Fellowship Programme
Country
Area of Interest
Topic
Updates coming soon!
| Country | Georgia |
| The scope of | |
| Type of solution | |
| The technology used | |
| The budget development decisions | 0 |
“I hope that one day, women in Armenia will not have to choose between family and work, proper childcare or sufficient income.’ This ‘hope’ has been the driving force for Astghik Karapetyan, an EaP Civil Society Fellow and co-founder and president of Point 33 NGO. Astghik sees that the workplace culture in Armenia, like in many places, faces challenges in supporting working parents, especially women. These gaps sparked her mission to foster Family-Friendly Workplaces (FFW). Her fellowship project, “Making Family-Friendly Workplaces Workable,” confronts the realities that many Armenian parents face: limited childcare support, rigid work hours, and a lack of policies that truly accommodate family life. “A family-friendly workplace allows employees to be close to and care for a family member in need while continuing to work and earn an income,” says Astghik․
Astghik is a human rights journalist. Since 2011, she has been reporting on topics covering human rights and the judiciary, including analytical and investigative pieces on state procurement and illegal enrichment.
Besides, Astghik is a mother of two. When her second child was born, she began to recall all the difficulties that she had gone through during the birth of her firstborn: labor rights violations, obstetric violence, depression, and other issues. However, she was a strong woman and was able to resist. But she kept thinking, how do other women who don’t know about their rights and don’t have enough strength to protect themselves settle all these problems? And this thought made her act and start advocating for women’s rights and family-friendly policies.
Astghik’s journey as an EaP Civil Society Fellow began with qualitative research on the Armenian legislative landscape and opportunities to have FFWs, and FFW models in Europe, including Czech and Hungarian examples where progressive policies have made balancing work and family more achievable. There, she observed pioneering approaches to workplace flexibility, affordable childcare, and parental support that have made balancing family and work more feasible. The research, Family-Friendly Workplaces: Armenian Opportunities (download report in Armenian language), includes legal and practice reform recommendations for the Government and parliament, as well as employers of Armenia.
Beyond research and policy recommendations, Astghik has engaged the public directly through her podcast series, Մեծ գործ (Metz Gorts, or “Big Thing”). The podcast addresses practical aspects of family life for Armenian working parents, covering crucial topics like mental health for working mothers, childcare accessibility, and perspectives on balancing work and family in Armenia. In less than a year, the podcast has gained thousands of listeners, amplifying discussions around family-inclusive workplace cultures in Armenia. The episode about the mental health of working parents is the most popular with our audience. One listener wrote that in her most exhausted moments, she remembers and follows the idea in the episode that you must give yourself time to be with yourself and “recharge” during the day.
Astghik’s advocacy reached a significant milestone at the final project’s event attended by Armenian government and parliament representatives and the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Armenia, Petr Pirunčík. Ambassador Pirunčík expressed his gratitude for the project’s accomplishments, including the insights gained from visits to the Czech Republic and Hungary to study their family-friendly workplace models. He highlighted the complex challenges that remain, noting, “Many issues can be resolved through legislative changes, but often the solution depends on the goodwill of the employer. It is difficult when people believe that having a child means you shouldn’t return to work. The hardest part is addressing societal mindsets and customs.”
During the event, the representatives of Armenia’s parliament and government expressed strong interest in Astghik’s recommendations and commended her work as “ready material for legislative change,” indicating its practical value. For Astghik, this recognition represents a hopeful step toward an Armenian workplace culture that genuinely supports family life, encouraging both career and personal wellbeing.
“Through my project, I want to talk about the difficulties of women who combine family, childcare, and jobs and the means to solve these difficulties. We have the opportunity to achieve this. Specific legislative changes are, of course, essential and will have significant changes. However, the most important thing is for employers to take the first step to make the workplace family-friendly” – says Astghik.
