Paint the World & the Little Things That Count

Lika Torikashvili, 19, is everything but ordinary. A Harry Potter fan at a younger age, she dreamed of Hogwarts and ended up receiving a scholarship in the UK, but even before that, she founded the “Paint The World ” project assisting children and elderly in need. GEORGIA TODAY first met her in March and since then she has decided to take a year out before university and experience life in Swaziland. Here’s her story:

Tell us about yourself

I’m a normal 19 year old Georgian girl from a very traditional Georgian-Jewish family, with parents, grandparents and a sister. Remembering myself as a kid I can say I was always looking out for something new, I invented new games to play… the problems began when I started school: me and my classmates were very different, I only had a few friends and we’re still very close. I hated school- I was a little like Alice in Wonderland!

My family always supported me in everything, both my mom and dad. My aunt was an inspiration for me. She has a mental disability and I grew up knowing something was wrong- I always wanted to bring her joy, sort of light things up for her, although I had no clue what exactly to do. Initially, my aunt was the inspiration from which the idea of Paint the World project was born.

Tell us about the Paint the World Project

Together with five of my friends we went to the Iashvili Children clinic and brought balloons, and gifts to the children with leukemia, trying to cheer them up a little. After that first visit we decided to go to other hospitals and little by little there were more and more of us involved. The process was mutual. On one hand we were helping those in need, and on the other, seeing those children happy gave us huge motivation to continue. Then we decided to move outside Tbilisi and went to the company Gulf, the first to assist us financially, which gave us a chance to go to Batumi and Kutaisi. Gulf, Wendy’s, Ferrero, and Kia Motors also supported us.

Young as you were, with no experience, how did you decide to start fundraising?

It was something unimaginable, when we, 15-year-old teenagers went to Gulf and told their manager we wanted to help children with disabilities and from deprived families. They believed us and gave balloons with their logos. We then took photos at the events we organized and sent them back to the companies who helped. The project Paint the World became successful and we registered a company in the name of my mother, because at that time I was only 16 years old, and the organization Paint the World was established. Now I’m in Swaziland I want to invest my time to making it more active; I would very much like the project to be a part of the extracurricular activities available in the public schools in Georgia, as a course, and I even wrote a letter to Alexander Jejelava introducing the project. I hope to meet him, as I believe that Georgia needs more children who’ll help to paint the world! Orphans, children with disabilities, or children from vulnerable groups, socially deprived families, the Paint the World project is for all of them; it’s for people, young and elderly, who don’t have and desperately need hope.

How did you end up getting a scholarship and studying in UK?

My mother saw on TV that United World College (UWC) was offering grants to six children in six different countries, for children who were active and had an ambition to change the world. When she mentioned it to me I was quite skeptical: I couldn’t believe that it was possible, although I always thought of myself as of someone who would travel around the world. It was my dreamto get this scholarship and I filled in the application and passed! I wanted to go to the UWC's United World College’s UK affiliate, the scholarships were available in six other countries too, but I wanted to get into the UK and I did! If anyone ever tells you that dreams can’t come true, don’t believe them!

What were your feelings when you got to the college?

The adaptation process was quite hard at first, but I was very motivated, and even though the IB program seemed hard, I found myself devoted. I introduced my Paint the World project to my fellow students, and we initiated the project at college. My new friends got involved and came to Tbilisi, 20 of us, all different nationalities, riding in a bus that the Georgian Ministry of Sports kindly provided; we went to villages, where children had never seen any foreigners at all. That was on my first year of college, and the next year the project expanded as students from Malaysia joined us, and my college director came to Tbilisi on a visit. Why Malaysia? Because, my closest college friend lives there… she’s Muslim and I’m Jewish. We’ve made an affiliate Paint the World project there and it’s quite successfully developing so far. Now, there’s a Paint the World course in the college I studied at and we also received a grant which enabled us to realise the Paint the World project in Belgium, France and the Netherlands in the summer of 2015.

What took you to Swaziland?

I chose to write a diploma thesis on Arts Therapy and my supervisor worked and lived in Swaziland. I think that sometimes every great story starts with failure. In my case, since I put all of my energy to my Paint the World Project, my grades were not very good, and I wasn’t able to get into the universities I wanted. My college provides grants for students to continue their education after they graduate from UWC, and it may sound too ambitious but I sent applications to all the top universities in the US, but unfortunately didn’t get into any. It was my supervisor who suggested I take a gap year and travel to Swaziland. At first it sounded unrealistic… both for me and for my parents, but the college has one of its affiliates in Swaziland, and there’s also a multi-functional Moya Center where local children come after school to eat and get help with their homework and learn English. I work at the Moya Center in the art therapy class- it suited me perfectly and now I’m here until next July.

Were you shocked when you arrived?

Yes! It helped to change my views, to realize what’s important and what’s not… Some of the people here are so poor they don’t have anything at all and still they are happy. I know now that I have to be thankful for so many things in my life… The poverty here is striking, and it’s a life-changing experience. I’m one of the first Georgians to be in Swaziland and I would so much like to meet with their king! I have a lot of plans to realize, I want to change things for the better. I’m discovering myself, too, and also I want everyone to know, especially in Georgia, that we can be happy even with tiny good things happening around us.

Nino Gugunishvili