NGO Resource Center Opened in Tskhinvali

On June 6, 2003 presentation of NGO Resource Center took place in Tskhinvali. Although the center is quite new, it already offers many opportunities to the non-governmental agencies in the region.

Lira Tskhovrebova who also directs another NGO – Association of South Ossetian Women for Democracy and Human Rights, developed the proposal of NGO Resource centre. As she told Advocacy.ge the idea of creating NGO Resource Centre is not new; and it creates opportunities for pooling the strength of the local NGOs, making their work more qualified and effective.

The centre is financially supported by Department for International Development (DFID) of the Great Britain. “This project has so many important aims and purposes that we decided to support Lira [Tskhovrebova] and her proposal. As we see our expectations are met” -Lali Meskhi of UK Embassy in Georgia said at the opening ceremony.

NGO Resource Centre functions from April 1, 2003 and is already engaged in several important aspects of civil society life.

The Center hosts the roundtable meetings and trainings/seminars, as well as provides technical and logistical assistance to NGOs. Roundtable meetings are organized for exchanging experience and information between governmental and third sector representatives. Participation and discussion intensity speak about the significance of these meetings. 

“Round tables give us the chance to meet each other, speak about our problems, the ways to solve them and to shape our future plans”- Zaira Maraneli, of “Temida” (local NGO) said at the meeting. 

Trainings and seminars are held on various topics and cover NGO related legislation, human rights and other key principles of democratic society. Trainings are carried out by qualified local and international experts.

The door of NGO Resource Center is open for every CSO. “There are only two months since we opened the center, but daily we receive a lot of visitors seeking various types of support” -Irina Kelekhsaeva of NGO Resource Centre told Advocacy.ge. 

One of the aims of the center is to establish contacts between the representatives of third sector and other institutions. Participating civil activists say their expectations in this regard are met.

The center helps NGOs in locating the information over the Internet. Within the framework of the project information list and NGO directory will be issued, providing the detailed information about NGOs working in the region.

The project will run for a year; however Lira Tskhovrebova considers after this period the Resource Center will be strong enough to be self-sustainable.