Anna Datiashvili, 23, lives in the village of Dilikauri in Zestafoni Municipality, Imereti, together with her husband. Both of them are employed, have almost the same amount of free time, and try to share responsibilities equally in the family.
We don’t really distinguish between “woman’s“ and “man’s“ tasks. The one who has some free time does household chores, especially because I study and therefore need a lot of support,” says Anna.
Being an active volunteer since her childhood and often trying herself in different fields, Anna used to attend various courses, she was once a basketball player and at the age of 14 she even joined the Georgian national team, but, in the end, she chose to dedicate her time to education and civic activism.
“Youth for Zestafoni” initiative
Today Anna is a co-founder of the "Youth for Zestafoni" initiative. She and her friends came up with the idea for setting up an initiative group after participating in the initiative “Youth for Social Change” organized by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Georgia Country Office.
According to Anna, this initiative “laid foundation for many positive changes” both for her personally and for Zestafoni municipality in general. Now, in addition to working and studying, as the leader of the initiative group “Youth for Zestafoni”, she plans to “carry out a lot of useful activities”.
In November, her initiative group won the competition of ideas jointly organized by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and The Body Shop. As a result, the “Equality Sunday School” training sessions for teachers, students and their parents have been launched in Zestafoni, which aim to raise awareness of equality and various social challenges among young people, including of gender stereotypes and norms at the local level, fostering their elimination and girls' empowerment.
“Youth for Social Change” is an initiative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Georgia Country Office which aims to promote gender equality, eliminate gender stereotypes and harmful social norms. The initiative is being implemented in the regions of Imereti, Guria, Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti, with the support of the European Union. The Imereti Development Center is the supporter of the initiative in the Imereti region.
“Young people are the driving forces of change; therefore, it is important to increase their involvement in the processes that determine the future of our society. This project gives young people the incentive they need to implement much more far-reaching and long-term initiatives for the well-being of themselves and those around them. We believe that young people will be able to break the chain of inequality existing in society today and create a new future based on the values of equality.” - says Eter Noghaideli, UNFPA Georgia CO officer of the programme "EU 4 Gender Equality: Together against gender stereotypes and gender-based violence".
We have just started working, but we have already done a lot of things. Through advocacy, and with the support of the City Hall of Zestafoni Municipality we found a space where we will be able to work in the future.” says Anna, adding that the initiative group “was a timely endeavour Zestafoni needed so badly.”
What worries Anna is the outmigration in the region. She herself is not going to leave the region, on the contrary, she believes that the activity and the projects implemented by the initiative group will help the region to attract people and prevent the outflow of young people.
There was great interest in our initiative group on the part of both the population of Zestafoni and civil society organizations. There have been some people willing to join our group, but we have decided to postpone our membership expansion until we get stronger, and then I am sure many more will be motivated and many people will be engaged in our work," says Anna.
“Everything starts with education”
The “Youth for Social Change” initiative had a significant impact on her decision to choose the field for her Master’s degree.
Actually, everything starts with education. Any social, economic, cultural or political problem or well-being starts with education. If a nation is educated, its well-being is guaranteed in every way."
That's why I decided to equip myself with the knowledge required to make changes in the system of education, and I enrolled in the English-language programme “Higher Education Leadership and Management” offered by Akaki Tsereteli State University. I think I will be able to make a lot of positive changes after completing this programme,” says Anna, the only graduate student of this English-language programme.
After joining the „Youth for Social Change” initiative, she started working as a resource officer at the school in her village, i.e. in the field where she intends to make great changes in the future:
Taking care of young people and children is the number one thing for me because they are the ones our country’s future depends on. Therefore, we should direct all our resources to them.”
“My profession is my choice”
Because stereotypical attitudes towards professions still prevail in Zestafoni, the project “My profession is my choice” is the one Anna is really proud of; in the process of working on the project, Anna became aware that “any challenge that humanity faces is related to education or intelligence, because if a nation is educated, there are much less social, economic, cultural or other problems,” says Anna, adding that “we should start working on the roots of any challenge, that is, education, because social problems are mainly the result of lack of education.”
Her painting on the wall of one of Zestafoni nursery schools aims to break existing gender stereotypes about professions and encourage girls and boys to pursue a profession of their choice.
According to her, “we should start addressing the roots of the challenge, that is, education, because social problems are mainly the result of lack of education.”
In the Imereti region, the initiative “Youth for Social Change" is being implemented in the framework of the “EU 4 Gender Equality: Together against gender stereotypes and gender-based violence" programme, funded by the European Union, implemented jointly by UN Women and UNFPA.
