Newsletter 2016 by UNICEF Georgia

JULY, 2016

ÂŠ UNICEF/Geo-2015/Gurgenidze

UNICEF

in Georgia NEWSLETTER, #1 (#19)

A Better Legislative Environment for Children in Georgia The Juvenile Justice Code Children in conflict with the law, as well as child victims and witnesses of crime, will benefit from the child-friendly justice system thanks to the Juvenile Justice Code, adopted by the Georgian Parliament in June 2015. The Code provides a comprehensive legal framework and brings the juvenile justice system closer to international best standards. The Code, developed with the support of UNICEF and the European Union, came into force in January 2016. The Code introduces both rehabilitative and restorative approaches, which are intended to support the best interests of the child. In particular, the Code envisages the specialization of professionals, the use of detention as a last resort measure and the introduction of alternative, rehabilitative measures and sentencing mechanisms. In addition, the Code legislates for individualized approaches for children in conflict with the law, child victims and witnesses of crime and children participating in administrative proceedings. The Code details that the implementing governmental agencies must ensure a childfriendly approach in all related legislation, practices and activities. These include the following: the development of secondary legislation, protocols and guidelines for specialized professionals; full specialization of justice professionals and further strengthening of the human and institutional capacities within the system; establishment of

individual assessment mechanisms in courts and in other systems; and proper monitoring of the implementation of the Juvenile Justice Code and the general protection of childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rights in the justice system.

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The Law on Preschool and Early Education Children in Georgia will receive a quality, inclusion based and accessible pre-school education thanks to the Law on Preschool and Early Education that was adopted by the Georgian Parliament in June 2016. The Law will establish a stronger legal basis and provide national standards for inclusive early and preschool education for all children. The Law was developed with the support of UNICEF. The Law foresees the introduction of a pre-primary year for all five-year-old children to improve school readiness and the mechanisms for preventing violence against children. The Law also mandates increasing responsibilities at the central level for developing and monitoring national standards and supporting municipalities to improve governance, quality and access to inclusive preschool education. The implementation process will require to create a national system that both trains preschool educators and regularly monitors the implementation of the national standards by respective central government agencies tasked with developing specific standards.

The Legislative Package to Better Protect Children from Violence In 2016, the Georgian Parliament endorsed the package of legislative amendments to strengthen the legal safeguards for children working and living on the streets and children victims of domestic violence. The legislative package was developed by a working group comprising representatives from the government, relevant nongovernmental organizations and UNICEF. The package consists of amendments to different laws and includes a number of important changes. In particular, it introduces the definition of â&#x20AC;&#x153;a child working and living on the streetâ&#x20AC;? to create better legislative guarantees and provide specific services such as ID cards, access to education and access to healthcare among others. The legislative packages also adds local municipalities and relevant ministries to

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the list of governmental institutions responsible for reporting violence against children under the State Referral Mechanism. In addition, the amendments ensure the provision of ID cards, in some cases temporary ID cards, to children living and working on the streets or to children victims of domestic violence. The new legislation also expands the authority of social workers to separate a child from the family as a measure of last resort until a court’s final decision.

Ratification of the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure In June 2016, the Georgian Parliament ratified the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure, which will allow individual children to submit complaints regarding violations of their rights. The Optional Protocol allows the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to receive communications alleging the violations of children’s rights through: • Communications from children, both individuals or groups, that have suffered violations of their rights under the Convention, including the possibility of interim measures and friendly settlements;

• Inter-State complaints (State parties initializing complaints against other State parties); or • An inquiry procedure, allowing the Committee on the Rights of the Child to initiate investigations into grave and systematic violations irrespective of having received external communications. The Optional Protocol will serve to identify gaps in the national judicial systems for children, and strengthen the national independent human rights institutions for children.

Law on Adoption and Foster Care UNICEF supported the Ministry of Labour Health and Social Affairs in developing the Law on Adoption and Foster Care to align the national legislation on domestic and inter-country adoption with international best standards and practices. The improved legislation further supports reforms of the overall child care system by ensuring the timely and permanent placement of children deprived of adequate parental care. The Law also introduces specific regulations for adoption and foster care as well as training and consultation of adoptive and foster parents. The law has not yet been introduced to the Georgian Parliament.

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Human Rights for All A new three-year programme to support the implementation and monitoring of the National Human Rights Strategy and Action Plan was launched with the financial support of the EU. This includes the protection of the rights of minorities and vulnerable groups, internal and external oversight of law enforcement agencies, labour rights, protection of privacy and freedom of expression and information.

