Since 2016 Istituto cultura italiana joined the European voluntary service programme (EVS, following ESC) hosting European young people in Georgia in order to foster intercultural-exchange, contributing to the renovation of democratic, educational, social and civil structures in Georgia, and to involve young people in activities useful both for the local community, and for their personal and professional growth.
During several projects, we have been leading an editorial board with volunteers for digital publishing, we have been organizing a language club and intercultural exchange involving the local community, organized workshops and lectures at other organizations and institutions, and carried out a daily work on media-literacy and the conscious use of new technologies.
Our projects are distinguished by the right balance (in our opinion) between civic society engagement and skills/key competencies development through qualified personnel. Here you can find some of our latest work and activities.
Istituto cultura italiana from the beginning of its activities and administration has focused on the combination of a cultural offer, ranging from café philo encounters, lectures, painting exhibitions, language lessons – all of them characterized by an international disposition and vocation – with an information processing work, aimed at valorising created data and to let daily life of the organization and its members empowered, rather than "constrained", by data structures originating from their locality and specificity, rather than from the "elsewhere" of multi-national industries and global market.
According to this view, we have cooperated with local partners and friends, for the creation of a IT (information technology) back-end for the management of student's classes and lessons, organization of contacts, timetables, internationalization (i18n) and presentation of curricula, "real time" booking of lessons, an "enhanced" chat encouraging at complexity of communication rather than the radical opposite, installed on our own website, and much, much more, devoting to that approach significant resources of the organization, personal energies, and time.
Typically our projects are composed by media-literacy activities, focusing on themes proposed by the partner organizations and fitted on the interests of volunteers, and by intercultural activities, with attention for writing of articles, reports, interviews, workshops held at other institutions, language exchange clubs, and if possible, cineforum or theatre's events. Here is a brief summary of the activities organized until now! (attention these contents are not updated, please check here for the latest activities)
Tommaso de Vivo. (Administrative tasks and task-related support on media-literacy) Tommaso holds a master degree in Philosophy from University of Florence and a "Ph.D." in Civilization of Humanism and Renaissance, with joint-diploma from University of Florence and Paris IV-Sorbonne, in historical-philosophical area. He has been redactor, teacher and professor of computer science in state and private organizations and at University of Florence (degree course "Storia e tutela dei beni archeologici, archivistici e librari") before undertaking his curriculum in humanities, and he is an expert in bibliographical research, digital publishing and semantic data. Tommaso will provide task-related support to volunteers specifically in the field of media-literacy and in the preparation of their workshops.
Kerri Maki (Organizational support) Kerri holds a master's degree in Linguistics from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) (2014). She studied Turkic languages at the graduate level in Turkey prior to relocating to Georgia. She has many years of experience teaching English at all levels, as a private tutor as well as in schools, and working as a freelance translator (Turkish to English) and editor of scientific/academic articles for publication in international peer-reviewed journals. She has supported the rescue of street animals in Turkey and Georgia for many years and currently devotes some of her spare time to that cause.
Marina Metreveli (Linguistic support)
Marina holds a master's degree in English Language and Literature (1968) and subsequently specialized in Sustainable Rural Tourism. Since 2000 until the present she has worked for democratic engagement organizations such as Save the Children Federation, United Nations Association of Georgia, United Nations Development Programme, International Organization for Migration, United Nations' World Tourism Organization, as well as for a number of language centers thanks to her proficiency in Georgian, Russian and English (native for the first two, C2 for the latter), including European Academic Center, Georgia Police Academy (Ministry of Internal Affairs), and Hualing International Special Economic Zone. Marina heads the International Center for Caucasus Tourism, and has three publications on Tourism and Sustainable Rural Tourism (Countur 2014 and 2015, "Bene" 2016). Marina has considerable experience in international projects, translation and language instruction and is able to support volunteers in English, Georgia and Russian at the highest level.
Irakli Khorava (Personal support)
Irakli holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science (Ilia State University 2022) and also studied education at the University of Kragujevac (Serbia) on an Erasmus scholarship. He has worked for the Youth For The World organization since 2016 as community manager and as Volunteer development Officer for Caritas Georgia, where he recruits and manages both local and international volunteers, since the beginning of 2023. From 2019 to 2020, he worked as an ESC (European Solidarity Corps) Volunteer in Trento, Italy, where he managed the youth center, collaborated in the development of project proposals and in the implementation of various Civil Service projects, and assisted in schools. For the past 5 years, he has actively participated in non-formal education activities/training courses and youth exchanges for Erasmus+ programs. He has 10 years of experience volunteering with various governmental and non-governmental organizations at the local and international levels. A native speaker of Georgian and Megrelian, he is also proficient in English and Italian.
Our organization members do their best to provide volunteers with an accommodation suitable for their needs, and with regards of the three projects listed below we have hosted volunteers initially in a prestigious flat in the city center (right besides corso Rustaveli), shared with a professional and past student of our organization, then in a private flat in Saburtalo, near Kazbegi av., and finally in a modern and comfortable private flat located in Vazha Pshavela av. (3 metro stops from our office).
In our experience, considered that cultural and societal differences between Georgia and European countries are significant, a private room in family is the best possible solution, in order to guarantee that volunteers are assisted through out all their stay, and they will not suffer isolation.
A cohabitation with a local person is also the best way to ensure that volunteers will undertake their experience with the right spirit, that is non only for the benefit of the local community but also for being able to "host", in turn, different behavioral models and sensitivity that another culture is able (or should be able) to offer, inasmuch as both aspects are the very purposes of the programme: a genuine impact on the hosting community, and an equally genuine learning dimension.