Women's Fund in Georgia

Women's Fund in Georgia is a local grant-making organization which supports women's groups, activities and initiatives for social change in Georgia.

Mission and vision

We want women, girls and transgender people to live in a safe, equal and free environment.

In order to realize this vision, the mission of the Women’s Fund in Georgia is to make girls and women more active and strengthen women’s movement. For this, we are supporting the spread of feminist ideas, the creation of spaces which are free and based on solidarity, we award grants and build the capacity of the parties involved in the process.

History

Women's Fund in Georgia was set up by the Educational Cooperation and Development Center, which works on local philanthropy development, specifically focusing on women's issues. The fund was registered at the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Georgia on May 24, 2005.

Activities

Activities of the fund include both cooperating with individuals and groups on a micro level as well as initiating changes and creating influence on the institutional, societal and political levels for systematic changes.

Accordingly, the fund:

Supports the women human rights defenders and women initiative groups with financial and material resources, mentorship, encouraging networking work;
Strengthens women’s organizations and movement by awarding grants, training and producing new knowledge;
Organizes public campaigns focused on raising awareness and environmental changes;
Gets involved in the political advocacy by supporting the activities of grant partners;
Cooperates with international agencies, organizations and funds in order to advocate relevant priorities and politics.

Priorities of the Women's Fund in Georgia are protecting women's rights, improving women's economic opportunities, assisting women living in conflict zones, promoting legislative initiatives, raising awareness of gender issues, increasing sensitivity of the community towards women's issues, and supporting women's movement building.

The Fund's activities specifically address the varying, difficult problems that Georgian women face. The locally established Fund is knowledgeable about the needs of the women who live in Georgia and for this reason it will be able to help women's organisations and groups to realise their goals, and to create new organizations and innovations. The Fund raises money specifically for the activities of women's organisations and groups.

The Fund is particularly active in supporting women’s NGOs and initiative groups that work with displaced persons from Abkhazia and South Ossetia and those living close to the conflict zones.

Over the course of last decade, the Fund has supported numerous projects that aimed at professional training, psychological rehabilitation, infrastructural improvement and economic empowerment of conflict-affected communities.