The project is jointly implemented by the four UN agencies – United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and International Labour Organization (ILO).

Call for Political Parties to Include Children’s Issues in their Pre-election Campaigns In anticipation of the upcoming Parliamentary Elections, UNICEF called on political parties to consider children’s issues in their preelection discourse and campaigns. Eight specific questions were sent to political parties asking them to provide their vision and plans to reduce child poverty, infant and maternal mortality, micro-nutrient deficiencies, ensure quality preschool and general education and protect the most vulnerable children.

ACT TO PROTECT CHILD RIGHTS

In partnership with the Centres for Civic Engagement, UNICEF organized round-table discussions in different regions of Georgia to provide platform for the representatives of various political parties to present their plans regarding the above mentioned issues.

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Children in Georgia face a higher risk of poverty than any other population group in the country. In an effort to reduce child poverty, UNICEF supported the Georgian Government to revise the Targeted Social Assistance (TSA) System that was instituted in 2015. The new methodology significantly improves targeting of poor children and introduces child benefits to 40 per cent of children. As of May 2016, 144, 044 children below the age of 16 qualified for the cash transfers and child benefits, out of which an additional 55, 689 children qualified only by the new methodology. The reform aims to more accurately reflect the needs of vulnerable families and decrease by half the number of children living in extreme poverty by the end of 2016. Future plans include establishing social protection systems that are fiscally sustainable, protecting the poorest children

ÂŠ UNICEF/Geo-2015/Khetaguri

A New Social Protection System Targets Poor Families with Children and families, prevent families who face economic problem and other shocks from sliding into poverty and help families improve their livelihoods. In order to achieve these objectives, the mapping of the national and local social benefits and services is underway to establish a comprehensive picture of existing social protection programmes for different vulnerable groups and to identify the existing gaps. UNICEF also supported the Social Service Agency of the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs to develop a child assessment screening instrument. This tool will be used by social agents when visiting families to assess their economic and social welfare, to identify potential cases of child rightsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; violations and refer these children to the respective agencies and people such as social workers, doctors and the police.

Welfare Monitoring Survey In 2015, UNICEF completed the fourth round of the Welfare Monitoring Survey that has been tracking the welfare of the same Georgian families since 2009. The survey covers poverty trends and measures the effects of social transfers. Finally, it examines the situation in relation to education, health, sanitation and child development among others. The final results of the survey will be available in September 2016.

ÂŠ UNICEF/Geo-2015/Khizanishvili

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Support for Children Living and Working on the Streets

The project has been implemented by the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs in partnership with UNICEF, the Ministry of Education and Science, Ministries of Justice, Internal Affairs, Finance, and the Tbilisi and Kutaisi Municipalities. The initiative launched three years ago has established services and mechanisms, such as mobile teams, day care and crises intervention centres, that identify children living and working on the streets and offer them immediate support and protection. In addition, relevant agencies work to include these children and their families into existing social and child protection services such as foster care and small group homes or to reintegrate them into their biological families. The NGOs World Vision, Caritas Georgia and Child and Environment have been providing these children with appropriate personally tailored services.

Further steps include strengthening family support services and increasing the number of social workers across the country. It is important to establish strong state social protecion mechanisms to prevent child abuse and defend childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rights, that will prevent children from going to streets. It is also important to change public attitudes and stigma towards these vulnerable children.

ÂŠ UNICEF/Geo-2015/Khizanishvili

More than 600 children and their families living in Tbilisi and Kutaisi have been supported by an EU funded project to help children living and working on the streets with the ultimate goal of their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

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INDIVIDUAL STORIES Giorgi Giorgi is 17. He had been working on the streets and earning a living through selling candles and begging since childhood. In addition to dire economic and social conditions at home, he was often the victim of physical and psychological violence from his mother. With support of the staff of a day-care centre, Giorgi has graduated from the 9th grade and enrolled in a culinary vocational education college. The day-care staff provided all learning materials for him. Soon Giorgi will receive a certificate and be able to find a job.

