Discussing the empowerment of refugee women residing in Georgia
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UN Women, together with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, is working on the empowerment and integration of refugee women residing in Georgia.
On 14 and 15 March 2019, a seminar on the empowerment of refugee women was organized in Borjomi. The event also aimed at improving the integration process for female refugees, namely by linking the sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) services and increasing their access by asylum seekers, refugees, humanitarian status holders and stateless persons.
Around 30 representatives of NGOs and leading agencies working on SGBV and migration issues participated in the event. They overviewed the steps already taken for the development of services for SGBV and discussed the means and possibilities for expanding the access to these services for asylum seekers, refugees, humanitarian status holders and stateless persons.
The highlight of the seminar was the session on the perspectives of refugee women residing in Georgia. Panelist Maryam Sharifi, an asylum seeker from Iran, shared her experience and talked about the barriers that asylum-seeker women face after their arrival to Georgia. “Among other needs, it is necessary that asylum-seeker women are able to take installment loans to start up their small businesses or create handmade goods,” she remarked.
The needs and priorities of asylum-seeker, refugee, humanitarian status holder and stateless women were identified during the seminar. In addition, available services were synergized, and the decision was made to conduct information campaigns about the SGBV services in the future.
The seminar was held within the framework of the project “Empowerment of Refugee Women in Georgia”, implemented by UN Women in partnership with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.