On January 4-5, “Eco Centre” organized a two-day training on the topic of green advocacy.
The training was held with the support of the “Open Society Georgia Foundation”, within the framework of the project “Advocating for Clean Air in Rustavi”, in cooperation with the initiative group called “Green Thinking” in Marneuli. Because of that, our main target audience was the youth of Marneuli interested in social activism, advocacy practice and environmental issues.
The training lasted 2 days and it involved both theoretical and practical parts.
Within the training, we shared the experience of environmental advocacy with the youth on the example of the civil movement “Gavugudet”. We explained what green advocacy means, discussed the stages and tools of advocacy implementation, and discussed the importance of this process in solving the problems faced by our society. We also discussed in detail the importance of civil activism, the challenges our movement has faced since its inception and the achievements through our activism and advocacy campaigns.
In addition, we introduced the air pollution problems of Rustavi to the participants on a fundamental level. We explained to the young people why the air is polluted and which pollutants are responsible for the bad air quality in Rustavi on 71% of the days in 2022. We also discussed the impact that polluted air can have on the environment and human health, we got acquainted with the statistics of diseases caused by air pollution and the economic cost of air pollution.
Additionally, discussion on topics such as indoor air pollution and air pollution in relation to the UN Sustainable Development Goals was an important part of the training.
The training was conducted in an interactive mode, young participants discussed and suggested their views, on how people can contribute to reducing air pollution.
In the practical part of the training we had an informational tour in the industrial zone of Rustavi; and the participants had a chance to see the reality, existing in the industrial area. They also saw the improvement on the example of some enterprises, in which the civil movement “Gavigudet” has made a significant contribution.
Also, in order to better understand the information received during the two days of training, participants were engaged in practical work that included defining advocacy campaign goals around specific issues.
Young people worked on the problems, existing throughout Georgia, as well as on issues in their communities, such as poaching, public transportation problems, waste management and environmental pollution, and developed interesting strategies to solve these problems.
We offered the practical exercise of “Power Analysis”, which was another tool to help young people run a successful advocacy campaign.
Our team is glad to gather fellow eco-fighters outside our city and contribute to the “Green Thinking” strengthening process.