The goal of the Identoba Youth project is to promote the rights and opportunities of women and girls living in the highlands of Adjara. The geographical features of the region, religious tensions, and low levels of education contribute to the persistence and intensification of gender inequality in the region. Given this socio-cultural and religious context, the main project objectives are:
1. To examine gender norms and social attitudes that normalize violence;
2. To communicate the extent of injustices that keep women vulnerable in Georgia;
3. To raise awareness on domestic violence, its forms, causes, and consequences;
4. To support the use of institutionalized mechanisms against domestic violence;
5. To identify approaches to better support survivors of abuse.
In order to achieve these goals, Identoba Youth is keen to share knowledge and gather information on the underlying factors of and actions against domestic violence in the mountainous communities of Adjara. These issues include domestic violence against women, sexual harassment, and early marriage of girls. The project mainly covers three mountainous municipalities of Upper Adjara - Keda, Shuakhevi, and Khulo - home to a large Muslim population. The organization already held 41 meetings with women in 2020-2021 on these issues. 12 more meetings are planned for 2023. Unlike the previous meetings, which aimed at informing local women, the 2023 meetings will be also open to men and boys. Among other information, participants will be familiarized with the structural nature of the injustice experienced by women, the different forms of violence and the means of dealing with them, the existing social attitudes that normalize violence, and the ways the structural nature of the injustice experienced by women hinders the country's development.
