Challenges

I am Maia Pipia, I have been living in Anaklia since 1988. I have two kids. I am the founder of the community fund Nefa. I also have my own small business and I am an entrepreneur.

Until 1991, before the war, I worked as a biology teacher at Zugdidi 6th High School, but since then I have not worked in the profession. As the rural population living along the so called borderline, we have experienced all the hardships and severities of war.  

In 2005, my husband suddenly passed away. I went through a very difficult period - in 25 days I lost two precious people - my mother and my husband. I stayed alone with my children. The older girl, Eka, was in ninth grade, and Maka was in sixth grade.

As long as my husband was alive, I never had to worry about the daily problems. We had a big farm and even though I grew up in the city, I did everything with great joy. We had a big, hospitable family.

All of a sudden, it happened that I was left alone with my children. Relatives would come and give me advice, telling me that I could not make it here because I could not afford such a large farm alone and had to choose one of two ways - I had to leave it all and go to the city, or take on this huge burden. I chose the harder way.

I did my best to help my children cope with the sudden onset of pain. Maka used to ask me, mother, why do you go around at night, why do not you sleep? What makes you sleep when you have so many worries and thoughts about children, family, responsibilities?! So I went trhough this way.

However, I always had the skills of going through hardships helping others. Despite the difficulties, I supported other people, I sent agricultural products from here to my relatives in Tbilisi to sell, I hired neighbors - some of whom ground flour or cleaned chicken. At the same time, I was receiving vacationers, but the money I received from a few visits during the summer season didn’t mean much at the time.

First Steps

It was 2010 when our village governor called me and told me that a non-governmental organization was going to come to work in the village. He asked me to receive them in my house and host them. It was Taso Foundation.

"Marina the Foreigner" is still written on my contact list in the phone - a woman of such a wonderful appearance entered my yard, it was Marina Tabukashvili. Thus began my relationship with Taso Foundation, which changed my life radically. In the early days, they came to short-term visits, they came and then left. Once, in the winter, we were talking at a cup of tea by the wood stove, and I asked what they did when they came to our region. Ms. Marina told me: “if you have time and are interested, come with us and you’ll see what we do”.

I went, I saw. Women worked. Lively work was going on. We spent the whole three hours there. I got very interested in getting involved in a similar project. Ms. Marina noticed this and left me a charter when she left, telling me that I could learn more about their activities.

At that time I often went to church, where I met one of the acquaintances, Nino Korshia, who had also been widowed and left alone with small children. She also went through a very difficult path. We became friends and I offered to read the document left to me together.

Nino agreed and we went through all the points in detail together. We decided to get involved in the project and spread the word in the community. The women of the village also followed us. At first we gathered 7-8 women. Soon four self-help groups were set up in Anaklia.

The space that is now our office was a small room where a fig tree was growing on the second floor, everything was ruined and damaged. We made the walls with our own hands. We adjusted and set the working angle as much as possible.

Changes

Back then most of the women in the group did not know how to work with a computer. Nino taught these programs at school and helped us a lot. We also wrote the first project on teaching computer programs. As a result of the course, too many women who left us were employed. After that we made an outpatient clinic, made a yard and a bathroom for the kindergarten, established a library in the village, and launched many other initiatives.

We registered in 2013 as Anaklia-Kakhati Community Fund. We started collaborating with other organizations. We carried out small projects, albeit with great responsibility. Basically our work was voluntary, we might not have had a project, but we did not set back even for a moment. I say this sincerely. As soon as I finished with my family chores, I walked two and a half miles to learn new skills and work on new ideas and topics with my friends.

Every second person, if they could not ask us, would ask someone else what profit we got, how much money we had from these meetings. But then, gradually, when they saw the real things being done, the attitude also changed and they would come to us for support if any need arose. This is how we gained reputation in the community.

We have been cooperating with the municipality for 10 years, if something important happens, they will call us first and invite us.

In addition, we are already being approached from neighboring villages for help. We identify problems and advocate project implementations.

We are now working on three projects, one is large-scale and covers four municipalities, but wherever we go, first of all, we start from where we come from, how we started it all, that it is possible for a woman to make changes and change not only her own life but the whole village. Personally, I would say that the first project and Taso Foundation have radically changed my life.

I consider the UN Women and Taso Foundation as my native organizations, that have made me a leader and developed a lot of my current skills, both personally and professionally.

Driving Force

My driving force was the knowledge that I definitely needed to change something, I needed to be successful and my success would be the success of my children. When Eka graduated from the university, she called me and told me that she wanted to apply for a master's degree, which was associated with large sums of money. I did not step back for a second, I told her she should do what she wanted and not think about money. I did not want my children feel that I didn’t do everything in my power for them, or they couldn’t get everything they needed just because they had lost their father. It was my main driving force.

People were asking me how I managed to do so much. I often walked because I thought too much on the road, sometimes I cried, sometimes I made plans for the future. Once, after leaving my husband’s grave, I met my relatives – a couple. In the conversation I was asked, where I got this money from, did my husband give me some for coming to his graveyard? I remember I got so upset that I took a short road home crying.

Twice in my life I saw the real face of people, once when my husband passed away and I was left completely alone and the second time when I got my own income. You can easily count the people who sincerely give you good advice. Marina Tabukashvili turned out to be such a person in my life. She was, is and will be my unconditional authority, a loyal friend and a trusted advisor.