Aleko 15-year-old Aleko grew up in various children’s institutions and had graduated from the 9th grade. He has been in a transitional centre since 2014. In the past, he was impulsive and had difficulty controlling his behaviour, which caused social problems. Because of the effort by the centre’s staff, the situation has relatively improved. Now, Aleko works to better control his behaviour, emotions and take into account others people’s views. Aleko has successfully graduated from a college as an IT technician. This has completely changed his attitude toward himself and the people around him. Aleko has become more self-confident and has developed better selfesteem. He practices boxing and has even managed to attract his friends to this sport.

Video on Stigma Against Disadvantaged Children in Society goes Viral throughout the World

The video, social experiment, on stigma against children living and working on the streets which was produced by UNICEF Georgia under the global #fightunfair campaign, became one of the most widely watched videos throughout the world. The main essence of the video is to highlight inequalities and the way Georgian society treats children from diverse backgrounds.

The video was released on 28 June, 2016 and went viral immediately in Georgia as well as multiple other countries. Alternate variations of the video was shown in other countries via UNICEF’s global and regional channels, other country offices and National Committes pages, as well as external partners. As of July 2016, it is the best performing video that UNICEF has published on social media with more than 157 million views and 4 million shares on Facebook alone.

The video features a six-year-old girl called Anano who receives different treatment from people depending on her clothing and external appearance. The video displays the different ways children are treated, depending on their social status and physical appearance.

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Social Model of Disability is Being Developed Georgia ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which envisages substantial developments to address the high level of stigma associated with disabilities and a lack of services to support families, especially in small cities and rural areas. The Convention also requires that Georgia move away from the existing medical model of disability assessment that focuses on a medical diagnosis and ignores many children with special needs. With the aim of changing the existing medical model to a social model, UNICEF is supporting the

Georgian Government to develop a functional social model for assessing disabilities and identifying the necessary policy and legislative changes. In collaboration with UNICEF, the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs established a working group, which is composed of experts and government representatives, to identify the gaps in the existing national legislation and to review the best practices of other countries. As a next step, the working group will develop a new national functional model of disability and an action plan for its implementation.

Specialized Alternative Care Services for Infants and Children with Disabilities In 2015, the Georgian Government, in close collaboration with UNICEF and USAID initiated the project â&#x20AC;&#x153;Protection of Children with Disabilitiesâ&#x20AC;? aiming at developing specialized alternative care services for infants and children with disabilities. This process is led by the Ministry of Labour, Health, and Social Affairs and utilizes international best practices.

ÂŠ UNICEF/Geo-2015/Gurgenidze

This project will establish and pilot two smallscale alternative care facilities for infants and young children with severe disabilities who normally live at the Tbilisi Infant House. This will imply developing an intensive specialized social and psychological assistance and nursery care model for children with severe disabilities. This project aims at providing a better quality of life

and ensuring the enhanced social inclusion of its beneficiaries. For example, children with severe disabilities will be able to be enrolled in preschool and mainstream education systems. The pilot phase will give the Georgian Government the opportunity to expand the specialized alternative care services for all children and to close down the remaining government-run institutions for children with disabilities in Georgia. In order to facilitate the process, a working group was established with the aim of developing the following: a model for alternative care services as well as related standards; requirements for registration of service providers; and the necessary legislative amendments for establishing the care facilities. The services will be launched in 2016.

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Justice for All:

A Path to an Effective and Accessible Justice System ÂŠ UNICEF/Geo-2016/Gurgenidze

In June 2016 a new three-year project was launched with the financial support from the European Union aiming to ensure access to justice for all and to establish an effective justice system for children in Georgia. The project is being jointly implemented by UNICEF and UNDP. The project will ensure the practical application of the main principles of the newly adopted Juvenile Justice Code. In particular, the project will do the following: align the relevant civil, administrative and criminal national legislation with international best standards of children rights; create a comprehensive data system on children in the justice system; strengthen ministerial quality assurance mechanisms for monitoring and assuring children rights; improve the environment for children in the justice system; establish specialized criminal and civil law systems and strengthen the capacity of specialized justice professionals; and educate children in conflict with the law, child victims and witnesses of crime as well as children participating in civil and administrative violations proceedings about their rights.

