Like other Republics of the Soviet Union, our country, Georgia, has lived for over seventy years within the borders of the Soviet Union. Different periods of those years were characterized by repression and atrocity as the Soviet regime made its presence strongly felt. Under the terms of Stalin's Constitution, the Republics were free to leave the Soviet family and become independent states at any time. However, we in Georgia knew that this would be very difficult and, if the Soviet Union collapsed, our country would also end up ruined. Many states struggled to make the progression to become free, democratic states.

Clearly, the populations of the majority of the newly established independent states were not prepared for independence or for the challenges of progressive democratic development. The Soviet military units stationed in the so-called post-Soviet space took advantage of this and distributed weaponry widely in order to have people, who were united in accordance with their political interests, religious or ethnic belonging, slaughter each other within the newly established states as they grappled with path of democratic development.

Despite generous aid from the West to help build democracy and political independence, the impact of global political processes contributed to the poverty of the majority of the populations. Bloody conflicts and a range of related problems regularly threatened stability. When the bloody conflicts were halted, the West entrusted the mission of peacemaking to Russia's military. Like the many prudent and honest individuals working to support those impoverished by war in the 90's, civil society organizations at the beginning of the 21st century wound up sharing the role of executors of emergency aid and rehabilitation works for the victims of the many conflicts. And so it was with the work of the Taso Foundation at that point.

On the night of August 8, the increasing exchange of fire as part of the conflict in the Tskhinvali Region, Kartli, paved the way for a bloody war. The war spread and in a just few hours, the Russian army had entered East and West Georgia by way of crossing the administrative borders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, bringing with it the punitive forces of Ossetian and Chechen militants, to set up and fortify a military camp.

Needless to say, it was mainly civilians that were killed and wounded and had their houses burned down. Georgia lost 122 villages, including those near Abkhazia, in the Kodori Valley. During the first day of the five-day war, more than 100,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) flocked to Tbilisi, the capital. In the course of the following months, the majority returned to the villages of the Shida Kartli Region that were “ceded” by Russia; but 35,000 joined the number of the IDPs displaced previously as a result of the conflicts in the 90s.

Starting August 11, Taso began to work with Georgian citizens and other NGOs to provide food for IDPs and supply children and women with primary necessities. By September, we reassessed the situation and began to develop projects in order to solicit funds for victims of the conflict by developing activities in two core directions:

• economic empowerment of the population to start income generating endeavors/small businesses by means of grants and
• stimulation of the population's social activity.

The first was the project for economic empowerment of women in eight villages of the Shida Kartli Region and a camp for IDPs (Donor: Bank of Georgia Aid Fund for the Victims of the Conflict in Georgia). The second project followed in a few months: Karaleti Women's Center for Combating Violence and Community Development (Donors: Norwegian Refugee Council and Eurasia Partnership Foundation).



We started to work in the conflict zone on March 12, 2009 and by the end of 2009, had conducted the monitoring of the 53 grants that were issued. It is always vivifying to work directly with rural women and one can imagine how emotive was our interaction in villages where people had just recently experienced the death of a family member, torture and loss of home and livestock. The women were able to point at the surrounding hills from where guns were aiming at them and explain to us that while their homes are on this side of the hills, their orchards and livelihoods are “on the other side”. Some village even had their cemeteries end up “on the other side”. Everyone is a victim here; and as victims, they are all passive members on the humanitarian aid distribution list.

We worked with the women to explain that our project was not about 'aid' but rather about empowering them to build projects that would help them in the longer term to survive and develop. Through empathetic listening, we gained their trust and supported them to write their own proposals resulting in us being able to finance 53 projects.

A further significant development was that UNIFEM, with support from the Association of Young Economists of Georgia, involved all applicants in a one-year educational program in small business development, adding further to the empowerment of the village women. Recent monitoring showed that endeavors supported by us (ranches, pig-breeding, rabbit-breeding, poultry farms, etc) are vital for the families of the grantees and so the farm diversification programme enabled by our support was very important. This, therefore, is a story about education to improve the country's agricultural policy; a story to empower women to change things for themselves.

Our second project involved an office facility being built to create space to provide services for individuals and the mobilization of the community; developed an educational program in HRs/women's rights and connected communities with organizations/agencies that provide relevant support while providing facilities for Civil Society organizations & Government officials. Most importantly, it formed groups of socially active women and we are thankful to the Open Society Institute for enabling us to develop and intensify this project.

The project completed in May 2010 and its outcomes are already very evident. The most important among them is the establishment of a group of motivated women representatives from several villages who implement humanitarian activities for internally displaced persons and socially vulnerable members of the population. Our grant programmes, therefore, went far beyond the delivery of humanitarian aid. Their legacy is the empowerment of women to help themselves and their communities; the enabling of women to develop livelihoods and community services to sustain them in the longer- term - the development of skills for life.