News
Young Leaders trained for Community Action
23/06/21
From the 12th - 17th of June, eight Young Leaders from Zugdidi and Akhmeta municipalities came together in the seaside town of Batumi for several days of workshops and training under the project “Improving local governance through inclusive development approaches”, implemented by Action Against Hunger and funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) with funds from Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC).
These young leaders, women and men aged between 18 and 29 years, attended Training-of-Trainer (ToT) sessions where they received both theoretical and practical instruction through group work, individual and team presentations, role plays etc. in the following areas: youth inclusion, communication and cross-cultural dialogue, gender, environmental protection, climate action and the basics of project writing skills.
The enthusiasm of attendees to learn new skills, for meeting new challenges and new people was clear throughout the week – “This week gives me the chance to meet people from other places, break stereotypes and work together on problem-solving – our villages are suffering and our young people are leaving – this training gives us the opportunity to spend all day and evenings together with time to talk, get to know each other and understand other perspectives.”, said Manoni Kiwia, 24, a graphic designer from Zugdidi. Bakur Khubulava, 24, also from Zugdidi, joined the trainings with similar expectations and these were met – “we were actively engaged in finding solutions to practical challenges … I also liked the theoretically-loaded trainings, and I will give my own interpretation of these, adapting them when working with different groups.” 
The aim of this training is to prepare them to conduct peer-to-peer training/education so they can share their newly gained knowledge with members of their local peer group. And it was this opportunity to gain experience, learn new skills, refine old ones and as a trainer to share this with her peers that attracted business administration student Mariam Shatirishvili, 19, from Kitsuri village in Akhmeta – “Volunteers like us have a role to play in the lives and development of our youth, the region and the country as a whole. I hope that our cooperation will be productive and that we will continue our work with the same energy!”
