Motivation for new successes: Study visit of women entrepreneurs has ended

“I am here to gain experience and resources, to open a plant nursery in the garden of a house that burned down during the August 2008 war and to make it a symbol of how a centre of life and development can be created in a place destroyed by war.” This is how 46-year-old Esma Mindiashvili began telling her story at a meeting with local women entrepreneurs in Istanbul.

Esma Mindiashvili is from the Shida Kartli region. She lives with her husband and three children in the village of Tseronisi, near the dividing line, and despite the difficulties of everyday life, she is developing her agritourism business with hard work and love. The entrepreneur has arranged a tourist space in her own garden. She offers traditional local dishes and Ossetian beer made according to her grandmother’s recipe to guests visiting Tseronisi. At the same time, she produces natural dried fruits from apples, peaches and plums, which she sells at exhibitions and fairs. She wants to add churchkhela, a traditional Georgian candy, to this product line in the future. However, that is not all: Esma also grows flowers and offers her customers seedlings and beautiful compositions.

“My business is focused not only on income,” Esma notes. “It also has a social purpose: to employ the local population, popularize rural life and inspire hope in people who are still suffering from the consequences of the conflict.”

Ten female entrepreneurs from all over Georgia, including Esma, were on a study visit to Istanbul from 14 to 16 April. The initiative was part of the UN Women project “Supporting Women Entrepreneurs in Georgia”, implemented by the Georgian Farmers’ Association and the Georgian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. During the visit, the participants learned about successful practices, innovative approaches and examples of agribusiness and agritourism. In order to establish future partnerships, they also held meetings with representatives of local companies and women entrepreneurs, listened to new experiences and shared stories of their own activities, as well as discussed promising business ideas that can be effectively adapted and adjusted to the local context. For example, the participants visited the Narköy Ecologic Hotel & Organic Farm, a successful model for sustainable agriculture through women’s cooperatives.

Esma is now back in her homeland. Summing up the study visit, she says that the trip to Istanbul was full of discoveries and inspiration for her: “The knowledge and experience I gained there, the people I met and talked to, I will remember for a long time.

“Every word of the Turkish trainers convinced me that success can be gained with simplicity, sincerity and hard work,” Esma adds. “Their stories—of how they started from nothing and how they never gave up—are exactly the message I needed, given the reality of where I live and work. I am now convinced that I was on the right path. This knowledge and motivation will help me both in my personal development and in strengthening my work.”

One of the important directions of UN Women is the economic empowerment of women, which involves supporting women entrepreneurs and facilitating their activities. Since January 2024, 164 selected women entrepreneurs from different regions of Georgia have been attending trainings and workshops and participating in mentoring programmes and various activities, which help them establish useful business connections and access finance and e-commerce platforms.

The initiatives are part of the Women’s Economic Empowerment component of the project “Good Governance for Gender Equality in Georgia”, which is funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).