"I've Got the Spirit" Project

GYSD's 25th Anniversary was a huge success! The number of countries participating went up to 135, and there were many more projects organized in Eurasia!

Let's take a look at the projects that celebrated Global Youth Service Day - 2013! We have already written about the preparations of Natia Sharikadze's project "I've Got the Spirit" that took place in Tbilisi, Georgia.

On April 27 there was a training/lecture about Georgian Cultural Heritage Preservations and its problems

for 50 participating students. Invited speaker from The Agency Ketevan Digmelashvili spoke to the audience. Later the students had discussion with Natia Sharikadze about the concept of volunteering and what it means to people.

Next day, students traveled to Armaztsikhe to help clean the historic place. 5 Representatives (one expert and 4 museum staff members) were at the place to help/guide the students. Volunteers had 2 tasks:

Taking out the grass (weeding) from the important monuments such as: the pedestal of the pagan god, the base of the unique pagan temple from II-III century, wine basement from 1st century and bathroom chambers from BC II Century, moving rocks

from the inside of the historic monument King’s bathroom with 5 chambers (from II-III Century) outside of the fence that was around it, cleaning area from trash.

The project raised awareness about the Cultural and Historic Heritage preservations among its beneficiaries, who now consider that volunteering is important and in personal talks they mentioned that they never thought that they could help sustain the history. Also, the project helped National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservations to improve the condition at one of the heritage sites. 

The project got a media coverage from from TV9 (08.10.12)

There is also an album of the event on International Spark Program’s Official Facebook Page.

In total, the project involved more than 100 people which is a very good result. Also, more events in partnership with the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservations are expected in the future.

Thank you so much Natia Sharikadze, Shorena Megrelishvili, Marika Kurdadze, Anjela Pakhlajian, Tamar Basilaia, Tornike Kuchava, and Anna Abesadze for your great contribution to GYSD and community service in general! We hope to hear from you more about your o