Lia Putkaradze

Saorsa – skills and passion for the better future

“Adjara has great people and great potential, I want to live and work here, not in Tbilisi” says Lia Putkaradze, head of a local nonprofit “Saorsa” and Civic Leadership Program participant from 2018. Lia established “Saorsa” in 2018 with a vision of civic minded and skilled workforce – “my background is in management, however life-long learning and education is my passion and this is the work I want to dedicate myself to”.

In a country where income and employment levels remain low, especially outside the capital, Lia’s organization tries to contribute to bottom-up improvements, working with people at local level in her native region of Adjara.

“My organization is 1 year old and we already carried out 3 educational projects for women, youth and students helping them with professional orientation, career services, developing employment and self-employment skills” Lia says.

“Saorsa” alumni, Lisa Antadze, a 17-year-old school student who currently volunteers for Adjara TV, says Lia’s projects helped her decide what she wanted to do with her life: “I come from a village where young people often choose profession based on what their parents envision for them. At “Saorsa” I realized how wrong this was – choosing a profession is a lifechanging decision, it is our career, it is us who will be working in this trade, not our mothers, fathers, or neighbors, so it should be primarily our decision, not theirs. I wish more young people, especially in rural communities, had opportunities similar to mine at Saorsa, to make better, more informed choices about their careers and their future.”

Government does not invest in such services, quality education, as well as accessible lifelong learning opportunities remain limited in Georgia’s regions while a lot of young people lack access to information and skills that will help them become competitive in the labor market.

In Lia’s opinion these are areas, where Georgian third sector can be more active and take the lead, contributing to workforce development, equitable labor relations and empowered citizens. “We need informed and skilled youth to have vibrant civil society with engaged citizens”.  That is one of the reasons Lia joined Civic Leadership program – she wanted to learn how to excel as an educator, a local nonprofit leader, and support others more effectively. “I immediately started applying new knowledge in my own training modules for students, changed my approach to project budgeting and campaigning. Particpating in this program convinced me that civic leadership shall be fostered more actively. I want to live happily in this country and this means joining forces with like-minded people, people who have similar values, it also means fostering youth that is independent, younger generation that stands on their own feet and achieves changes via cooperation and mutual empowerment, not violent protest.”

Civic Leadership program supports community leaders and active citizens like Lia throughout Georgia. Civic Leadership Program is developed and carried out by CTC under Georgia Civil Society Development Initiative.