On November 25, the Civic Education Lecturers Association (CELA) kicked-off a new initiative called “Active Students for Peer Education,” to motivate university students and increase their participation and engagement in civic activities.
Through this initiative, active and civically engaged students will meet with their peers at different universities throughout Georgia to share their experiences as relating to civic engagement and volunteerism.
The first discussion was conducted at Sokhumi State University, led by an alumnus of IFES’ university-level civic education course,Democracy and Citizenship Tornike Bolokadze, from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU), and focused on volunteerism and how one can turn an idea into a successful project.
Bolokadze incorporated examples from his own life, including a project that he developed and implemented within the scopes of the Democracy and Citizenship course that aimed to popularize volunteerism in Georgia. Bolokadze went on to establish a Facebook group named, “Be active!!” https://www.facebook.com/groups/beactivestudent/. With over 22,000 members (and rising), the group provides Georgian youth with information about volunteer and internship opportunities, training courses and seminars, conferences, public lectures, debate and exchange programs.
The discussion key problems that lead to a dearth of volunteerism and left participants with the understanding that a “someone else will do it/fix it” attitude does not justify inaction.
