On December 9-11, 2016 the South Caucasus Regional Office of the Heinrich Boell Foundation hosted 28 people from Georgia, Armenia, Germany, and Turkey in Tbilisi within the frameworks of its annual Green Academy – Fall Session. The 3-day event aimed to introduce young green activists from Georgia and Armenia to alternative, small-scale, forms of campaigning. The main themes of the Academy were the intersection of art and activism, the transformation of campaigns into social movements, and the history of Green movements.
Guest speakers of the Academy included activists, artists, and academics from Georgia, Armenia and Turkey, who shared their experience and knowledge with the participants of the academy.
Young activists also got a chance to develop skills in practical planning of specific campaigns in the broad fields of Social Justice, Environmental and Urban Challenges, Gender Equity and Democracy. Four working groups were formed, which brainstormed the most acute challenges of contemporary Georgia and Armenia in the above-mentioned areas. After this, the groups selected a specific topic around which to design a small-scale public campaign. Some of the topics included issues of uncompensated women’s work, predatory lending practices, and industrial projects harmful to the environment.
The hbs South Caucasus regional office plans to follow up with the work done at the Academy and the concepts generated by the participants in order to explore the possibility of bringing some of the campaign that took seed at the academy to fruition.