Imereti. Due to the information of USAID Georgia Nino Gudadze, Mariam Eziashvili, and Nato Parkosadze are in their second year of high school in the village of Koreli in Imereti. They are also active participants in the school civics club supported by “Momavlis Taoba” (“Future Generation”), a nationwide civics education program funded by USAID. In addition to learning about civics in the classroom, they carry out their own civic activities in the community, including helping their neighbors get through the COVID-19 pandemic. When the pandemic hit their village, Nino, Mariam, and Nato realized that many residents of the village could not afford to buy face masks and were not able to protect themselves. They decided to take the matter into their own hands and help vulnerable families. They brought the issue to the local self-governing body, asked for information about how to help the vulnerable families in the village, and managed to obtain the necessary amount of face masks to distribute to local residents. The students provided 11 families with a total of 250 face masks. They also carry out informative meetings for the village youths about dealing with Covid 19 pandemic. Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network

Tbilisi. In the publication "TimeBank: Textbook about New Volunteering" you will read everything about modern volunteering. If you would like to learn what volunteering is, to read about foreign and Georgian experience of the TimeBank; also, if you are eager to know more about the success stories of the TimeBank and learn whether you are ready or not for volunteer work, this book is for you. The publication is created within the “Georgian Civil Society Sustainability Initiative” project. The project was developed and is implemented by the consortium lead by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in cooperation with four Georgian Civil Society Organizations: Civil Society Institute (CSI), Center for Training and Consultancy (CTC), Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia (CSRDG) and Education Development and Employment Center (EDEC). The project is funded by the European Union and co-funded by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Read more…  Source: Timerepublik Georgia’s page on the Facebook

Tbilisi. The Center for Development and Democracy (CDD) has launched a Georgian online educational platform Kentsero. “Visit and sweeten your studies with us At this stage, you will find on the site schools of democratization and good governance as well as international relations, interesting subjects and fun quizzes presented by experts in the field”, - is stated on the website of the organization in a social network.  Read more… Source: The website of the organization in a social network

To support practical training in six vocational colleges, we provided GEL 800,000 worth of agriculture machinery and food processing equipment.  This initiative was implemented with funds from the Swiss Development Cooperation in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sport of Georgia.  Read more…  Source: The page in the social network

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association publishes a study conducted together with the Foundation for the Support of Legal Education – “Equality policy in the general education system”. Full version of the study... Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Shida-Kartli. On December 14, 2020 - Giorgi Targamadze, founder of Georgian Strategic Analysis Center, held a lecture on mass media and the current political landscape within the framework of the training program "Youth for Change" for politically active youth from Gori. “The aim of the project is to involve local activists and NGOs, municipal staff and media representatives in active discussions”. Read more… Source: The organization's page in the social network

Samegrelo. With the money won at the intellectual TV show "Answer to Georgia" aired on TV Imedi, the volunteers bought and handed over the development resources to the Khobi Day Care Center for Children with Disabilities "Our House".  The volunteers took part in the TV show "Answer to Georgia" within the Civil Society Sustainability Initiative project on September 19. By participating in the TV show, the volunteers aimed to raise public awareness about volunteering and to encourage engagement in the volunteer activities. Read more… Source: the organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. On December 11-21, 2020, within USAID and UNAG’s #PITA Program, we are starting a Training for Trainers for a new cohort of the Mobile Task Force: Youth for Building Resilience - Promoting Media Literacy and Critical Thinking.  Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes an open data guidebook for civil servants. “Open data facilitate development of civic monitoring mechanisms, improve public welfare and effective use of state resources. The purpose of the guidebook is to provide civil servants with practical information about data collection, processing, analysis, publication and storage. Improvement of their qualification in this regard will help public institutions address data processing related challenges and use existing resources effectively”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Samegrelo. UNICEF Representative in Georgia, Dr. Ghassan Khalil visited Shota Meskhia State Teaching University of Zugdidi. “One year ago UNICEF and the university established the partnership to incorporate child rights into curricula. Today the results of this partnership and future plans were discussed at the meeting. We are glad that the Child Rights course is integrated into the University curricula.” Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. New UNICEF-ITU report says 15 per cent of Georgia’s school-age children have no internet access at home. “Around 661,500 children are still affected by COVID-19 school closures in Georgia, forcing students to rely on virtual learning. For those with no internet access, education can be out of reach. Even before the pandemic, a growing cohort of young people needed to learn foundational, transferable, digital, job-specific and entrepreneurial skills to compete in the 21st century economy. The digital divide is perpetuating inequalities that already divide countries and communities, the report notes. Children and young people from the poorest households, rural and lower income states are falling even further behind their peers and are left with very little opportunity to ever catch up”, is noted in the statement. Read more…  Source: www.unicef.org