Astghik envisions an Armenia where workplaces truly support family needs, empowering a stronger and more balanced workforce. Her work brings Armenia closer to a culture where parents can thrive both at work and at home, creating not only supportive environments but also a more resilient society.
| Country | Armenia |
| The scope of | |
| Type of solution | |
| The technology used | |
| The budget development decisions | 0 |
Updates coming soon!
| Country | Armenia |
| The scope of | |
| Type of solution | |
| The technology used | |
| The budget development decisions | 0 |
Ketevan Tvildiani’s first degree was in English language and literature, but her interest in understanding the concept of social justice and the everyday life of people in her community drove her to take a Masters course at Batumi University in Sociology. The Masters course developed her skills for undertaking social research and included a sojourn at the University of Salzburg, which was Ketevan’s first experience with the Erasmus+ programme and provided her with insights not only into lifestyles and values of the EU, but helped her to ‘think globally’.
“Previously I had grown up in the relatively small city of Batumi, and had fairly blinkered small city attitudes. Being in Salzburg I enjoyed a great feeling of freedom and openness. The fact that the EU has no internal borders is conceptually so powerful”.
After graduation Ketevan was delighted to secure a position with the British Council in Georgia. Her work with the Council enabled Ketevan to see how activities relating to art and culture can be effectively used to support social development. In particular, a project which she was involved in in 2018, ‘Unlimited – Making the Right Moves’, provided an eye-opening experience of how communities in UK approach the practicalities of supporting inclusivity. The project was a platform for demonstrating how young people in Georgia with disability could engage with dance and all aspects of dance performance, alongside able-bodied youth. The project showed that with the right kind of planning, suitable infrastructure, and an open-minded attitude, the world of dance could be wholly inclusive. The experience was highly motivation for Ketevan and ultimately led her to designing her fellowship project.
The “Fostering Engagement of Youth with Disabilities in Arts and Culture” fellowship project, implemented during 2023 and early 2024, represented a critical step towards advancing the rights and opportunities of youth with disabilities in Georgia’s cultural landscape. Ketevan achieved this primarily through participatory research and subsequent publication of a report examining the challenges for inclusive policies and practices in Georgia. Alongside the report, Ketevan undertook a range of communication activities, such as creating four ‘motivational’ videos and facilitating formal workshops and a roundtable to advocate the recommendations of the report in order to foster a more equitable and enriching cultural environment for all individuals, regardless of ability.
As a result of the research findings, expert experience from outside UK, and the roundtable discussion, the project elicited a ground-breaking proposal from a representative of the Georgian Parliament to collaborate on a joint project aimed at enhancing accessibility within the arts and culture sector signifying a paradigm shift in governmental attitudes and commitments towards disability rights. Furthermore, a high-level participant of the project activities was moved to take action to improve accessibility to cultural events and venues. He commented that “the workshop presentation included information about ISO standards and the accessibility of websites in the UK, which I want to share with decision-makers at the office of the President of Georgia, so that our websites are accessible in the future”.
Ketevan’s fellowship has produced the first research findings in Georgia into inclusivity in the arts/culture sector and policy recommendations to ensure protection of rights of citizens with disability to participate in cultural endeavours, but she knows that there is much more to be done. As a priority next step Ketevan intends to support the foundation of some kind of permanent body at national level to promote inclusivity of the disabled into the arts and culture, with balanced representation from CSOs, cultural organisations and the public sector. The first work of such a body might be, as Ketevan suggests as an example, “to ensure principles of ‘universal design’ are regulated for, so that any new cultural venues are built with accessibility as an obligatory concern”. Ketevan hopes that she can pursue these next steps through the work of the Development and Engagement Platform for which she currently works.
| Country | Georgia |
| The scope of | |
| Type of solution | |
| The technology used | |
| The budget development decisions | 0 |
Updates coming soon!
| Country | Ukraine |
| The scope of | |
| Type of solution | |
| The technology used | |
| The budget development decisions | 0 |
Updates coming soon!
