Seventeen-year-old internally displaced person (IDP) Merab Gurchiani is advocating for better living conditions in Tskhinvali, Georgia. Originally from Liakhvis Kheoba, which is near Tskhinvali, Gurchiani reported the unsatisfactory situation he and other IDPs faced in their temporary housing at a university dormitory in Tbilisi. In January 2009, he emailed his list of concerns to Industry Will Save Georgia (IWSG), a political movement comprised of IATP trainees (mgs.ge.iatp.net/). In response, the political movement sent a representative to investigate the problem and organized a successful charity drive to address the IDPs’ needs. The effort yielded food, bedding, hygienic goods, and school supplies, improving their living conditions.
The drive’s success is attributable to Industry Will Save Georgia’s outreach efforts. To publicize the problem and their response to it, IWSG staff created a website for the organization. In doing so, they used skills acquired though a Web design course at the Tbilisi IATP Center in late 2008. For that course, IATP teamed up with the USAID-funded International Republican Institute (IRI) and gathered 14 representatives from various political groups and parties. By the end of the 2008 training, three organizations developed websites: IWSG, New Rights (ncp.ge.iatp.net/), and Kartuli Dasi (kartulidasi.ge.iatp.net/). These sites are among 654 Georgian websites hosted by IATP since 2008.
Creating these pages has led to an increase in communication between society and political parties. IWSG representative Irina Sukhishvili said, “After considering many methods, simple ICT technology turned out to be the most effective means for communication. After we developed the website, numerous citizens contacted us to deliver or solicit information, among them Merab Gurchiani.” IATP training thus resulted in a tangible, positive impact for one of Georgia’s most vulnerable populations.
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