Tbilisi. Check out new list of EU-funded scholarships, trainings, competitions, events, project calls and more here... Source: The EU’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes a study: Systemic challenges of education policy for ethnic minorities. “Conducted study revealed that reforms, implemented in the education system from 2005 to date, generally neglected or failed to sufficiently address the issue of access of ethnic minorities to quality education. Beyond positive steps, taken towards provision of higher education (1+4 program) and teaching of Georgian as a second language, problems of non-Georgian language schools were unfortunately weakly addressed in priorities of education policy over the years. Moreover, despite fundamental failures and consequences in the education system in this regard, the Government did not include the issue of passing a special and consistent policy towards education of minorities in its agenda”, - is stated in the study. Read more…  Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The EU and UNDP have launched a “weekend virtual school” for high-school students from Georgia’s regions. Online classes combine knowledge about European integration and sustainable development with extracurricular offerings featuring music and art. Over 330 teenagers from eight municipalities participated in the first online class on 21-22 November, and more are expected to engage in the next four sessions to be held every weekend until 20 December. To learn more click here... Source: EU’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. “Bloggers from Zemo Racha” is one of the volunteer initiatives that won the "Ideas Competition for Voluntary Initiatives" announced by the Center for Education Development and Employment (EDEC) in the frameworks of the program “Georgian Civil Society Sustainability Initiative”. Within the initiative, the initiative group from Upper Racha invites young people from Oni municipality aged 15-18 to take part in a program “Bloggers from Upper Racha”. The program aims to assist vulnerable groups, promote their integration into society, support formal and non-formal education, address local community issues, and promote volunteering”. The program “Georgian Civil Society Sustainability Initiative” was developed and is implemented by the consortium lead by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in cooperation with four Georgian Civil Society Organizations: Civil Society Institute (CSI), Center for Training and Consultancy (CTC), Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia (CSRDG) and Education Development and Employment Center (EDEC). The project is funded by the European Union and co-funded by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Imereti. Local Democracy Agency Georgia held online informational meeting for youth from Zestaphoni municipality, about these following issues: The importance of civic engagement; civil society organizations; International volunteering platform "Time Bank"; The project coordinator, Tamar Kitovani was leading the online meeting.  Online meeting held within the framework of the project, „Georgian Civil Society Sustainability Initiative”. The project „Georgian Civil Society Sustainability Initiative” is implemented by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) in cooperation with the Civil Society Institute (CSI), the Consultation and Training Center (CTC), the Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia (CSRDG), and the Education Development and Employment Center (EDEC). The project is funded by the European Union (EU) and co-funded by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS).  Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. In September 2020 in the frames of COVID-19 response activities GRCS with the USAID support refresher trainings, jointly elaborated with NCDC on COVID-19 for local staff and volunteers were conducted in 33 GRCS branches. The trainings aimed at refreshing knowledge of GRCS local staff and volunteers on COVID-19, ways of transmission and personal safety, including usage of personal safety equipment, social stigma, and risk communication in 33 GRCS branches. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. Within the framework of an online lecture, Anton Vacharadze, Head of Memory and Disinformation Studies Direction and Megi Kartsivadze, an analyst at the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) talked about the topic: Russian propaganda: From empire to modernity. Watch a video recording of the online lecture at the link: Read more about the lecture here… Source: The webpage of the organization in a social network

Local Democracy Agency Georgia is holding an agrotour complying with national regulations within the framework of the grant “Racha-Lechkhumi and lower Svaneti Regional Development Initiative”. „This time the farmers from Lentekhi municipality have visited following successful enterprises in Ambrolauri and Oni municipalities: The farm and ham plant of “Blauenstein Georgia”; Honey processing plant in Ambrolauri; Dried fruit processing plant in Ambrolauri. The farmers got information about honey processing methods, the technology of producing different types of ham and dried fruit“. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

The European Court of Justice, Europe’s highest court, has ruled that ‘lex CEU’ violates Hungary’s commitments under the WTO, and infringes the provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union relating to academic freedom. The judgment from the European Court of Justice in Commission v Hungary (C-66/18) related to the Hungarian law amending the 2017 Law on higher education. The Court agreed with the European Commission that Hungary has breached WTO law, EU law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union “relating to academic freedom, the freedom to found higher education institutions and the freedom to conduct a business.” Today’s decision means that Lex CEU is no longer applicable. CEU is free to operate its US degree programs in Budapest. It is also an important moral and legal victory as well as a historic victory for academic freedom in Europe. Read more... Source: www.ceu.edu

Tbilisi. MAC Georgia announces open registration for the Importance of play online Zoom training, scheduled for October 13th and 16th. This training is designed for teachers and other professionals working in kindergarten. The training includes the following topics: Importance of play and its role in child development; Types of play; Basic safety skills; Using play as a way to increase independent living skills in children. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Kakheti. The volunteers of the Georgia Red Cross Sighnaghi branch has delivered the COVID-19-related recommendations to the older people living in Tsnori. The volunteers spread the information about the virus prevention measures to the community and asked to avoid any social gathering. Read more... Source: The organization's page in the social network