| Country | Georgia |
| The scope of | |
| Type of solution | |
| The technology used | |
| The budget development decisions | 0 |
In parallel with academic studies, with a MA in Social Work and a nearly completed Doctorate in Sociology, Gohar Khachatryan has charted her civic activism through a range of CSOs and Thinktanks in her native Armenia since 2016. She grew up in a provincial town and through voluntary work with a local CSO began to understand how vulnerable groups often have their rights ignored or abused. While pursuing her academic goals Gohar had the opportunity to study the dynamics of anti-discrimination. From 2018 to 2019 Gohar was a Research Fellow with the Public Policy Institute and under an EU-funded project ‘Pursuing Positive Change Through Empowering CSOs’ she analysed methods and toolkits for protecting against discrimination. Later, in 2022, Gohar spent time in Austria, supported by an Erasmus+ action, exploring mechanisms and practices for the prevention of gender-based violence and learning from challenges in the management of mental health services.
“When the call’ for applicants for the Civil Society Fellows came out in the second half of 2022, I saw a great opportunity for making a positive contribution to promote community-based approaches to mental healthcare in Armenia.”
Accordingly, Gohar set about to evaluate the policies and practices used in the establishment and operations of the first four innovative, post-Soviet ‘group homes’ in Armenia. These are residential homes for citizens who require support on specific mental health issues. The homes, in the regions of Ararat, Kotayk, Lori, and the capital Yerevan, were initially established though programmes of international organisations and now jointly run with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and cooperation with the local authorities. The long-term aim of the ‘homes’ is to support mental health sufferers to live independent lives in the community. As such, Gohar used her fellowship to look at the progress in a particular area – the extent to which the residents of the ‘group homes’ participate in local decision-making processes – and to facilitate a fully participatory research process involving the residents, the staff and management of the homes.
As a result of her fellowship, Gohar has helped to create a degree of momentum towards the goal of having ‘independent living’ as the guiding policy principle on mental healthcare provision. Having pioneered research on this subject, she has created a space for further research and investigation, and through debate on her research paper has ensured that the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs will endorse the paper’s recommendations. Furthermore, the Ministry for Territorial Infrastructure has agreed to disseminate the report to its local government communities in Armenia with the intention of inspiring them to take action to be more inclusive in their decision-making.
Download the Summary of the Research Report in English:
Are Community Decision-Making Processes Inclusive for a Person with a Disability?
With regard to the rights-holders in these ‘group homes’ Gohar has also noted positive changes. Residents are now aware of their rights and the management of the homes have a better understanding of how they can improve the protection of those rights. For example, there had been a previous practice for the management of the ‘group homes’ to confiscate and safeguard the passports of residents. But, through the consultative activities of Gohar’s research, residents and staff were able to learn about the importance and usefulness for residents to keep their own passports and consequently three of the ‘group homes’ have changed their policy on this issue.
Gohar also reported that there were other bright moments generated by the interaction with the residents. During the fellowship project Gohar wanted to create some visual products (posters and flyers) to raise awareness and promote the findings of the research.
“To do this we had a designer to come up with some visual drafts and then we showed these to the residents to ask for their opinions and ideas on how to finalize the products. The posters and flyers were duly made and at the fellowships final event the residents of the ‘group homes’ saw these outputs and were so pleased to see their ideas and suggestions incorporated. This was really empowerment in action.”
