Empowering young people, raising their awareness, equipping them with the necessary knowledge and skills, debunking myths rooted in social norms in order to achieve tangible changes, is an important challenge in the regions of Georgia.
This is especially true of the regions inhabited by ethnic minorities, such as Samtskhe-Javakheti, where young people need reliable, evidence-based and timely information about the developments going on around them.
For this purpose, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Georgia Country Office and the NGO Sapari, with the support of the European Union, launched the first Georgian-Armenian online media platform “Gandzi”.
"Gandzi” has managed to engage a lot of young people, both young men and women, from different villages of the region. These young men and women already have common goals,” says 25-year-old Gohar Aghjoyan, 25, from Ninotsminda.
Gohar is one of those young people who prepare materials for the platform "Gandzi" on topics that are urgent and arouse interest in young people living in the region.
I have met many young men as well writing about women's rights and the harmful practice of early marriage...we are all guided by the desire to do good and to contribute to the well-being of our community,” she says.
As part of their long-term partnership, UNFPA and Sapari promote the prevention of harmful practices against women and girls and work on raising awareness of reproductive rights and health among ethnic minorities. "Gandzi" was established to serve this very purpose.
What is “Gandzi”?
"Gandzi" is a bilingual platform that brings together young people of different professions and ages who take on the role of storytellers and share their stories, opinions and views on equality, support and justice with their peers, using different innovative ways such as audio-video material, blog posts, visual material or podcasts. They are guided by the desire to “do good” and “contribute” to the well-being of their community. The platform is open to all young people who share its values and who find storytelling an exciting means to empower girls and protect human rights.
At UNFPA we strongly believe that a platform like "Gandzi" ensures equal access to reliable, evidence-based information, especially on issues such as ending harmful practices, empowering women and girls, the importance of realizing their potential, while allowing ethnic Georgian and Armenian youth to have their voices heard and to let more people learn about their needs, interests and aspirations. "Gandzi" has proved to be crucial not only for the development and well-being of young people but also for providing support to them,” says Marika Kurdadze, Program Officer at the UNFPA Georgia Country Office.
One of the main goals of the platform "Gandzi" is to inform, motivate and empower young people. "Gandzi" bloggers often write about topics such as: gender equality, human rights, specifically about the rights of women, ethnic minorities and children, early marriage, existing stereotypes and ways of fighting them, prevention of harmful practices, encouraging tolerance, etc.
I'm trying to contribute to [empowerment of young people] through this platform. The topics of my articles cover not only problems faced by ethnic minorities, but also women's rights, vaccination during the Covid-19 pandemic, and other urgent and important topics,” says Jivan Mkrtchyan, 23, from Ninotsminda.
“You should always do what you love doing”
"Gandzi" bloggers are sure that education and career are two key components of an individual’s life, and their future goals go beyond the borders of Georgia.
Jivan is a student of the Faculty of Law at Tbilisi State University. He had been engaged in civil activism even before becoming a member of the team of "Gandzi".
You should always do what you love doing. Professions still split along gender lines annoy me a lot,” he says.
In his opinion, “the biggest challenge for ethnic minorities nowadays is to integrate into the Georgian society, to overcome the language barrier and establish communication with them”. Therefore, he believes that the key to solving this problem is for young people living in Samtskhe-Javakheti to travel both within and beyond the borders of the country and to communicate with people outside their community.
Other bloggers working for "Gandzi" also talk about the importance of integration. According to Gohar, “We don't know much about each other's culture and problems, that is where the stereotypes we have about each other stem from. After getting to know each-other’s problems and cultures, we discover that we have a lot in common and manage to build better and friendlier relationships.”
In her opinion, the platform helps to cope with this problem as well.
How does "Gandzi" break stereotypes?
Gohar has been a member of the “Gandzi” platform since its establishment. She has been working for the protection of women's rights for 6 years and believes that “Gandzi” is the platform "guided by this topic, trying to motivate young people.” Being a psychologist, she likes to work on issues related to raising human motivation.
As a child, she never thought she would ever be able to pursue her desired career:
If you were a girl, you were expected to become a teacher. I thought it was the right thing. My father used to tell me the same thing, and so did some of my teachers. I had no other option; I had never imagined that one day I would come to the city and find the courage to pursue the profession that I desired. I did not use to believe that I had the right, strength and opportunity to do so.”
Gohar was able to overcome stereotypes and made her own choice, and now she wants to help others: “No matter what difficulties we may face, we have to be strong enough to prove to society that getting married is not the only option and the only duty girls have, just like physical work is not the only option boys have.”
Zhanna Chogandaryan, 20, “Gandzi” blogger from Akhalkalaki, joined the platform team following her friend’s advice.
According to Zhanna, the biggest problem in her village is violation of women's rights, more specifically, bride kidnapping. She has personally experienced the severity of this problem. Zhanna's sister wanted to become a pharmacist, but after she was kidnaped, she had to give up on her dreams.
It was after this fact that Zhanna started thinking about women's rights: she made a film about her sister's classmate, who was also kidnapped. “Voice of America” purchased her film. After graduating from university in Georgia, she wants to continue her studies in Europe.
Her parents are very proud of her and tell her, “As you're attending two universities simultaneously, you're studying at one of them instead of your sister.”
She believes that the involvement of students in “Gandzi” is crucial, because that is what motivates young people living in the region:
This is one of the platforms that people in the region enjoy visiting, because the students who are thought to be role models are engaged in the platform "Gandzi". I think it will work, i.e., when they see that other people can do it, they will think that they can do it as well.”
