Tbilisi. As part of the Speaker Tour funded by the US Embassy, 14-times Paralympian Candace Cable has met with parents of beneficiaries of the "First Step Georgia". The guest, who herself suffers a disability, has presented her history and biography to the audience. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Kakheti. "For better future” is the name of the project within the framework of which a media laboratory was created in Telavi. The participants will be learning professions of director, scenarist, operator, and will be able to shoot several video footages. The participants have already shot first film about healthy way of life, and false calls.

Tbilisi. Institute for Development of Freedom of Information published a new research - "Predicted Financial Impact of the Health Care Reforms on Private Insurance Companies between 2006-2013 in Georgia - The Case of „Aldagi-BCI".  The research  Source:idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Administration of the State Minister for Integration into the European and Euro-Atlantic Structures has published the guide to the "Georgia-EU Association Agreement". The guide to the Agreement is built on a "Frequently Asked Questions" principle. Few days ago we were reporting that the Foreign Ministry has posted the Association Agreement translated into Georgian on the Ministry's web page. Guide to the "Georgia–EU Association Agreement". The Association Agreement document. Source: web pages of relevant ministries.

Imereti. OnFebruary 24 the organization "Partnership for Human rights” held a training for the organizations working on disabled people and women rights issues. The topic was violence against women. The training was held within the framework of "Mainstreaming of the rights of the disabled people against violence in national action planning” project, supported by EU, and with the partnership of the "National network for the protection against violence”, "Youth centre for independent life”. Source: Web-page of the organization in social network.

Tbilisi. On February 21 "Club of Young Deplomats of Georgia” opened a winter session of the modeling of the Parliament of Georgia. There are over 200 participants from Tbilisi and the regions. The motto of the session: "Youth for European choice”. For three days delegates will be working on legislation concerning the integration of Georgia into NATO and EU. Source: Web-page of the organization in social network.

Kvemo Kartli. On February 21 "Siqa” held a meeting with Tamar Gurchiani. There was a discussion between her and the participants on a number of interesting and problematic issues.  Source: Web-page of the organization in social network.

Tbilisi. A public information database Opendata.ge created by Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) is expanding and becomes a single public information portal for several NGOs. Media.Ge has spoken to the head of IDFI management and project director, Levan Avalishvili, regarding the concrete changes planned and the reasoning behind the IDFI’s decision. For the full text Source:media.ge

Tbilisi. CSO "Sida" has organized a contest for bloggers on February 24. The contest was organized as part of the EU-funded project "Supporting the Juvenile Justice Reform in the National Minority Communities of KvemoKartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti". Total of 6 bloggers were selected. The event aimed to raise public awareness on the juvenile justice issues and pending reforms by providing the trustworthy and interesting information on behalf of bloggers to the users of social networks. For the full text. Source: cida.ge

Kakheti. The Women's Information Center has visited the Kist and Chechen women in village Duisi. The meeting was organized as part of the project "Gender-Sensitive Information in Georgia for Gender Equality".The lawyer of the Women's Information Center has talked to attending women about the women's rights and gender equality issues and has delivered free legal consultations on the spot. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Kvemo Kartli. On February 24 the members of the Dmanisi youth centre visited the public school in Orozmani. During the meeting one of the members of the centre held a training the in Azeri language about "Healthy ways of life”. The training was attended by 11th-12th form schoolchildren with the discussion about diet, drugs, alcoholism, and smoking. Source: Web-page of the organization in social network.

Tbilisi. With support of the US Agency for International Development, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems and CSO "Coalition for Independent Life" have organized a conference on February 24. The participants have discussed the following issues: ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and its impact on the political process in Georgia; legislative initiatives to secure political and electoral access for persons with disabilities; a role of the civil society in raising of public awareness and facilitating the participation. As part of the simulation organized during the conference, participants themselves have played the role of voters with disabilities in both the adapted and non-adapted environments. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia released a blog post - "Ban on land sales - stories from large foreign farmers”. "The government cannot continue to exclude foreign companies and the finance, skills and training they can bring to the Georgian agricultural sector; it should harness these to its best advantage through a robust land ownership policy", says the blog post. For the full text  Source:transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Chairman of the Bar Association Zaza Khatiashvili has released a statement concerning the detention of attorney Giorgi Oniani. The statement. Source: the organization's web page in the social network.

Kakheti. The advocacy campaign, which was aimed to provide information to the Telavi population about how to manage the existing problems around the cleaning service tax, has ended. Within the framework of the campaign bulletins about the cleaning tax, the ways of its collection, and payment, were distributed to the members of the youth club. The above information was provided approximately to 20 000 Telavi residents. Source:the organization's page in the social network

Tbilisi. CSO National Center for Democratic Development has released a statement concerning the dismissal of employees from the penitentiary institution. The organization became interested in this problem as part of the project "Labor Ombudsman". For the full text. Source: the organization's web page in the social network.

Kakheti. The members of the Telavi Youth Centre held a charitable activity in which four schools had participated. Within the framework of the activity collected clothes, toys and products were distributed to families selected beforehand. Source:the organization's page in the social network

Tbilisi. On February 23 Zoltan Fabri’s movie "141 minutes from the unfinished sentence” (shot in 1975) was shown with Georgian subtitles.  The introduction to the movie was made by the movie critique Gogi Gvakharia.The screening of the movie took place as a part of "On movie and visual art” project.

Tbilisi. CSO "World Experience for Georgia" (WEG) and the Ilia State University have hosted on February 20 the seminar on "Georgia's affiliation in the Energy Union, opportunities and challenges". The EU Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger has opened up the seminar. He has focused on the importance of Georgia as the key transit state of the southern gas corridor. Experts, students and representatives of the Academy and civil society have attended the meeting. Participants have discussed positive and negative aspects of Georgia's affiliation in the European Energy Union and the challenges lying ahead of the energy sector in this area. Seminar was organized with support of the EU and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Source: weg.ge

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center has published DatoLaghidze's blog post "This Is Putin's Inferno". "Probably in a few days Putin will be left alone, will travel to the Kremlin and get involved in internal affairs of his inferno. In short, they did not let the evil delight the triumph ...", says the blog post. For the full text. Source:emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Non-governmental organization the "Young Barristers” responds to an initiative of Georgian Prime-minister Irakli Gharibashvili on raising the election threshold of local self-government elections up to 50%. The "Young Barristers” "positively evaluate preparedness issue of 50% election threshold and at the same time call the government to implement high-scale changes.  The organization addresses the council of government to create multi-mandate electoral districts in order to protect one vote equality principle". For the full text Source:barristers.ge

Imereti. The Georgian Democratic Initiative has organized discussions in the public schools of Samtredia and Zestaponi on the prohibition of discrimination and tolerance. The meetings aimed to organize discussions in the regions of Georgia on issues such as prohibition of discrimination, tolerance, and secularism as the principle of state governance. Discussion participants have talked about current situation in the region and Georgia in general in terms of tolerance, the rights of minorities and mechanisms of their protection.Leaders of the civic education clubs and mentor-teachers of the Samtredia and Zestaponi schools, senior schoolchildren, teachers and ordinary citizens have attended the meetings. Source: gdi.ge