Georgia | Applied Civic Education and Teacher Training (ACETT) program for Georgia | 5 Apr 2011

PH International, in the framework of the USAID-funded Applied Civic Education and Teacher Training Program, completed social media trainings for students of school civics clubs. The two-day trainings inspired 131 young leaders from nine regions on using social media for civic initiatives and finding solutions together for issues that youth face on a daily basis. Some of the young social media practitioners started already using blogs to connect with like-minded peers and adults from across Georgia to create larger, more diverse and more impactful campaigns. Ten days following the training, Bacho Borashvili from Kakheti region has initiated to address the water supply issue in Manavi village and provide updates of all activities on his blog at http://makeupregion.wordpress.com. Sopo Kurtanidze and Salome Tsulukidze from Rustavi describe problems which occur in public transport and violation of citizen’s rights on http://transporti.wordpress.com and encourage others also to organize various activities against these issues. Zaal Kapianidze from Akhaltsikhe public school aims at focusing on the gene modified foods and created a blog with address: http://gemrielisaprtxe.wordpress.com. Tazo Chkhaidze desires to promote using bicycles in his school and thus intends to use ACETT small grants program to build the special parking place at school and advocate for creating a separate line for bicycles in Rustavi. Yet he addresses the ecological issues that can be browsed at http://yourlocation.wordpress.com. As a follow-up of their participation in social media trainings, Tamar Gikoshvili (student of Ude Public school #2) and Mari Chitashvili (student of Vale public school # 1), both from Akhaltsikhe, have trained their peers in the use of social media.