Kakheti. Within the framework of the EU-supported project “Promoting inclusive and participatory local development in Akhmeta Municipality”, Action Against Hunger and the Kakheti Regional Development Foundation hosted a Youth Camp.  The camp brought together 20 young people from different communities of the municipality to receive training on youth leadership, personal development and communication skills. Above all, the Youth Camp served as an ideal platform to promote youth engagement in the Local Action Group (LAG) that will be formed in Akhmeta in the coming months. Encouraging youth involvement in the Local Action Groups and decision-making processes is one of the key challenges and is extremely important for the success of the project and locally-led development initiatives.  Read more Source: http://enpard.ge

Tbilisi. On may 22nd the meeting/discussion was organized by Women’s Information Center in the LEPL Zhiuli Shartava Rustavi Public School N4. ''The participants were the upperclassmen of the above mentioned school. The topic of the meeting was the violence against women and children'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: The web-page of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. The Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics publishes a handbook for covering children issues. ''Coverage of a child is unconditionally necessary when s/he is a victim of violence/crime. Consent of a guardian does not exempt a journalist from responsibility. S/he should personally evaluate negative consequences that identification of a child may entail''', - is stated on the website of the Charter. Read more... Source:www.qartia.ge

Tbilisi. On 14 May 2019, Public Defender Nino Lomjaria presented the Special Report on Monitoring the Child Care System – Effectiveness of Alternate Care. The report was prepared by the Public Defender's Office with the support of the European Union and UNICEF. ''Identification of child victims of violence, management of complex behavior and crisis situations, prevention of and timely response to the cases of child abuse, and psycho-social assistance remain problematic. The state does not have a systemic vision to tackle poverty and raise the social function of families. The available programmes cannot meet the needs in this direction, which negatively affects the rights of children. Shortcomings in the field of child care, the lack of specialists, psychologists and social workers and the problem of their effective engagement remain problematic'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Kakheti. Over 100 people, most of them children, parents and educators as well as invited guests enjoyed the Festival "Positive Parenthood” in Leliani village, Lagodekhi municipality. The EU-supported festival aimed to promote healthy parenting practices, by demonstrating joint sports and entertaining activities of parents and children that encouraged their closer releationship and friendship. Organization of public events and trainings on positive parenting is the initiative of Leliani Adult Education Center. It was selected for EU funding by CARE and Lagodekhi LAG under the ENPARD rural development project. The initiative was launched in January 2019 with a series of information meetings with Lagodekhi resident parents, both mothers and fathers, educators and children of 6-18 age. The trainings aim to promote proper and healthy practices of parenting. At the meetings, psychologists inform the participants about the main stages and crises of child development, and the ways to overcome them. They discuss important topics, particularly conflict situations and how to manage them in a peaceful way. Parents and children are also engaged in the making of animation movie on positive parenting. The trainings cover all communities in the municipality and are very popular among the residents. It already trained hundreds of parents and kindergarten staff, who gained understanding of healthy parenting practices and how to use them in real life. Read more Source: http://enpard.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association supports the strike of social workers and demands to launch real reforms in order to ensure decent working conditions for them. ''It is sad reality that over the years there have not been carried out real reforms in the direction of social protection, respectively, the quality and efficiency of work of the Social Service Agency remains a problem for a long period of time'', - is noted in the statement released by GYLA. Read more... Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association has submitted its viewpoints in regard to the ''Code on the Rights of the Child'', initiated by members of the Parliament of Georgia, to the legislative body. ''GYLA welcomes creation of a general legal basis that aims at ensuring legal standards, guaranteed by the ''Convention on the Rights of the Child'''', however, it notes that ''the proposed draft law does not fully respond to those legislative problems, which have been determined by the European Court of Human Rights. That is why there is a need for additional broader discussions and detailed regulation of issues in regard to this subject''. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Week dedicated to the World Down Syndrome Day was opened on March 18 at the "Open Society Georgia Foundation” with a presentation of the first Information Center for parents of children having disabilities. "Parents Information Center” will serve as the first psycho-emotional aid center, which assists parents and those families that have children with a delay in development in their foster care. Beginning from March 19, there will be launched a hot line, through which interested people will obtain comprehensive and competent information regarding services available in Georgia. Read more… Source:https://osgf.ge

