The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence (annually held between the 25th of November - International Day Against Violence Against Women and the 10th of December - International Human Rights Day) is an international campaign originating from the first Women's Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women's Global Leadership in 1991. This campaign is organized in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a violation of human rights.
Youth Association DRONI was taking part in this campaign for the first time this year and contributed to tacking the issue of gender violence. DRONI organized 4 movie screenings in Tbilisi (3 in Café Discovery and 1 in Café Cinema) and 1 movie screening in Gardabani IDP Settlement related to violence against women and women` rights.
Every each movie screening was followed by public discussions. The most important topics about gender issues, women’ rights, domestic violence, human trafficking were discussed. Participants gave suggestions what has to be improved and what has to be changed to improve the situation in Georgia. Almost everybody agreed that educational system should be changed and people (not only women but men as well) should be taught about gender problems and equality. Everybody agreed that this problem exists in Georgia, especially in regions, and that people should be educated and they should know their rights. Moreover, participants were talking about creating a network connecting different organizations in regions and DRONI Youth Association started thinking about establishment of this network. While talking about human trafficking (after watching “Lilya 4 ever” movie), the importance of knowledge about it was discussed. People have to be educated what is it, how to avoid and what to do if someone experiences it. The lack of information is the biggest problem in Georgia, and of course it’s closely connected with education.
DRONI Youth Association organized a photo exhibition related to the topic and collected some pictures made by young Georgians, also created a documentary movie “Voice of women” about women living in the IDP Settlement in Gardabani and this movie was shown during movie screening in Gardabani. We believe that we can show this movie more times around Georgia and maybe even to send to some international documentaries festivals.
Thanks to NGO New Initiatives in Kvemo Kartli, NGO Student club for social wellness, NGO Eyewitness studio, Café Discovery, Bianca Cseke and everybody who helped us to implement our activities!
