“Free Citizen” Civic Initiatives Support Center and Public Movement Multinational Georgia in partnership with People in Need (Czech Republic) and SALTO Youth Eastern Europe and Caucasus Resource (Poland) are continuing the implementation of the project “Young Activist” Young Civic Activists Capacity Building in Social Campaigning. The project is financed by the International Visegrad Fund (IVF, Bratislava, Slovakia) and Netherlands Government.
On 30 May 2017 Public Movement Multinational Georgia organised the workshop for the local youth in the framework of the Project in the city of Marneuli, Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia, with wide spread Azerbaijani ethnic minority. This is the first of the 5 workshops, which were planned to organize in Georgia in the framework of the Project “Young Activist”. The workshops are dedicated to raising awareness among participants on the European Union, Council of Europe, Eastern Partnership, and Visegrad 4 format, as well as providing general information about campaigning, including social media, public speaking and debating, and other relevant topics.
18 young civic activists from all over Kvemo Kartli region participated in the workshop. Also, the representative from the partner organization People in Need (Czech Republic) Adrian Sergio C Beaduin took part in the Workshop as an invited observer.
During the workshop it was also discussed the following issues, which have been identified by the participants as more relevant for the Youth of their region:
- Early marriage;
- Low level of civic engagement of youth, especially those living in the villages;
- Low level of general education, especially teaching of the Georgian language;
- Limited leisure opportunities for young people;
- Stereotypes and prejudices in various fields, including European integration perspective, etc. ;
- Limited access to information;
- Language barrier (poor knowledge of the Georgian language by ethnic minority youth);
- Low level of civic consciousness;
- Limited opportunities for self-realization;
- Absence of youth centers in the villages;
- Vulnerability of the local population to fake news, including those in regard to European integration, Russian propaganda, etc.
