Location: entire Georgia,

Project value: 78 309 PLN

Donor:Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland

Local partner: Global Initiative on Psychiatry Tbilisi

Context

The project, supported by Solidarity Fund PL, was a part of the three-year “MH2R: promoting rights of people with mental disorders and psychosocial disabilities (PwMD) in Georgia” European project carried out by the Global Initiative on Psychiatry – Tbilisi (project leader) in collaboration with two Georgian organisations: The Alliance for Better Mental Health (Tbilisi) and The Institute of Democracy (Batumi), as well as a Polish partner: Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.

The objective of the 2018-2020 European project is to create a strong civic movement acting on behalf of persons with mental disorders and psychosocial disabilities in Georgia.

Project

The project, implemented in collaboration with the Foundation covered two key processes:
creation of a MH2R platform;
collaboration with journalists who were aware of the issues faced by persons with intellectual disabilities or with media that were aware of the issues faced by persons with intellectual disabilities.
The first involved organising an Autumn School for the representatives of social organisations that work with persons with intellectual disabilities. The School constituted the second step in the process of creation of a nationwide platform of bodies working with persons with intellectual disabilities, i.e. the MH2R platform (the first step was the Spring School for the same organisations). Thanks to the efforts of the representative of the Solidarity Fund PL in Georgia, the School gathered representatives of five new organisations (which earlier did not participate in the platform). These organisations were the Georgian partners of projects realised within the framework of Polish Aid, i.e. Mercuri (Zugdidi), Sukhumi Fund (Kutaisi), Nergebi (Zugdidi), Together for Real changes (Borjomi), and “Camilians” Medical Center (Tbilisi). In the future, the participants of the Autumn School will be able to take part in actions carried out as a part of the European project aimed at activating the both the environment and the ombudsman institutions.
The second cycle of training sessions, the Media School, was dedicated to the representatives of the national and regional media outlets (press, TV, social media, and digital media). The objective was to raise awareness of the journalists in regards to the matters of persons with intellectual disabilities. The participants could learn how to address these topics in media coverage.

 

The Project was co-financed by the Polish development cooperation programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.