Two three-day workshops of transformational cooperation were held in Tbilisi and Sukhum. Czech experts shared their experiences in civic participation, democratic principles, human rights, fundraising, leading civic campaigns, media work and using social networks and new media in campaigns with 50 local representatives of NGOs and independent media.
Sukhum (7 – 9 May 2011): Invitation (PDF), Program of the workshop (PDF), Application form (DOC)
Tbilisi (13 – 15 May 2011): Invitation (PDF), Program of the workshop (PDF), Application form (DOC)
To increase public knowledge about possibilities of getting involved in public matters, evening screenings of documentary films with human-rights topic were performed and followed by discussions. The topics were concerning international conflicts and possibilities of its perception and solution, campaign related to influence of traffic in the cities to health and environment of the citizens, and possibilities of informing the world about events in the region by using up-to-date informational technologies.
Tbilisi (13 – 15 May 2011): Poster – in Georgian language (PDF)
Afterwards, participants of the workshops applied for support of their micro-projects.
Micro-grants, Sukhum: Call announcement (PDF), Description of a project and application to the internship in Czech Republic (DOC)
Micro-grants, Tbilisi: Call announcement (PDF), Description of a project and application to the internship in Czech Republic (DOC)
3 projects in Georgia and 3 projects in Abkhazia were chosen to be supported by 1200 EUR. Projects in Georgia concerned civic participation in decision making processes about vast construction intentions in the center of Batumi, support of public participation of IDPs and improvement of their awareness in Kutaisi and education about human rights and children’s rights in Tbilisi. In Abkhazia, projects concerned education in a field of traffic safety, protecting the nature and environment in Abkhazian mountainous national park and informing public about this issue. Last project supported conscious volunteering of students in Abkhazian state university.
Project teams’ representatives were chosen to take part in ten days long internship in Czech Republic, where they could meet various NGOs (environmental, social, human-rights), media and civic activists. They also took part in a press conference where they could introduce their projects, visited center of environmental education and also had a cultural program. At the end of the internship, they participated in three day weekend school together with Czech students at Masaryk university. Lectures and workshops with renowned experts concerned 8 topics in four blocks (media, economy, civic society, science and society).
The information about aforementioned activities are published at this website http://cestainiciativy.cz, publicity was also present at NESEHNUTI’s web blog, there were several references in media thanks to the press conference (as the most important, a TV report with direct presence of two Caucasian visitors) and there was the publicity in magazine PRES (covering topics of migration and human rights), whose one issue was aimed specifically to Caucasus. In December as a part of Week of Human Rights in Brno, there was a public screening of documentary film On the Border of the Empire about Georgian-Abkhazian conflict and a debate with its author Petruska Sustrova.