Tbilisi. The TV Viewers' Union held the briefing on August 27, at which the organization's representatives have presented to the journalists the demands and recommendations towards the media outlets. TV Viewers' Union was established on 3 May 2012 and its slogan is "For Free and Fair Media". The Union aims to promote the compliance of media activities with the public interests. For full text Source: TV Viewers' Union

Kvemo Kartli. The Georgian Association of Education Initiatives will hold a seminar on August 29 on "Why Should I Become a Volunteer?”. Seminar participants will discuss the culture of volunteerism in Georgia, the ongoing programs of the Association that help the youth in gaining the experience of volunteering, and the opportunities for Georgian youngsters to participate in the "European Volunteer Service” (EVS) program. The seminar will be held in the Rustavi Civic Engagement Center. For full text Source: Social network page of the Association.

Tbilisi. The environmental civil society organization "Green Alternative” launches the monitoring and evaluation of pre-election programs of political unions in view of environmental and sustainable development issues contained therein. The evaluation will be undertaken based on the analysis of pre-election agenda of the union, published materials and the interviews conducted by the organization. All materials published by the parties during the campaign are available on a special web page http://www.greeningfuture.net.  Project page in a social network. Source: greeningfuture.net

Tbilisi. Interactive maps of elections and the voters’ lists were added to the election portal . Through the web page it is possible to look at the results of every elections held since 2008 by the indicators such as the election results, results of individual parties, etc. Data on the web page are available in maps in various geographic locations, covering regions and election districts and precincts. Apart from the election results, the site also provides the analysis of the voters’ list since 2006 by such indicators as the number of voters, average age, etc. These data are also available in a map format. (http://data.electionsportal.ge ) The election portal project is being implemented with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Creation of the web-portal is the joint initiative of three non-governmental organizations – "International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy”, "Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association” and "Transparency International – Georgia”. Development of the election results database is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

Adjara. On August 24, the organization "Micro-Phone” held the meeting in the Batumi Civic Engagement Center as part of the project "Yard Stories”, which aimed to present the portfolios of participating painters. "Yard Stories” is the cultural-arts initiative, which covers the joint creative process of the Batumi-based and Tbilisi-based painters in the public space, which is one of the streets (Akhmed Melashvili) of Batumi and the several yars located there. The project aims at creative cooperation of painters with the residents of the yards, enlivening the cultural heritage and personal stories and transforming them into contemporary art, which in itself reflects the urban and social dynamics of Batumi. Created works will be exhibited for certain period of time in the street and yards, which will change the image of the yards and reveal the unknown, cultural, historic, and everyday characteristics of residents in the physical space of yards and in the form of art works.

Samegrelo. On August 24, the representatives of NGOs, political parties and broad public have discussed the rules of behavior of political parties in the Zugdidi Civic Engagement Center. The representative of the organization "For Freedom of Choice” has presented the 17-point Code of Behavior to the audience. At the meeting the regional representative of NGO "For Freedom of Choice” and the coordinator of the Human Rights Center in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Davit Patsatsia has presented to the audience the study on the participation of civil society and citizens in the pre-election environment, which is based on the information materials provided by the political entities, media and NGOs. According to the study, the participation of the civil society in this process was marked with average indicators, while the small portion of respondents has stated that the civil sector is passive in this respect.

Imereti. In August 2012, the Polish not-for-profit organization "Foundation for Sustainable Development”, in partnership with the Tkibuli District Development Fund, Association CENN, "Elkana” and the Black Sea Eco-Academy has launched the implementation of the new project "Leaders’ Academy”. Key objective of the project is to make local residents active for the purpose of improving the living conditions in rural areas, establishing partnerships among the regions and promoting the exchange of experience in the area of local development. Main beneficiaries of the project are non-governmental and grassroots organizations, as well as local leaders from the 5 municipalities of Georgia: Tkibuli, Terjola, Chiatura, Ambrolauri and Keda. Project activities aim to build the capacity of local leaders through the trainings delivered as part of the project "Leaders’ Academy” and the study tour to Poland, as well as to support the small initiatives implemented at the local level. Following the completion of small projects, local leaders will undergo the monitoring and evaluation and examine the learnt lessons. For further details Source: CENN

