Since January 2010 till May 2010, the “Open Society Georgia Foundation” training center offered the intensive trainings to the representatives of Georgian non-governmental organizations on the issues related to fundraising, NGO management, strategic planning, public relations and civil interest’s protection. The trainings were provided as part of the OSGF Civil Society Program in-house project “Improving the qualification and skills of Georgia’s civil society representatives”. Overall 13 trainings were conducted with the facilitation from the representatives of “The Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia” and “Partners Georgia”. The final course of the program ended on April 30.
As Keti Khutsishvili, the executive director of the OSGF noted: “The foundation is trying to support the development of human resources in the civil sector and become the resource-center of the civil sector development”.
This was the reason for allocating the space for trainings in the OSGF office in summer 2009 and the competition for the participation in the trainings intended for NGOs’ development was announced. Forty representatives from non-governmental organizations participated in the training; among them were the representatives of the “beginner” NGOs as well as the members of the developed organizations, who are eager to raise their qualification but cannot afford relevant programs.
“This program was extremely important and useful for the association and we would like to have the opportunity of using the similar trainings in the future, since the association is unable to improve the qualification of the employees by using its own funds. Despite the short period of time our staff members are already using the gained knowledge in practice” – stated Irina Inasaridze, President of “Anika” association.
“I have attended plenty of trainings, but this course was special due to the practical exercises effectively linked with theoretical materials. I am sure that I will successfully use the gained knowledge while designing and implementing the projects and the efficiency of the organization will grow as a result” – noted Thea Tofuria, representative of the “HERA XXI” association.