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What kind of work was carried out by advocacy group, which problem the group managed to solve?  A meeting of the Club of Women-Voters in Tskhaltubo began with this information.

During the next part of the meeting participants defined the priority issues that can be submitted by different political parties:

 - Free delivery for all pregnant women;

 - Extension of maternity leave up to a year while maintaining job;

 - Low interest lending for small business development.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization NED – National Endowment for Democracy, USA.

Clubs of Women-Voters are experienced in conduction of joint meetings. These meetings had positive results, so they have been continued this year too. Members of Ozurgeti Club visited the Club of Women-Voters of Zugdidi.

The meeting, based on the thematic, was interesting. Representatives of both clubs familiarized with each other’s activities, work of advocacy groups and shared experiences accumulated over the years. Participants had new initiatives. For example, unite advocacy groups and work jointly to solve common problems.

Acquaintance with the Platform of the Women's League was also of great interest for the participants. On the recommendation of the Club members it is desirable to add the following paragraph to the Platform: free examination and treatment of female cancers, and hepatitis B.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization NED – National Endowment for Democracy, USA.

More recently, Women's League of Fund "Sukhumi" has developed the Platform for Action, the main goal of which is to ensure implementation of measures to increase the impact of Women's League in Western Georgia, expand dialogue with authorities, identify and impact on solution of problems of population in 8 towns of Western Georgia.         

Familiarization with this platform has activated members of the Club of Women-Voters. They believe that the document will help them work more effectively and develop the proper strategy to achieve the set objectives.

- The closer we will cooperate with authorities, the easier we will be able to solve our problems - that was the common opinion of the meeting participants.

With such unanimity the members of the Club began to discuss problems raised by the advocacy group: "Reducing water prices (the price makes up 1 GEL per month per person) for the part of socially vulnerable IDP population, which is not registered in the united database".

The participants confirmed that the problem is urgent and it solution will positively affect the budget of IDP families, and decided to address the local self government in writing.

Members of the Club of Women-Voters hope that through cooperation with local self-government they’ll be able to solve positively problems raised by them.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization NED – National Endowment for Democracy, USA.

At the meeting, participants of the Club of Women-Voters summarized their work done in April.

Members of an advocacy group talked about a survey conducted among the population about the elimination of garbage bins in residential buildings. The survey showed that people is ready to support the service of garbage collection of the town in localization of the problem.

At the Club was made ​​a presentation of Fund "Sukhumi’s"publication "Women in Search for Peace". Participants listened with interest to the information about the new publication of Fund "Sukhumi" and expressed their desire to participate in peace process.

The meeting was attended by more than twenty members of the Club.

The group of advocacy of the Club of Women-Voters started made the report about the carried out activity with the problem of bridges in the village Pirveli Khorga. This problem has been studied by the advocacy group and raised in the local self government. As a result the restoration of the bridges has been started.

The advocacy group said about the completion of rehabilitation works related to water supply and installation of meters. Active members of the Club (Naira Beraia and Manana Shulaia) were involved in that problem advocacy.

In the future the group decided to advocate the issue of free medical examinations.

At the end of the meeting was made the presentation of a new publication, "Women in Search of Peace" (author - Ekaterine Gamakharia).

The project is implemented with the support of the organization NED – National Endowment for Democracy, USA.

The meeting began with good news.

Participants of the meeting congratulated one of the most active members of the Club, Elsa Kvaratskhelia with her appointment as a Director of Zugdidi Public School № 3.

The moderator of the Club and a director of the gymnasium, Manana Nachkebia has also received congratulations, since the gymnasium named after St. George, had successfully passed the authentication.

Khatuna Bechvaia shared with the audience her impressions of the trip to America. She was in America for a month within the framework of one of the exchange programs.

Members of the Club learned that the problem raised by the advocacy group, has been positively resolved - the building (the former hotel "Odishi"), located in the center of the town, where live IDPs, was not provided with water.

After the advocacy group appealed in writing to the water company, the issue has been resolved (counters have been installed and the water supply have been restored).

This time at the club were raised and discussed local problems – there is no light on the streets, not enough parking space, internal roads are damaged, a botanical garden needs rehabilitation.

In order to solve those problems, they plan to invite members of the local government and offer them a specially designed package of problems. The Club members plan to take part in the consideration of the budget for the next year.

Zugdidi Club is different from the other Clubs by peace initiatives therefore the members of the Club read a new publication of Fund "Sukhumi" - "Women in the search for peace" with interest.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization NED – National Endowment for Democracy, USA.

