The past year’s agenda of the German association Act for Transformation saw a multitude of projects conducted in collaboration with different partners from Georgia, whose work varies from global and intercultural learning to civil conflict transformation.
In five partner schools in Zugdidi municipality, as well as in a hybrid summer peace camp, youth learned to solve conflicts non-violently, and to work together and implement peace projects in their home communities. They raised awareness about peace topics and the importance of peace education in schools and among youth. Participants from the workshops were broadcasted on Atinati Radio in Samegrelo and Abkhazia, speaking about topics like bullying prevention, youth activism, human rights and gender equality.
“In schools, we have many conflicts and the Fairtogether workshop helped us to resolve these in a non-violent way,” one workshop participant said.
The project Fairtogether in Georgia was implemented this year by Act for Transformation (Germany), Association Atinati (Zugdidi) and Act for Transformation’s Caucasus Office (Tbilisi) to support peace-education in Georgian schools.
During the nine-month 2021 project, 17 youth trainers from western Georgia were coached in peace educational methodology “Fairtogether,” and 17 Fairtogether basic workshops were conducted for 220 students and 20 teachers in five partner schools in Zugdidi municipality.
Due to Covid regulations, most workshops were held online, and in September, a hybrid youth camp in Zugdidi was organized for 15 youth. The camp included five days of interactive peace educational workshops, three peer-to-peer initiative peace projects in the villages, and four online meetings with peace activists from Georgia. In six live programs broadcasted by Radio Atinati in Samegrelo and Abkhazia, 10 involved school students invited guests and talked about bullying prevention, youth activism, human rights, and gender equality.
“These workshops are important for youth, but are also good for parents and teachers. Together, we aim to prevent the bullying of others, because it is a violation of human rights,” a workshop participant said.
During a two-day online conference in December, more than 40 trainers from civil society organizations from Ukraine, Georgia and Germany shared information about projects for peace education with youth, their experience as trainers, and formulated recommendations for peace education for the Ministry of Education and political representatives. They further highlighted the importance of networking and work for dialogue and peace building between the regions. The aim is to have regular round tables on peace education in Georgia.
The project was funded by the German Federal Foreign Office in the frame of the program “Expanding Cooperation with Civil Society in the Eastern Partnership Countries and Russia” and co-financed by Quäker-Hilfe e.V.
Alena Kemm, project coordinator from Act for Transformation, together with the staff at Atinati and Act for Transformation – Caucasus Office noted the high motivation of all facilitators who were involved in the projects, and said they were looking forward to having similar projects in the future.
“For me, Fairtogether supports youth to change the world together peacefully for the better,” said one Fairtogether facilitator.
More information can be found on the facebook pages of Atinati and Act for Transformation – Caucasus Office.