Tbilisi. Representatives of an organization ''Partnership for Human Rights'' (PHR) conducted a training for journalists at the Charter of Journalistic Ethics, which was related to coverage of issues about children in conflict with law. Lawyers of PHR provided participants of the training with information regarding coverage of a crime in which juvenile offenders are going to be charged; mistakes that media makes while working on this topic; relevant legislation that exists in Georgia; responsibility that lays upon the government; results that incorrectly prepared materials on this issue entail and factors, to which journalists have to pay their attention. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. The Coalition for Children and Youth expresses concern about the case of possible sexual violence against a 13 years old disabled child. ''The Coalition appraises the situation in the country in regard to protection of children from sexual violence extremely negatively, which implies absence of preventive and rehabilitation services, as well as indicates shortcomings existing in an investigation process, which are mostly related to psychological and psychiatric examination problems'', - is stated on the website of Partnership for Human Rights. Read more… Source:phrgeorgia.wordpress.com

On February 12, 13 and 14, 2019, ''Young Pedagogues’ Union'' held training ''Child care issues''. ''Teachers of partner schools and pre-schools of the organization (Shroma, Laituri, Nagomari, Shemokmedi, Khadjalia, Nigvziani and Nasakirali) as well as the parents attended the training. The teachers and parents acquired knowledge about violence and its forms, as well as focused on the issue on how teacher and parent can identify violent fact and child as victim of violence, also about the procedures to protect the child or react upon the fact of violence'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: The page of the organization in the social network

Tbilisi. Coalition for Children and Youth expresses extreme concern regarding destruction of a child protection system and, as a result, cases of violence against children during last period of time and states its standpoint in regard to the systemic problem in the country. ''Despite increase of notifications about violence, the system often fails to protect children effectively and thus encourages violence due to its inactivity. While most of the notifications about violence remain in fact statistics'', - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more... Source:phrgeorgia.wordpress.com

Tbilisi. An organization ''Partnership for Human Rights'' publishes a blog post, which states that number of facts of violence against child have increased by 10%, while the reference index with MIA has reduced by 28%. ''Domestic violence against child is characterized especially severely, which fact relates to detection of other forms of neglect and violence against child as well as timely response in order to protect from repeated violence. One of the main challenges still remains absence of rehabilitation services for children victims of violence. Indicator of violences against sexual freedom of children and number of cases of violence against children at Schools are still high'', - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source:phrgeorgia.wordpress.com

Tbilisi. Part of civil society organizations releases a statement regarding facts of intoxication and death caused by supposedly unknown, powerful narcotic substance. ''We call on the Ministry of Health to establish an expanded working platform with involvement of other agencies, where, through participation of professional and interested groups, there will be determined specific steps to be made for prevention of such facts'', - the statement reads. Read more... Source:emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Majority of adolescents’ parents in Georgia practise an authoritarian parenting style and apply physical and psychological punishment methods; parents are mostly engaged in caring for their adolescent’s material and physical wellbeing, less in psycho emotional development – these are some of the findings of the ‘National Study on Parenting of Adolescents and Parenting Support programmes in Georgia’ being released today. Read more… Source: unicef.ge

Kvemo Kartli. Over 30 young farmers from Tetritskaro municipality participated in youth event on gender issues organized with EU ENPARD support by Association Rural Development for Future Georgia (RDFG). The event took place in Tetritskaro on the occasion of the international campaign "16 days of activism against gender-based violence” that runs every year in the period of 25th November to 10th December. In full  Source: http://enpard.ge

Tbilisi. The United Nations Children's Fund disseminates a brochure developed within the framework of ''End Violence'', a communications campaign aiming at changing social norms. ''Before we start talking about violence, you should remember the main thing - a child has the right to be protected from violence. This is an unconditional verity, which the world has agreed upon long time ago. When one person uses his/her power or position to hurt others - it is violence. Any action that affects others – is violence!'' Read more… Source:The website of the organization in a social network

Ajara. More than 150 young people from five municipalities of Ajara Autonomous Republic took part in the Youth Forum on 14 October 2018 that focused on the youth leadership in rural areas. Aiming to boost the role of young people in rural development, the Youth Forum provided its participant with the opportunity to enhance their leadership skills and advance cooperation with local governments. The Forum created an excellent platform for discussing the most pressing issues faced by rural communities and encouraged young people to take part in decision-making, find proactive solutions to the problems and inspire a positive change. In full  Sourice: http://enpard.ge/en