Nazarlo Community Centre
A community centre has been operating in Nazarlo village of Gardabani municipality since 2018. It was established due to the initiative of Nubar Bayramova, a local school teacher, who initially wanted to organize a library in the school. However, her desire expanded and led to the creation of the “Nazarlo Community Center.”
“Our original goal changed throughout the process.”Nubari recalls. Nubar started as a teacher of Georgian language and literature at Nazarlo School in 2015. Although she had a different goal initially, the idea of creating a library emerged eventually. However, the limited space available in the educational institution made it impossible to establish the library there.
Nubar Bairamova, with the help of young civic activists and students, opened a library in the centre of the village – in the building of a former store.
Collecting books for the library turned out to be a long process. With the support of the National Library, the Embassy of Azerbaijan, and Georgian and ethnic Azerbaijani students, several hundred books are available on site today. Some of them are from Nubar Bayramova’s family library. Georgian, Azerbaijani and Russian language books already have readers in Nazarlo.
Nubar Bayramova also talks about the difficulty that appeared right after the start of the centre’s work.
“It was a little difficult for me to gain the trust of the village. For a year, we did not hang the curtain so that everyone could see what we were doing,” Nubari recalls.
The purpose of the “Nazarlo Community Center” was gradually understood and liked by the locals, and the activities became more diverse.
“The mission of our community centre is to teach the Georgian language to non-Georgian speaking young people, civic responsibility and love of the motherland. Also, to be at the service of the community so that the community can integrate with other people living in Georgia. Our ultimate objective is to foster a sense of patriotism, integration, and unity.”, says the head of the centre Nubar Bairamova.
Working actively in the direction of non-formal education in the community centre, they also respond to local challenges.
Within the frame of one of the projects, over 300 families in the village were surveyed and it was discovered that their biggest concern was the low quality of their drinking water. A meeting was held with the trustee, and according to Nubar Bairamova, the government agencies have already taken steps to address this issue. She also noted that the “village’s trust” has been earned.
It is the merit of “Nazarlo Community Center”, as they explain to us, that a gynaecologist, a neurologist and an ophthalmologist were brought to the village twice. As part of this initiative, locals were given free consultations as well as vouchers for medical facilities at a 50% discount.
The leader of the centre discussed the pandemic period and emphasized that they remained active throughout that challenging time. They assisted the community by translating announcements and notifications, as well as scheduling appointments at the clinic.
Nubar Bayramova says that the centre has about 50 members. Among them are schoolchildren and students. They discuss together various issues and elaborate draft projects.
The centre also participated in the project “Education for All” announced by “Orbeliani for Georgia” and won. They bought new books.
One of the projects was written on ecology, which united students, teachers and parents. The whole village was involved in the project implemented together with the “Caucasian House” – they tidied up the school, and planted trees.
The centre frequently hosts trainings where invited speakers discuss current topics with the locals and hold discussions with the particular engagement of young people.
Upcoming meetings are focused on combatting disinformation, collaborating with reliable information sources, and promoting responsible use of the Internet. In addition, they provide support for graduating students. Nubar Bairamova guides them on visits to universities in September to help them become more familiar with the environment and aid in their decision-making process.
The members of the “Nazarlo Community Center” speak highly of the positive impact it has had on their daily lives:
“Our community centre changed everything in me. I envied other cities and villages that had a center and we did not. Now I am also proud that we also have a centre. Its existence means that young people have common interests. They gather around these interests and do something. As a teacher, I hope that the youth of our village will be active and change the path of the next generation. Many trainings are held at the centre, there are free courses, sometimes doctors come and conduct free consultations”, – Gulbakhar Gasumova.
“We learn something new at the centre and are more enthusiastic. We get an education, we learn about friendship, socialization, etc. It is a very important place in our present and future life. This forces us to think better about our future decisions”, – Suraya Imrhomova.
Author: Guranda Phutkaraya
Azerbaijani translation: Chichak Guseynova
English translation: Tamar Cherkezishvili
The article was created with the support of the Civil Society Institute, within the framework of the project " Civil Society Initiative: Sustainable, Open and Accountable Civil Society, Organizations for the Development of Georgia" funded by the European Union and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Kvemo Kartli Media is fully responsible for its content and it may not reflect the views of the European Union or the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. The project is implemented by a consortium led by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) together with the following non-governmental organizations – Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia (CSRDG), Civil Society Institute (CSI), Counseling and Training Center (CTC), Education Development and Employment Center (EDEC) and European Institute of Policy (IEP).
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