by the United Nations Development Program and UN Women).