by Marybelle Stryk

06 September 2002

Tbilisi, Georgia: In Julia Kharashvili's résumé, one is likely to find the word "refugee" as work experience.

Georgian UN Volunteer Julia Kharashvili with the "White Crane" readers in Tbilisi.Her refugee status itself was not so impressive; but what Julia accomplished as a refugee, then later as a UN Volunteer, was recently recognized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The UN agency referred to her as a "model for all actors working in all regions of the world," when acknowledging her work with displaced women and children.

Julia vividly recalls how it all began. "I arrived in the Georgian capital Tbilisi with two severely traumatized daughters and my husband was missing. We did not have any permanent shelter or job, I felt that we have neither hope nor future."

The conflict started when the Georgian National Army attacked the city of Sukhumi to prevent Abkhazia to separate from Georgia. The war lasted for a year until the Abkhaz separatists drove out the Georgian army, and expelled some 300,000 ethnic Georgians living in Abkhazia in the process.

In Tbilisi, Julia found out that she shares the same fate with thousands of other women and their children. This collective suffering prompted the women to help other refugees, especially women and children. "Our common tragedies became the backdrop of our involvement to civic activism. We wanted to escape from the severe reality," Julia says. "We found out that together, it is easier to survive, to help our children cope with war trauma and in the process help ourselves, too."

From the rubbles of war, Julia and other women refugees supported one another in numerous ways. "We saw so many tragedies that we could forget our own pain and experience. And we only had one wish - to help," says Julia. Providing the basics, they collected and distributed old clothes to ease children's war traumas. They also grappled with major problems facing internally displaced persons (IDPs) such as issues on poor living conditions, psychological, economic and medical problems.

In 1994, together with a journalist and friend, Sukhumi Naroushvili, they designed and conducted a survey of IDPs in Georgia to find out the challenges they are facing. The survey identified that women refugees "lack opportunities to participate and conduct social activities in addition to suffering from war trauma and living in appalling conditions", explains Julia.

Together with other displaced women, Julia created the IDP Women's Association in 1995. "We did not even know the meaning of a non-government organization (NGO) when we established one. We simply thought that by being together, we can achieve more," she says.

The IDP Women' s Association aims at improving the living conditions of the displaced and at easing the effects of war on children by providing security and education.

The IDP Women's Association learned more about children's war trauma from similar organizations such as Moscow's Psycho-Medical Center "Compassion", the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) in Denmark, and the Medica and Viva Zene in Bosnia. Julia's association also worked with the British charity OXFAM and received grants from UNHCR. These funds enabled IDP to develop more intensive community projects and psychosocial rehabilitation programmes.

Their peace camp project, set up in 1996, became well-known internationally for its effective education-for-peace programmes. "The camps were designed to create a platform for future cooperation by building a place where children from different ethnic backgrounds are allowed to live together and learn more about each other," says Julia.

Several hundred children have already participated in the camp's training and recreational activities. The IDP Women's Association also provides vocational training, as well as civic and human rights education for displaced women in Georgia, which currently has more than 270,000 displaced people.

Another successful endeavour is the "White Crane" magazine, which has become an important tool to ignite a lively dialogue between displaced children and adults in Georgia. The magazine is intended for children in armed conflict. Meanwhile it has been translated into English and distributed to UN Headquarters and high-level politicians around the world.

Publishing the White Crane is one of many confidence-building measures undertaken by the UN Volunteers programme with its focus on building the capacity of civil society, supporting independent mass media and promoting the cultural traditions of minority populations.

The cooperation of Julia, the IDP Women's Association and UNV continues. In 1997, Julia became UNV's National Community Facilitator in Georgia. When fighting between Georgia and Abkhazia resumed in Gali in 1998, western Georgia, the IDP Women's Association and UN Volunteers were able to organize a large-scale emergency psychological assistance -- using Julia's expertise. Later, a coalition of UN agencies and local NGOs, led by the IDP Women's Association, provided the necessary assistance so that people did not leave Gali.

"Being a UN Volunteer gave me more opportunities to advocate the rights of the displaced people. I had the chance to participate in the conception of the 'new approach to IDP assistance,' for example," Julia said. "UNV's work in western Georgia also allows NGOs, peace activists and other actors to participate in building capacities towards national reconciliation. I am proud to be part of that programme and our efforts partly contributed to stabilizing Georgia."

She attributes these achievements, as well as the UNHCR award, to other refugees. "I think this award should be divided among my many colleagues and fellow displaced women for all the difficulties and challenges we faced together."

Although her family was reunited in 1995, peace between the Georgian and Abkhaz remains elusive. With recent negotiations stalled, Julia believes her work 1has just begun.