An Award for Georgian equality champions

WECF Georgia, with the support of the European Union in Georgia, organised the Media4Equality Award Ceremony in Tbilisi, last Friday, December 10.  The media for equality award is unique in Georgia, as it not only focuses on gender equality issues. but also gives non-traditional media such as bloggers, vloggers and social media content creators a chance to participate in the debate, alongside the traditional media.

Out of 68 applications, the qualified jury of seven experts in media, journalism and gender chose three to five nominees in category. And each winner received a prize of 1500 Euros and the #equalitychampion title.  We are pleased to share the following winners with you:

1. Lasha Tsertsvadze – best content in social media. Lasha’s winning video is about women to whom no monuments are dedicated. For example, in Georgia, monuments of women have no name and last name, they’re not about any specific historical figure. Instead, the monuments are very general and have a name such as “Mother of Georgia” or similar. The video represents gender equality and inclusivity. Lasha captured all the generalized women statues around Tbilisi while his storytelling explains ethically and understandably why unnamed women’s statues are an issue and how every woman deserves their own statue with full names.
2. Tamta Kakhaberidze – best national media product. Tamta’s article is about a woman who herself was a victim of domestic violence but ended up in prison. The article discusses how systematic change is needed and how domestic victims could become crime victims just because of the systematic problems that are ingrained in our society.
3. Mariam Takidze – best regional media product. Mariam’s reportage is about a young entrepreneur in the region of Georgia who decided to digitalize education during the pandemic and helped loads of young women in the regions to have an easy access to online education and resources.
4. Dina Oganova – best visual product. Dina’s photo project #metoo describes the places and stories where women got physically and sexually abused. The locations might be somewhat shocking as the abuse, sometimes, didn’t happen in the streets, but in their own homes. This is a really important project to help victims speak up while their identities are safe with the storyteller.

The Award ceremony took place at the Rooms Hotel in Tbilisi, where the jury selected the winners in 4 different categories. We would like to thank all the winners, nominees and participants for their contribution to their presentations of women empowerment and equality.

You can see all the winners and winning products on the WECF Georgia website