Open Society Georgia Foundation

The Open Society Georgia Foundation in 2006 worked to improve public participation, transparency, and accountability in the workings of public institutions. The foundation also supported academic research in the fields of culture and civic education. Priority projects included helping establish a free legal-aid system, developing dispute-resolution centers in regions marked by ethnic conflicts, increasing civil society participation in the European Neighborhood Policy Action Plan, and contributing to the development of a national drug policy. The foundation also continued to support local independent media and NGOs addressing unemployment issues.

The following briefs describe some of the foundation’s activities and achievements in 2006.

Former Cop Teaches Beekeeping to Orphans
A former traffic cop received a $7,000 grant from the foundation to create a beekeeping program at an orphanage. The program provides the children with honey, teaches them the beekeeping profession, and cultivates bees and honey for commercial sale and for sharing with other nonprofits. The foundation’s job-retraining project provided grants and business skills training to public servants laid off by structural reform. Of 1,200 applicants, 100 were chosen, many of them from law enforcement.

Online Library Provides Information on Rights

The National Library of Georgia began work on what will be the country’s first comprehensive and publicly available online library of all civil society–related materials produced or translated in the Georgian language in the last 15 years. The online library project, funded by a foundation grant, will feature materials on human rights, particularly women’s and children’s rights, and principles of religious freedom and democratic governance.

Center Works to Bring Sex Traffickers to Justice

Safe House helped an Uzbek sex trafficking survivor collaborate with Georgian police to pursue Georgia’s first sex trafficking case. The center, a foundation grantee, provides safety and rehabilitation for women caught in the web of human trafficking in Georgia, which is a significant sex and labor trafficking transit route. It has advocated for women arrested in transit by Georgian authorities, helped stranded women get documents, and worked for effective implementation of Georgia’s new antitrafficking law.

Media Council Reviews Disputes over TV Coverage

Georgia’s journalism industry, with foundation support, launched the Media Council to regulate itself and improve journalism standards and practices. After establishing its procedures, the council reviewed complaints by an opposition party leader against a private TV broadcaster and a citizen against Georgia Public Broadcasting. The Media Council required both TV stations to publicly acknowledge areas where they had violated Georgia’s media conduct code.

NGOs Take Action on Lack of Drug Policies

Georgian NGOs and experts from the Czech Republic, supported by the foundation, developed a comprehensive drug policy plan that proposes harm reduction measures to address public health risks such as the spread of blood-borne diseases like HIV. Drug users constitute more than 62 percent of all identified HIV-positive cases in Georgia. Members of parliament and health professionals reviewed the plan, which was then submitted to the parliamentary health committee and the Ministry of Labor, Health, and Social Affairs.