Participants of the meeting of the Club focused on the problems of local population and ways of their solution. There were raised the issues of car parking and the road in front of the first school (a narrow street, traffic congestion prevents safe movement of pedestrians, especially children).

The meeting participants emphasized that knowledge and skills obtained at the meeting would help effectively advocate for the aforementioned problems: "Advocacy is an action aimed at protecting people's interests through cooperation with the government or media. We think that the activity of the advocacy group will help to solve the problems of the local population." (Esma Todua, a member of the Club of Women-Voters).

 At the end of the meeting club members elaborated a strategy for advocating for the aforementioned problems.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization NED – National Endowment for Democracy, USA.

The advocacy group presented a brief report on the work carried out during the last month.

According to the group members, they informed the head of Khoni Municipality, Besarion Chelidze, about the problems of IDPs (with regard to paying for water supply and garbage collection), living in the collective centre of Khoni, and got the quick reply.

"The issues of exempting of socially vulnerable families (such families will be financed from local budget) living in the collective centre of Khoni from paying for water and garbage collection, is on the agenda of Khoni municipality, - Eliso Jikia, leader of the Club of Women-Voters in Khoni.

The one-hour workshop on the theme "Strategy and tactics of civic advocacy” was held during the Club meeting.

At the end of the meeting there was screened a TV plot of Fund "Sukhumi” about the activity of the advocacy group of the Club of Women-Voters in Tskhaltubo.   

The project is implemented with the support of the organization NED – National Endowment for Democracy, USA.

The advocacy group of the Club of Women-Voters in Khobi made a brief report on the carried out activity.

As a result of this activity and through the Village Support Programme a bridge was rebuilt in the village Khorga.

The problem of water supply was solved in the village Bia. Several villagers were supplied with water without any schedule and water counters, that led to non-purposeful water consumption. According to Manana Shulaia (a leader of the Club of Women-Voters and a member of Khoni Municipality) soon there will be installed water counters in the village.

The second part of the meeting was dedicated to one-hour workshop on the theme: "Strategy and tactics of civic advocacy”.  

Participants of the meeting emphasized that the workshop was interesting and they would use the obtained skills in advocacy planning and implementation.

At the end of the meeting there was screened a TV plot about the work of the advocacy group of the Club of Women-Voters in Tskhaltubo.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization NED – National Endowment for Democracy, USA.

Participants of the meeting focused on the issue of rehabilitation of city streets: "The streets are dug over due to ongoing renovations causing problems to the population (limited movement, dust)." Advocacy group of the Club decided to address this problem together with the local government.

At the meeting was raised the issue about one of the active members of the Club of Women-Voters, a lecturer of Batumi European University Mrs. Mzia Ramishvili (she was injured and needs urgent operation).

An advocacy group wrote a statement to the Mayor’s office in Batumi which had been signed by the Club members.

They will apply to the City Mayor’s office with the request to allocate funds from the budget for Mzia Ramishvili (she is a mother of many children and a widow) or recommend free of charge treatment in any medical clinic.

The Advocacy group has already submitted the statement to the Mayor’s office and is expecting for positive answer.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization NED – National Endowment for Democracy, USA.

The theme of the meeting was "Advocating for problems of local population. Local budget and social programmes”.

Women were actively involved in discussion of the theme. They stressed on the work carried out by the advocacy group.

According to the members of the advocacy group one of their important achievements was that they addressed the local self government of Tskhaltubo with the proposal to make special mention of public service of elderly teachers – IDPs from Abkhazia, living in Tskhaltubo.

The local government supported their proposal and the teachers, who had been left without attention, will be provided with the financial assistance in the amount of 200 GEL. 

The project is implemented with the support of the organization NED – National Endowment for Democracy, USA.

Twenty participants of the meeting – members of the Club of Women-Voters, representatives of political parties, and journalists discussed the issue of parking. They mentioned that there is not a car park on the territory of the central market of the town.  As a result traffic jams often occur there, that endangers passers-by.

At the Club was also raised the issue of cleaning of the town: "Despite the fact that garbage collection service carries out work daily, small trash cans create discomfort and poor sanitation". According to the participants of the meeting, there should be put bigger trash cans.

Activists of the Club of Women-Voters, members of advocacy group will prepare photographs reflecting the traffic jams and dirty areas, collect signatures of the population and send a letter to the local self-government. The local newspaper "Alioni" will also be involved in addressing the problem.

The project is implemented with the support of the organization NED – National Endowment for Democracy, USA.