Adjara. The civil society organization "Young Lawyers” have held the briefing on August 24 in the Batumi Civil Engagement Center, where they have presented the joint appeal of seven non-governmental organizations: "Human Rights Center”, "Human Rights Priority”, "Article 42 of the Constitution”, "Civic Development Institute”, "Union of Human Rights Defenders”, "Civil Society for Human Rights” and "Young Lawyers”. The appeal concerns the dismissal of the Deputy by the Director of one of the Kobuleti-based colleges, and the organizations address the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia for due reaction.

Tbilisi. Since 1 July 2012, the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information monitors the social networks of the Georgian TV-media. Within the scope of monitoring, the information published on the official Facebook pages of "Rustavi 2”, "Imedi”, "9th Channel”, "Maestro” and "Public Broadcaster” is analyzed. For full text Source: eparticipationge.wordpress.com

Adjara. The association of the elderly women "Deserving Old Age” implements the project "Social Center for the Elderly People”, which aims to promote reintegration of elderly in the society. The Club for Elderly functions to this end, where the elderly can watch television and share their views among each other. In addition, the informative meetings, field trips, etc. are organized for them. The single elderly are also involved in the Club’s activities. The organization’s web-page states that the project "Social Center for the Elderly People” is not designed for females only, but nevertheless elderly women are especially active, who are the frequent visitors of the Club. For full text Source: awa.org.ge

Tbilisi. www.ngomap.eu – web page, where the NGOs operating in the Eastern Partnership countries can post online problems that they face, and formulate their vision of problem solution. Authors of the best local initiative will visit Warsaw in October 2012 on a study tour. During the visit, they will meet with the council of the contest, which will assist them in the implementation of their initiative. To participate in the contest the interested persons must register on the site, draft their initiatives, they also can upload videos and pictures to better convey the idea. Deadline for submitting the initiatives is September 16. Voting starts from September 17 and will continue until the end of the month. Owner of the most votes will be the winner and will travel to Poland. For full text Source: media.ge

Tbilisi. Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association offers recommendations to the media on the coverage of election processes. In addition, media representatives will be able to get familiar with the pre-election and mandatory legal documents. Coverage of election processes – Recommendations for the media Source: gyla.ge

Kakheti. On August 24, the Telavi Civic Engagement Center has hosted the round table on "Gender equality in political processes". The meeting aimed at revealing the problems and stereotypes undermining the gender equality policy in the regions and identifying the ways of their solution. Local leader women and representatives of local and international organizations working on gender topics, the authorities, political parties, various social groups (health care, teachers), ethnic minorities living in the region and mass media have participated in the meeting. Regional representative of the project JildaKharitonashvili-Nibladze: "We discussed problems persisting in the region in terms of gender equality, the stereotypes, international and local documents and institutional mechanisms on gender equality; and we identified the ways of solution of these problems". The project is implemented by the "Union of Warriors with Disabilities and Spouses of Killed Warriors", with the financial support of "International foundation for Electoral Systems" (IFES) and the "United States Agency for International Development" (USAID), as part of the project "Building of Trust towards Electoral Processes".

Tbilisi. On August 24, the American expert of the civil society organization "Committee for Open Democracy" Terry Benham has focused on several issues during the pre-election period. Among others, he spoke about the date of publication of voters' lists, the accuracy of the lists, amendments made to the advertising campaign and the fines imposed on entities participating in the elections. The "Committee for Open Democracy" is the non-governmental organization observing the electoral processes in Georgia.

