The “Eco Centre” organized a three-day training on advocacy and civic activism at the “Villa Mosavali” hotel from September 6 to 8.
The training participants were citizens interested in environmental issues from Rustavi, Gardabani, Marneuli, Bolnisi, Kaspi, Ninotsminda, and Tbilisi.
Our gathering began with an industrial tour in Rustavi. Most participants previously had no information about the scale and condition of Rustavi’s industrial zone, and we’re glad that this tour was a significant source of information for participants, allowing them to get acquainted with this side of Rustavi.
We continued the theoretical part at “Villa Mosavali” by introducing the activities of “Gavigudet” and “Eco Centre.”
We discussed the causes of air pollution, the challenges, and the progress we’ve made over the years in this direction. We also discussed how air pollution affects human health, and the list is quite extensive, including cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, nervous system problems, and risks of mental health deterioration.
We introduced participants to the essence of advocacy and the importance of civic engagement. We discussed the risks of activism and techniques for managing these risks. To better understand the issue, we also did a practical exercise on analyzing stakeholders and their activities related to the problem.
We talked about media advocacy as an important way to keep various issues on the agenda and in the public eye.
We also did a practical exercise on planning an advocacy campaign. Young people offered interesting ideas for advocacy campaigns on various topics.
During the training, we discussed opportunities for citizen involvement at the local level; we reviewed the legal forms of citizen participation, the procedure and deadlines for requesting public information, and citizen engagement practices offered by local authorities. We also familiarized ourselves with existing databases for researching environmental issues.
At the end of the training, participants were awarded certificates.
We are glad that our network of environmentalists has expanded with very active people, and we thank each of them for their involvement.
The training was conducted under the Building Resilience in the Eastern Neighbourhood (BREN) project supported by the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). The opinions, findings, and conclusions stated herein are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect those of the BREN project or IWPR.