INDIVIDUAL STORIES Giorgiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Story Giorgi is 16 years old. A year ago, he didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t attend school and he spent his time on the streets. He had a difficult relationship with his mother, and Giorgi was placed in a state care facility. He lived in a small group home and in a crisis centre for a while due to the unfavorable conditions in his family and acts of violence. Giorgi also used psychotropic substances from time to time. After he robbed a young man, while living on the streets, he was detained. After consulting with social workers who assessed his risks and needs, Giorgi was integrated into a state diversion programme. The state programme has been effective in Georgia since 2010 with the support of EU and UNICEF and

allows a juvenile who has committed less grave or grave crime to be diverted from the criminal prosecution and be involved in educational, sport and social activities. Giorgi worked with a psychotherapist and took part in the Restorative Justice Programme, which helped him to understand the harm he caused other people by committing his crime. After several consultations with social workers and psychologists, Giorgi is now reunited with his mother, re-enrolled in school, has participated in a number of rehabilitation programmes as well as social and cultural events. He has new interests and is able to better manage his emotions and behavior. He is taking care of abandoned dogs in one of the shelters in Tbilisi. Giorgi wants to become a doctor and is determined to continue his studies and learn several languages.

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Georgia Pilots a Child Development Monitoring System Georgia has reached its Millennium Development Goal target for decreasing the under-five year old mortality rates, although the infant mortality rate remains at twice the EU average. The highest rate of mortality occurs in the early neonatal period while inequities persist between the rural and urban areas. In addition, low-quality services during pregnancy, delivery and post-delivery care are the major problems that significantly contribute to infant and maternal mortality. UNICEF is supporting the Georgian Government to introduce home visits by primary healthcare professionals to families with children between 0 - 3 years of age, and offering them parental education and health promotion in the home and community environment. These services

are especially valuable for families undergoing socio-economic difficulties, psychosocial stress and other adverse circumstances. The home visiting system ensures childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s optimal growth and development by identifying developmental problems at an early stage and connecting those families with specialists and other sectors. A comprehensive home visiting concept was developed and will soon be piloted in two regions: Imereti and Racha-Lechkhumi. The preparation for the pilot is ongoing and includes the mass re-training of nurses to carry out home visits. The next steps include revising relevant national regulations and increasing the number home visitations throughout the whole country.

Improving Perinatal Care through Regionalization UNICEF is supporting the Georgian Government to develop and scale up the regionalization of perinatal care throughout the country, which is essential for strengthening the maternal and child healthcare system. It is expected that introducing regionalized perinatal care will help reduce the high maternal mortality and neonatal death rates in Georgia.

ÂŠ UNICEF/Geo-2015/Khetaguri

The regionalization considers grading (I-III levels) of the existing maternities in Georgia as per the predefined requirements for each level considering human resources, infrastructure, equipment, laboratory and diagnostic services. Each level serves those patients who need the relevant technological and human capacities. The delivery should happen in the maternity that fully corresponds to the needs of a particular pregnant woman in terms of technology and skilled personnel.

In 2015, the pilot project was launched in Imereti and Racha-Lechkhumi perinatal institutions with the support of the American Government. Later the project was expanded to Kvemo Kartli and Tbilisi in partnership with the Rotary Club and UNFPA. In July 2016, the regionalization concept was launched in Adjara, Guria, Samegrelo, Mtskheta-Mtianeti and Shida Kartli regions with the support of UNICEF. The initiative will be introduced in Kakheti and Samtskhe-Javakheti in partnership through World Vision. The new initiative also envisages training relevant professionals such as obstetricians, gynaecologists, midwifes and neonatal specialists. In order to start the regionalization of perinatal care in the Samegrelo and Adjara regions and to discuss relevant implementation issues, the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs and UNICEF organized two conferences in July held in Zugdidi and Batumi.

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A New Electronic System for the Maternal and Newborn Health Surveillance Through UNICEFâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; technical and financial support, a new electronic birth registry that aims at monitoring maternal and newborn health was launched in Georgia. The new system will help to further enhance the healthcare services for pregnant women and children. The introduction of the electronic module is led by the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs, the Social Service Agency and the National Centre for Disease Control and Public Health and is supported by the University of Tromso of Norway. This new electronic module does not have to be installed in every computer and considerably reduces administrative costs. The module collects maternal, fetus, and newborn data that allows for full epidemiological analysis.

An estimated 500 representatives of maternity hospitals and antenatal clinics were trained throughout the country to educate them about the technical issues related to data entry. In 2016, the Georgian Government mandated that all healthcare facilities enter relevant data into the new electronic module for maternal and newborn medical surveillance. Through this model, Georgia will be able to achieve the following: improve the maternal and child information management system; guarantee the accuracy of the data; facilitate monitoring of and reporting on service provision; and improve overall service quality and take an active part in global scientific researches.