Kakheti. On August 23, the group of the civil society organization "Civil Society Research and Development Center" working on the regional strategy of Kakheti has held the news presentation. The event took place in the Telavi Civic Engagement Center and the project objectives and tasks were presented. The meeting aimed at providing detailed information on the project to international organizations operating in the Kakheti Region and ensuring participation for future cooperation. To ensure good regional governance, in the Kakheti Region the State Trustee-Governor has created the advisory body of the State Trustee-Governor - Regional Development Council, key task of which is to draft the development strategy of the Kakheti Region for 2012-2017. While working on the Strategy, the administration of the State Trustee-Governor cooperates with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). The participation and active involvement of all interested parties is the crucial component of the process.

Imereti. The Research-Intellectual Club "Dialogue of Generations” came up with the initiative to set up the "Youth Platform”, which implies the unification of resources of organizations working on the youth matters around the problems of the youth. For this very reason, the Research-Intellectual Club "Dialogue of Generations” will hold the open discussion on the initiative to form the "Youth Platform” at 14:00 on August 25, in the Kutaisi Civic Engagement Center. The civil society organization invites all NGOs interested in this idea and working on the youth-related matters.

Imereti. The Kutaisi Education, Development and Employment Center invites youngsters with creative skills in the Center for Applied Arts, who would like to help the children with disabilities in developing the handicraft skills. Currently 5 persons with disabilities are learning sewing, knitting on a machine, preparing jewelry and accessories, etc. in the Center for Applied Arts. The Center for Applied Arts was founded in 2012 by the Kutaisi Education, Development and Employment Center, with the financial support of the micro-finance organization "Crystal”. The Center aims to promote the development of handicraft skills of persons with disabilities with the view of increasing their future employment prospects. For full text

Guria. On August 10-19 the "Student-Youth Council” has hosted the youth exchange project in Ureki. The event, which carried the title of "Dialogue in Quadrology”, united the young participants from 4 countries (Lichtenstein, Ukraine, Poland, Georgia) and aimed at getting familiar with cultural values and national traditions and inter-cultural learning through the application of informal education methods. The final product of the event was the theatrical performance, which the project participants have presented in the Batumi. Central Park. The project is financially supported by the Lichtenstein National Agency, as part of the EU program "Youth in Action”.

Samtskhe-Javakheti. Nine members of the Youth Center functioning with the Young Teachers’ Union have visited the Bakuriani summer school from 6 to 12 August. The summer school was organized within the framework of the "Advancing National Integration (ANI) program of the United Nations Association of Georgia (UNAG) and was funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The summer school agenda included two trainings on a daily basis. The youngsters have covered teh following topics: effective communication, techniques of argumentation, art of presentation and team decision-making. Second part of trainings was divided in thematic groups: UN modeling, issues of a sociological study, social media, blogging, photography, public relations (PR) and event management. On the last day of the week, each thematic group has given the presentation based on the knowledge gained during the trainings. Apart from educational hours, the summer school offered sports-recreational activities as well. Up to 100 representatives from youth centers of 10 cities of Georgia have participated in the program.

Adjara. On August 22, the first debates were held in the Batumi Press-Cafe as part of the project of Independent Journalists’ House – "For the Development of Democratic Ideas” – on the topic: what is the role of the Adjarian Supreme Council in the process of region’s development? What does Adjara offer to other regions of Georgia in terms of regional development? 5 political parties have participated in the debates. The participants have discussed the work of the Adjarian Supreme Council, the current situation and other issues of concern. The project is supported by the international organization National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Video

Tbilisi. On September 3 the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the Europe House will host the meeting of the future LSE students, which will be attended also by the LSE alumni. To attend the event please fill the registration form. The event will take place at 13:00 in the Europe House. For full text.

Adjara. On August 21 the charity week "We Will Grow Old Too” was launched, organized by the Association "Dignified Old Age”, with the slogan "Youth Supporting the Single Elderly”. This is the traditional week now. This year it is organized within the framework of EU-funded project – "Social Center of the Elderly”. The week will take place on August 21–28. During the week various events will be organized for the elderly, organized and implemented by the organization’s volunteers. For full text