WWW.EHERA.GE
Informational educational sessions
Trainings for professional groups
Webinars and online engagements
Providing comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) to youth and professional groups still poses a challenge for Georgia. This is due to prevalent prejudices and stereotypes in society, the lack of effective training, and the absence of appropriate materials in the Georgian language. Through its activities, the Association HERA XXI promotes the implementation of activities that will help remove these obstacles and facilitate the provision of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) to the public, both in formal and non-formal settings.
Through the nationally accredited online course for teachers, established within the framework of the partnership with the National Centre for Teacher Professional Development, LEPL, the Association HERA XXI has retrained teachers of civic education, biology, and natural sciences. Twenty teachers successfully completed the course.
In collaboration with the National Agency for Crime Prevention, Enforcement of Non-custodial Sentences and Probation, LEPL, the Association HERA XXI developed an online training module for teachers titled “Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health and its Importance.”
The prerequisite for developing the online training module was the Youth Policy Concept of Georgia for 2020-2023 approved by the Parliament of Georgia, which defines the priorities of youth policy for the next decade and the implementation of the strategic priorities of the concept. For this purpose, in December 2022, the State Youth Strategy 2025 and its action plan for 2022-2023 were approved.
- The Component of Peer Educators
The association has been implementing the peer-to-peer approach for more than 20 years. Through the peer-to-peer methodology developed by the Association HERA XXI, about 700 young people have been trained, and more than 5,000 informational and educational meetings have been conducted for youth living in the rural as well as urban areas of Tbilisi, Imereti, Kakheti, Samegrelo, Samtskhe-Javakheti, and Kvemo Kartli, including in densely populated settlements for internally displaced persons as well as in the settlements located in the border zone. The informational and educational sessions are being conducted both online and in-person, making them more accessible and effective for interested youth. The association uses various educational resources for training young people, including the manual All in One Course, which was developed and adapted in accordance with UNAIDS, WHO, WAS, and UNESCO standards.
In 2023, the Association HERA XXI became the winner of the AMAZE Global Impact Award for the second time. Within the framework of the project, the Association translated and adapted AMAZE discussion questions, lesson plans and guidelines, which were developed in accordance with the UNESCO standard. These are internationally proven reliable informational and educational resources prepared for specialists working in the field of education, which, in the future, will help introduce comprehensive sexuality education (CSE). Within the framework of the project, AMAZE animated videos were translated into Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani languages, and synchronized with sign language interpretation. It was with the help of these resources that the Association’s peer educators, volunteers, leaders, youth group members, and activists conducted informational meetings and discussions throughout the country.