Mobile Application on Vaccination for Parents Parents will be able to monitor the vaccination of their children through a special mobile application developed by the National Centre for Disease Control and Public Health with the support of UNICEF. Thanks to the mobile application, parents will be able to receive information about the national vaccination calendar, vaccines and their side-effects, vaccine preventable diseases and specific recommendations about vaccinations. One of the features of the application will be sending reminders for the timing of vaccinations. Parents will have to register their child with all the necessary data into the downloaded application to receive notifications and reminders about upcoming vaccinations. The application will use IOS and Android platforms and parents can access it from an app store or Google Play.

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Interventions to Address Malnutrition in Georgia About half a million women and children in Georgia suffer from some form of malnutrition. Nutritional deficits, lack of vitamins and essential microelements in children affect not only their health and survival but also their physical and intellectual growth, school performance and productivity. Provision of micronutrient supplementation for pregnant women and children and the promotion of exclusive breastfeeding are one of the suggested interventions to reduce malnutrition. The Georgian Government introduced micronutrient supplements to pregnant women and to the most vulnerable children. The distribution of multiple micronutrient powders, which is to be sprinkled over the food before consumption (in-home fortification), is expected to increase the nutritional density of meals for 6-24-month-old children in these critical early development months. UNICEF supported the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs to conduct an assessment of breastfeeding practices in maternities. It is planned to establish a special working group to monitor the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Law on the Protection and Promotion of BreastFeeding, Consumption of Bottle Feeding Productsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

Public Advocacy Campaign on Malnutrition From October through December 2015, a public advocacy campaign about malnutrition was carried aiming to educate the public about the impact of micronutrient deficiencies on the lives of women and children and provided recommendations to address the issue. The campaign included seminars for national and regional journalists, animations, social media campaign, videos involving famous doctors and media stories about the issue. It created an active public discussion and resulted in 41 per cent of people receiving information about malnutrition and flour fortification with iron and folic acid.

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A Universal and Free School Readiness Year Preschool education plays an important role in a child’s school performance in the later stage of life. While attendance rates of young children in preschool institutions has increased, about one third of 3-6 years olds in Georgia are not enrolled in early childhood education. UNICEF supported the Ministry of Education and Science to develop the national school readiness programme for all five-year-old children. The programme was introduced in all kindergartens of Tbilisi prior to the nation-wide roll-out, which is expected in 2016.

UNICEF supported the Ministry of Education and Science in developing school readiness educational standards, a school readiness manual and activity book, and training modules for teachers that would enable them to facilitate both the teaching and learning processes in school readiness groups. The implementation of the School Readiness Programme requires teacher training and guided supervision, adequate environment and teaching materials, which can be achieved through partnership between the central and local governments.

The main objectives of the School Readiness Programme are the following:

• To promote learning by play and individual approaches so that children’s individual needs and interests are better considered; • To support the development of socio-emotional and cognitive skills that will help children to be prepared for the challenges of school where the learning process is more structured; • To realize the potential of every child based on his/her development, age, interests and needs and to create equal opportunities for all children throughout Georgia.

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New Standards for Early and Preschool Education UNICEF supports the Georgian Government in developing standards for early and preschool education institutions. In particular, the following standards have been developed: • Teachers’ Guide on hygiene providing methodological guidelines on how to teach personal hygiene issues to preschool children in an age appropriate manner; • The guidelines and technical regulations on water, sanitation, hygiene and nutrition for preschools;

• The technical regulations on quality and safety of the children’s food products and food raw materials; • The professional standards for caregiverpedagogues and early and preschool education standards. The development of these standards also includes additional teachers training. It is essential that the central authorities monitor the municipalities throughout the implementation of these standards.

The National Curriculum Development

The quality of education in Georgia remains a significant challenge. Through the support of UNICEF and Estonian experts, the Ministry of Education and Science has been revising the national curriculum for grades 1-12. The revised curriculum will help to equip students with essential life skills and support the development of their critical analytical skills. Such a curriculum is a prerequisite for successful outcomes, both at the individual and system levels. The revised and improved curriculum provided the basis for the revision of textbooks.

UNICEF and Estonian experts, in partnership with the Teacher Professional Development Centre, supported eight state universities to improve programmes for in- and pre-service training of school teachers. In November 2015, UNICEF organized a study tour for representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science to Estonia to exchange knowledge and experience on inclusive and quality education.

