On January 11 the project Step Forward – Academy of Success had its opening ceremony at the office of Non-formal Education Center Sunny House.
The project is implemented in the framework of GE CALLS Community Initiatives Grants Program, funded by US Department of State’s International Agency of Narcotics and Law Enforcement.
The project is based on Harry Potter theme: The Academy of Success is a representation of Hogwarts in Georgia, founded by the order of its headmaster, Albus Dumbledore.

Over 63,000 Lari had been transferred to the school’s account for the construction of the sport- space

Students from the newly-established civics club of Kutaisi public school #14 organized cleaning action to clean the school yard and surroundings

On December 23, 2014, Berdia Natsvlishvili, PH International‘s Georgia Country Director and Nana Ioseliani-Meissner, PH’s English Language Programs Manager, were invited to the Georgian Ministry of Education and Science to share information and expertise concerning the classroom observation component of the ELCE program. Among the participants attending the meeting were: Tamar Sanikidze, Minister of Education and Science; Lia Gigiauri, Deputy Minister of Education and Science on General Education; Giorgi Sharvashidze, Deputy Minister of Education and Science on High Education; Natia Jokhadze, Head of National Curriculum Department; Giorgi Machabeli, Director of Teachers’ Professional Development Center; Natia Abuladze, Deputy Director of Teachers’ Professional Development Center; Nino Udzialauri, General Education project representative from Millennium Challenge Account – Georgia; Nino Kutateladze, General Education specialist from World Bank; Medea Kakachia, Education Specialist, Office of Health and Education, USAID; Nancy Parks, Chief of Party, Georgia Primary Education Project (G-PriEd) funded by USAID and implemented by Chemonics, and Ketevan Chachkhiani, Deputy Chief of Party, G-PriEd.

To mark December 10 - Human Rights Day, students from school-based civics clubs in Batumi organized flash mob show on Era Square in Batumi.

Students of Momavlis Taoba program in Gori marked World AIDS Day on December 1

Students from partner schools of the “Momavlis Taoba” program, psychologists, lawyers, social workers and representatives of the non-governmental organizations gathered in Gori to find answers to the questions - What causes violence against women? How does the law protect women? What is the statistics? And, How can we solve the problem? 

Throughout December 3-6, 2014, a group of 10 Armenian police officers working with juveniles, accompanied by two PH staff, traveled to Tbilisi, Georgia, to participate in a Georgia based exchange for School Resource officers (SROs) organized by PH International within the INL-funded "Armenia Community Actions and Linkages for Legal Socialization" (AM CALLS) program. The Armenian group spent two productive days in Tbilisi, visiting different crime prevention institutions and observing legal socialization lessons, developed and conducted at schools by the Georgian police officers and teachers, within the Georgian CALLS program.

Salome Abramishvili, 15, joined the English Access Mictroscholarship (Access) Program in Telavi, Kakheti region in September 2012 and has been one of the most hardworking and motivated students ever since.

Funded by the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi and implemented by PH International, Access Program aims to make the study of English accessible to adolescent from an economically disadvantaged background. In addition to working on their language skills, the participants of the program become familiar with various aspects of U.S. and western democratic values and culture, develop leadership qualities and interpersonal skills.

As a part of the Hour of Code initiative, on December 11, the project partner NGO 'Zakhyst' (Protection) organized a training for youth in Vinnytsya's Physics and Mathematics Gimnasium # 17 (in the photo). This and several other trainings held on December 8 - 12, 2014 by NGOs, members of the IDEA network in Vinnytsya, Lutsk and Kharkiv were conducted by Microsoft's student partners. It gave IDEA trainers and coordinators a great opportunity to learn themselves how to conduct computer sciences (CS) courses in the future on their own.