The Gender Starts with Me Festival
The Georgian Adult Education Network (GAEN) kicked off the 2016 Gender Starts with Me festival on September 25. Organized with the financial support of the German Ministry of foreign affairs, it is held in partnership with the German Embassy in Georgia.
Already in its second year, the festival brings Georgian regions into focus, aiming to raise awareness on gender equality, domestic abuse prevention and defense of its victims, covering Samegrelo, Upper Svaneti, Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti.
Gender Starts with Me also concentrates on women's rights and social activity issues and has organized round-table and public discussions in Tetritskaro, Leliani village, Chokhatauri and Javari.
Choosing a lecture format for the topics of human rights and education for prevention, the festival seeks active involvement and participation from the Ombudsmen Office of Georgia, local municipalities, Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia and local and international NGOs.
Meetings with human rights defenders and successful women are also being held during the festival, alongside various cultural events: folk concerts, an exhibition of crafts made by social enterprise program beneficiaries, a film screening, and various activities for children.
Gender Starts with Me was a huge success last year with more than 1500 beneficiaries participating, 40 percent of whom were IDPs and local minority group representatives who learned about women's rights and received recommendations on how to react to either being a victim of, or witnessing, domestic abuse.
Founded in 2014, GAEN has a mission to promote the principles of adult education in Georgia by answering the emerging challenges of the country’s education policy on the road to Georgia’s integration into the European educational system.
GAEN finds the concept of lifelong learning to be an effective tool for eliminating high levels of unemployment and low public awareness of vital social issues.
The Gender Starts with Me festival closes on September 30.
Nino Gugunishvili