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Monitoring of the Protection of Children’s Rights by the Public Defender’s Office Enhancing the independent monitoring of children’s rights and strengthening the capacities of the child rights’ centre and the regional branches of the Public Defender’s Office are the main areas of cooperation between the Public Defender’s Office and UNICEF under their three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in June 2016. Carrying out workshops on child rights, strengthening regional child rights’ monitoring and coordinating mechanisms, developing joint

advocacy plans and promoting child rights will be the main directions of this cooperation. UNICEF continued to support the Public Defender’s Office to monitor children’s rights in various institutions and care facilities. In 2015, the Public Defender’s Officer monitored country-wide preschool facilities, while in 2016 the monitoring of the situation of children in foster care and reintegration services was conducted.

http://data.unicef.ge UNICEF Georgia Data Portal:

Driving change through data

A New Data Portal to Support Evidence-Based Policy Development in Georgia In 2015, UNICEF developed and launched an interactive data portal, available via data.unicef. ge, which stores all the major studies and surveys detailing the situation of women and children carried out by UNICEF during the past years. The portal displays not only the reports analysing various studies but also datasets that will give policy makers and researchers an opportunity to use and tailor the data to their needs.

The web portal allows online analysis of data without statistical software. Users are able to download full datasets of surveys and census for further in-depth analysis. It aims to promote more research and analysis of important issues that are essential for policy development, planning and advocacy.

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Media Monitoring

Media representatives report on children normally only in the context of news and, as such, media stories contain abridged information. In addition, in-depth analysis of the issues that are of particular importance for improving the situation of children remain rare. However, the media’s efforts in this direction have increased compared to previous years, which is a result of the media monitoring conducted from March to September 2015 by the Charter of Journalistic Ethics with UNICEF’s

support. The aim of the media monitoring was to study stories on children in electronic, online and print media and to analyse their compliance with professional and ethical standards. The media made an effort to observe children’s rights and ethical norms. However, the media monitoring researchers found that increased caution with regard to children sometimes had adverse effects, and journalists preferred to avoid involvement of children in their stories. In addition to media monitoring, the partnership between UNICEF and the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics included seminars for journalists on ethical reporting and discussions with editors. The national and regional TV companies signed a joint agreement aimed at creating self-regulation mechanisms in relation to children’s issues. Under the memorandum, the broadcasters assumed responsibility for extending the scope of the concerned parties in self-regulation commissions and to include complaints on child-related issues. At present, the media monitoring activities are on-going and the results of the next round of monitoring will be available in October 2016.

Supporting Children in Abkhazia In Abkhazia, UNICEF’s engagement expanded beyond mother and child health care to include education and child protection. UNICEF continued to strengthen the quality of health, education and child protection services, to build the capacity of professionals working with children and to gather more evidence about the situation of children. In particular, 200 doctors and nurses, 400 teachers, 30 police inspectors, and 25 psychologists were trained in child care protection and healthcare. In addition, 25 people from the Child Development and Rehabilitation Centres for Children with Disabilities were trained in partnership with World Vision. Through UNICEF’s three children development centres, 272 children with disabilities and their parents were provided with basic services such as life-skills development, speech therapy, physiotherapy and psychological counselling. Finally, 495 children were provided with preschool education services through 46 preschool groups in

villages without kindergartens, mainly in the Gali, Tkvarcheli and Ochamchira districts. UNICEF provided district hospitals, maternity wards and rural primary health centres with small equipment and supplies, assisted in introducing and implementing evidence-based medical protocols in mother and child healthcare. Finally, it supported routine immunization for children including introducing an electronic immunization database. More than 1,000 children and youth were equipped with important skills for social participation and more than 6,000 children were enrolled in various outreach activities and health promotion campaigns through different youth clubs established with UNICEF’s support. In 2016, UNICEF plans to further expand its teachers’ training programme, develop a social work framework and train social workers to provide services to vulnerable children and their families.

Editorial Note This newsletter is published in English and Georgian and aims to provide information on UNICEF activities in Georgia. This is the nineteenth issue and your remarks and recommendations about the publication would be appreciated. Please let us know if you would like any additional information on UNICEF and its work. We welcome any feedback, suggestions or contributions. For further information, please, contact Maya Kurtsikidze, Communication Officer, at the UNICEF Office in Georgia. Telephone: (995 32) 2 232388, 2 251130 (ext 229). E-mail: mkurtsikidze@unicef.org