Gohar will be continuing her mission to support the protection of the rights of women and men with mental health issues and more broadly engage in the defence of rights of other vulnerable groups. “Being part of civil society is paramount to this process as it means that I can investigate and advocate without the restraints that may otherwise come if I was a State employee”. As part of this mission, Gohar, with other like-minded colleagues, set up a platform called ‘Change’. Gohar hopes that this organisation will be an effective addition to the rights protection architecture in Armenia and is proud that its first advocacy action was to promote the findings from her fellowship project.
| Country | Armenia |
| The scope of | |
| Type of solution | |
| The technology used | |
| The budget development decisions | 0 |
Updates coming soon!
| Country | Ukraine |
| The scope of | |
| Type of solution | |
| The technology used | |
| The budget development decisions | 0 |
Nino Chincharauli never really expected to be a Civil Society Fellow. She spent most of her adult life involved in the creative industries and contributing to the cultural fabric of Georgia and other countries. Her creativity has manifested itself in paintings, iconography, in poems, and in fictional literature, as well as using her Spanish language skills for the publication of Spanish literature translated to Georgian. Between 2013 and 2015 she had been involved in some project work focused on her native Khevsurain culture, for example the internationally-funded ‘Youth for Preservation of the Ancient Khevsurian Authentic Clothes and Crafts’ and ‘Say It, Khevsurian Woman’ initiatives, and in recent years contributed some part-time work as a project coordinator. But it was the challenge of raising two children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD)* that led Nino to apply her creativity to civic activism.
There is little understanding of autism in Georgian communities and consequently children with ASD, particularly young children, are excluded from so much of community life. “Parents with autistic kids often remove them from events and activities with other children as they are afraid of how they might be treated” explains Nino, and the owners and managers of public venues “do not make provision for the specific needs of autistic children, such as ensuring quiet and uncrowded spaces”. Furthermore, members of the general public do not always know how to discuss autism and or how to respond to it. It is a much-misunderstood condition.
In this context, Nino was inspired to raise awareness to ASD by using her artistic skills. In particular she thought that murals – wall paintings – would be a great tool for grabbing attention and at the same time could be created in a participatory way, involving community members with and without ASD. So was born Nino’s project ‘I’m Different, Not Less’, and having learnt about the activities of other Civil Society Fellows in Georgia, Nino saw that joining the alumni of Fellows would be both a way to support the implementation of her project and to mobilise solidarity for her cause.
The ’I’m Different, Not Less’ fellowship project involved gathering interest and permissions from various stakeholders in three cities in Georgia: Batumi, Kutaisi, and Tbilisi. The target was to find wall space, ideally on public buildings like schools or libraries, and to mobilise groups of parents with children with ASD to hold events to create and celebrate murals to raise awareness to autism in each city. “It was incredibly hard work, but the reaction to the three murals in the cities was, and still is, fantastic!”
As a result of the murals, produced over the spring and summer of 2023, Nino has secured local TV reporting on autism and many of the 60 parents involved in Nino’s events are engaging in ways that they didn’t think about before. Some parents have been running their own ‘masterclasses’ to improve understanding of autism; some parents have set up safe places and continuing activities to support a better understanding of autism. One parent founded an integrated space for children with disabilities in Tbilisi called “Andio Land” and plans to open similar spaces in other cities. Another parent, who is a single mother like Nino, founded a psychological therapy centre for parents of children with autism.
Nino explains that “Parents feel that they don’t need to hide anymore. And I too feel much more confident in my parenting and my interaction with others on the subject of autism”. Nino and the murals she helped to create have certainly resonated with the local communities in the three Georgian cities, and have demonstrated the importance of using art for stimulating community discussions. The murals have also led to Nino forming a closer bond to other parents with autistic children. She ends with a recent recollection:
“In Batumi, four months after unveiling the mural, a mother contacted me to say that she had spent the last few months trying to find out who had made the painting. Her autistic child came to the school and fell in love with the painting. The mother said her son couldn’t stop talking about. So, I ended up painting a portrait of the child for her mother!”
*‘Autism is a lifelong developmental disability which affects how people communicate and interact with the world in varying degrees. More than one in 100 people are on the autism spectrum’ – The National Autistic Society (UK).
| Country | Georgia |
| The scope of | |
| Type of solution | |
| The technology used | |
| The budget development decisions | 0 |
Updates coming soon!
| Country | Ukraine |
| The scope of | |
| Type of solution | |
| The technology used | |
| The budget development decisions | 0 |