Challenges

I am Iruza Kakava. I am an IDP from Abkhazia. My life was, so to speak, very difficult, because at the age of 16 my parents died and I was left with little brothers. I went through a very difficult life. I experienced what it was like to be orphaned, miserable, and hungry. The only thing I thought of was that I had to find a solution, I had to do something and go on with my life to raise my younger brothers and put them on the right path. It was 2010 when I heard that Taso Foundation had come to work in the villages located along the border.

First steps

I was in the Koki community then. I remember, at the first meeting, Ms. Marina Tabukashvili talked to us. To be honest, my level of awareness was not so high that I could fully understand the topics that she was explaining, but at the second meeting I already realized that these were exactly the topics - women's rights, women empowerment, helping victims of violence, and so on, which would strengthen me and that is why I should definitely be involved in a project called "Women for Equality, Peace and Development in Georgia."

I want to tell you, it was a period when a woman would leave the house for such meetings, people would say she wasted time. I have heard such phrases many times, but we still gathered. The first self-help group soon assembled, and we named it Enguri. I was a community worker in this group. I gathered six members of the group, both locals and IDPs. The first thing we did was to go out in the village and identify the existing needs. We did not have an information center in the village at that time. Then for the first time we applied to the City Hall, which allocated us space and our first tangible work was done.

Changes

Soon, with the help of Taso Foundation, we started teaching computer programs and English at this center. I was very diligent and motivated, I put all my energy into this work to make the result visible to everyone. After a while, five more self-help groups appeared in our village. We conducted trainings, educational meetings and activities. Slowly we felt that we were really getting stronger. The men of the village also saw this, they saw the things we did, which benefited the whole village, and they changed their perception of us - now they took our work seriously, valued us much more, and we became more authoritative in their eyes.

Of course, there has always been violence in the village and a few cases are happening now, but I want to emphasize that the cases of domestic violence are very low. Taso Foundation's contribution in this case is also great. When our self-help groups were formed, the villagers knew that women were working against violence and were aware of the laws that protected them. Men also realized that if they committed violence, they would be punished according to the law.

There were also cases when women silently appealed to me for help and I dealt personally with specific cases of domestic violence. Today I can boldly say that thanks to this project, the level of awareness in our village is so high that domestic violence against women is almost eliminated. I would also like to say that when rural support programs were conducted, women were never present at the meetings, all decisions were made by men. Now this too is a thing of the past and today we women are very active.

In 2014, I received an offer to run in the local government elections as a female candidate. The locals and my women stood by me very much. It is true that at first I was a little scared to face such a responsibility, but there was so much support from everyone and especially from my family that I finally accepted this opportunity and today I am a member of the City Council of the third convocation. Ms. Marina Tabukashvili has also contributed a lot to this case, as she often said about me: "This girl has some great power and talent; Here, you will see, she will achieve a lot!" I laughed in my heart thinking if only everything she said was true.  

Maybe, I felt some strength inside, but when such a person says such words about you, it makes you even stronger and you have no right to back down, not do anything about your life or not bring things to an end. Then I felt that I had the power to help not only myself but others as well.

Today I am already involved in various commissions and I am a member of the Gender Equality Council, I try my best to support women. There is no family in my village where I have not entered and learned all their problems. Now I look at the articles written on me, the TV shows and sometimes tears come to my mind, I wonder if it's really me and if I really managed to accomplish so much.

I even decided to study at the age of 30 and became an English language specialist, I was the oldest in the course,  and I had a family. It was as if I had neither the time nor the money to study, but I wanted so much to get an education that I would get up at 6 in the morning, milk the cows, make cheese, go to the market, sell it, and make money to get to the university. If you set a goal, gradually everything will be arranged. Now I am happy to help other women. I believe women can change the world. When there is a strong woman in the family, the family is also strong; When there is a strong family in the village, the village is strong and therefore the municipality is strong. I know too many other women who have been empowered by this project. We still help each other a lot today.

I often remember the time when Taso Foundation came to my village. I lived in an old wooden house then, I did not know what path to take, I had no finances, I saw no way out. The now famous poster, which was printed as part of that project, fully and very accurately reflects my situation of that time. Taso Foundation appeared at a time when I needed to get confident of my strenght in order to survive. It is a real happiness when I can do the same for other women now and I really try hard to do everything in my power.