Children in Georgia’s regions introduced to fairy tale collection “Once There was a Girl”
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Within the framework of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign, UN Women presented the collection of fairy tales “Once There was a Girl” to children living in the Georgian regions.
From 4 to 6 December, about 150 children aged 5-14 were introduced to the book for the first time in the town of Ozurgeti in Guria and in Duisi, Sagarejo and Tsnori in Kakheti. The children met with some of the fairy tale authors, among whom were Ninia Sadgobelashvili and Paata Shamugia. Having travelled to the cities and villages of Guria and Kakheti, they presented the book to the children and read about and discussed the characters of the fairy tales.
After reading a fairy tale about Maia Tskneteli, a historical Georgian public hero and a famous warrior, 12-year-old Anzor Tsiskarishvili from Duisi commented: “I liked that the fairy tale was about equality. Everybody thinks that a woman cannot fight, although women can fight the same as men do. However, I would prefer not to have war at all.”
The collection of fairy tales was published through the initiative of UN Women in the summer of 2018. It comprises 21 fairy tales written by 12 Georgian authors, and the stories are about women who left an important legacy in Georgian history or public life. The fairy tales tell us the stories about their courage, purposefulness, wisdom, decency and fight for justice.
“To me, as an author, or as an ordinary citizen, it is a great honour and responsibility to participate in this project,” Ms. Sadgobelashvili remarked. “Every meeting was interesting and gave us food for thought. Indeed, fairy tales are the most natural way to talk to children about the power of women and their unconditional role in the progress of our community and our world. And we decided to use this tool to tell stories about the women who defied all stereotypes or ruined barriers with their deeds, thereby becoming symbols of victory.”
In Kakheti, the meetings were held during the educational tour arranged with the UNFPA within the UN Joint Programme for Gender Equality, supported by the Government of Sweden. The meeting in Guria was held within the framework of the EU-funded project “Unite to Fight Violence against Women”. UN Women plans to conduct similar meetings in other regions of Georgia.