Georgia to Host U20 World Rugby Championship
U20 World Rugby Championships are set to start May 31 and continue through June 18, with a massive schedule of social and educational activities planned as announced at the press conference at the TBC gallery yesterday in Tbilisi.
The Georgian Rugby Union has been actively involved in various CSR projects. The rugby world has been an integral part of world championships, enabling rugby players and team management to become engaged in numerous social and educational actions. The U20 Legacy program, presented at the press conference by Nodar Andguladze, the SCR projects manager of The Georgian Rugby Union, consists of several components with educational and social activities incorporated. As Andguladze noted, there will be five seminars organized overall, covering topics from nutrition in sports to medicine, training in coaching and new technologies.
Apart from the seminars and media tournaments planned, each of the teams participating in U20 World Rugby Championship, including teams from countries like England, Ireland, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and Wales, Scotland, Italy, France and Samoa are planning different social activities. One such activity will be the Get into Rugby festival held in Martkopi on June 1. As part of the celebration of World Children Day, there will be a meeting with child refugees from Abkhazia, Samachablo, Ukraine and Syria, organized in partnership with UNHCR and Georgian Rugby Union as well as a visit to the first childrens hospice “Fireflies World”. There will aslo be joint events planned together with Georgian center for Para-Olympic Development and Para-Olympic committee on June 14, dedicated to the International Day of Rights for Persons with Disabilities.
Elene Aladashvili, Communications and Development Director at San Diego State University in Georgia, introduced the Hackathon Rugby event, planned within the U20 Legacy program, which is organized in partnership with Georgian Rugby Union, San Diego State University and with financial support from Beeline, set to be held on June 9. Within 48 hours almost 100 students from different universities throughout Georgia will have to come up with innovative ideas and create a program to be potentially used in contemporary rugby and sports at large. As Elene Aladashvili noted, a financial prize will be awarded to the winner of the Hackathon to further develop the innovative project and ensure that it continues. The Hackathon is set to run until June 11, and according to Elene Aladashvili and Nodar Andguladze, promises to be one of the most integral events of the U20 legacy program.
A ‘safe road’ campaign will also be a part of the U20 legacy project.The event will take place on the stadium territory during match days, while the championship teams will also be participating in the actions planned for the Environment Safety Day, as well as a culinary show to highlight gender issues as part of the UN Women He For She project.
TBC Bank, Beeline, UN Women, San Diego State University, UNICEF, Para - Olympic Training Center, The Childrens Hospice, Impact Hub, State and Private Organizations are all involved in the social events organized during the U20 World Rugby Championship in Georgia. “For us, supporting Rugby is not a sponsorship project, we will always do our best to assist the Georgian Rugby Union in promoting rugby in our country; as for TBC, it is a part of its CSR activity. It is not a marketing project. Rugby is one of the strongest examples of the country’s success for the last 20 years if not more, and it’s crucial to stimulate the country to ensure even greater sporting success in the future. Having a U20 World Rugby Championship in Georgia is extremely important, especially when all the teams participating will be engaged in numerous CSR projects throughout the tournament. The legacy project presented today clearly highlights that CSR direction is becoming intensively involved in the public and private sectors and in the field of sports today” - Nika Kurdiani, Deputy CEO TBC Bank said, in his speech at the end of the press conference.
Nino Gugunishvili