Georgia | Momavlis Taoba - Civic Education Program | 23 Oct 2015

Success
A small family-type house, located in Batumi, provides residential services for 6 children under state care. The building, of the family-type house, is damaged and requires immediate rehabilitation. The poor condition of the house was also mentioned in the monitoring report of the Public Defender’s office. The report stated that the conditions of the house was not suitable for the institution. If a decision about the closing of the family-type house is made, residents of the house would be separated from each other and sent to different family-type homes.

Overview
Civics club students from the partner schools of the Momavlis Taoba Project, funded by USAID and implemented by PH International, decided to support the residents of the house. In December 2014 civics clubs from Batumi Business School, village Tsinsvla Public School and village Salibauri #1 Public School decided to volunteer to benefit the residents of the house. They helped kids to prepare homework and helped them to get involved in different after school events and sports activities. When interacting with family house personnel, civics club members learned that the conditions of the house were mentioned in the Public Defenders monitoring report. Civics club members decided to run a fundraising campaign to support the rehabilitation work and organized a charity concert. In the organizational stage, students met with representatives of local government, non-governmental organizations and businesses to secure the support of these parties for the concert. One great example of successful cooperation from the business sector is the Radisson Blu Hotel Batumi, the hotel provided a venue for the charity concert free of charge. In order to attract visitors to the charity concert, civics students made a video about the needs of the family house and distributed it through social media. In a video, they have mentioned the monitoring report of the Public Defender describing poor conditions of the above mentioned family house.

On October 23, 2015 the civics clubs and Radisson Blu Hotel in Batumi hosted a charity concert, which featured the sale of children’s paintings, youth folk dancing and singing bands along with other local popular singers and actors. Concert was covered by “Adjara” TV and the Georgian Public Broadcaster in its program “Realuri Sivrce” (Real Space). More than 200 guests, governmental officials, representatives of NGOs, business sector and media, students, teachers and community members attended the concert. Local government representatives promised that they will take steps for the solution of this problem and will pay particular attention to the needs of the family-type house and its beneficiaries. In addition, 1,000 GEL was raised from the public during the concert for rehabilitation works of the house.