Mariam Osiashvili, a participant of the Civic Leadership Program from Kakheti, is a public participation and awareness raising activist in the village of Eniseli, Kakheti. “The goal of our organisation is to raise awareness of the local community and improve their wellbeing. We strive to provide various services to the community, trainings in leadership and active citizenship, as well as problem identification and response,” says Mariam. Her non-profit Civil Society for Development was officially registered in 2019. However, the organisation has been functioning as a community group and partnering with various civil society organisations and local self-government since 2013.
Since youth living in rural areas have few opportunities to engage in intellectual and cultural activities, Mariam and her colleagues decided to focus on addressing this gap. Raising funds for these types of activities is a challenge in part due to difficult economic situation in the village, but also because of poorly developed philanthropic culture of local business sector. Therefore, fundraising and communication skills are crucial for Mariam’s line of work, a motivation that prompted her to apply for the Civic Leadership Program. Mariam believed that she needed to deepen her knowledge and skills for proposal writing and fundraising. “I caught interesting nuances with respect to proposal writing, the details I had not known before,” says Mariam.
After the completion of Leadership Program, Mariam, supported by a team of volunteers, successfully planned and executed a youth festival in Eniseli with the funding provided by the Centre for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia.
Mariam’s future plans include broadening the scope of her activities to mobilise youth both in her native village as well as beyond.