Warmest greeting from Kutaisi to readers of this newsletter.

Our best wishes to you all for a happy peaceful and successful New Year! In the first edition of this year we publish news reports and photos received from KNIA members and guests of Kutaisi at the end of 2018.

Hoping they will be interesting to you.

Great news came to Kutaisi from Newport. Our great friends Alice Butler-Bright and Clare Munro along with other members of Coleg Gwent Staff and some support of the NKTA collected and sent $4000 for essential restoration work and dislexia diagnostic equipment for the Kutaisi Centre called “Bridge For Social Inclusion”.

The main aim of the Bridge For Social Inclusion is to integrate children and adolescents with disabilities into society by developing alternative care and support services.

Alice, Head of School of Care at Gwent College of Further Education, Keith Backhouse, Head of Campus 2 of the same college and Caroline Mclachlan, Honorary Citizen of Kutaisi and Honorary Professor of ATSU visited the centre when they were participating in the Festival of Friendship between Kutaisi and Newport in 2016. They got interested in the work of the centre, life of its pupils and promised to help the centre develop. A lot of effort and time was put into collecting the money to keep the promise and accomplish what they had set out to achieve.

The result is impressive. No need to say that the money collected for the Bridge by our Newport friends will contribute a lot to raising school effectiveness.

A big thanks from the Kutaisi – Newport International Association to each and every person for their support to the Bridge For Social Inclusion.

We would also like to thank Tim Hartley for giving a car for the Bridge and also Derek Butler who together with Tim did a great job to get the necessary documents for it.

We are very proud and happy to announce that the Bridge For Social Inclusion has received a generous donation of $ 4 000 as a Christmas and New Year gift to help all the children in the centre. All this became possible thanks to a great support and several wonderful fundraising actions organized by Clare Munro, Alice Butler-Bright, Paul West, Clare Louise, their friends, colleagues, family members and childcare learners at Coleg Gwent.

The NEWPORT - KUTAISI TWINNING ASSOCIATION has always been a great friend of the Bridge For Social Inclusion. Throughout the years we’ve had several memorable events. The visits by Caroline Mclachlan, Judith Mulcahy, Keith Backhouse and Alice Butler-Bright to the Bridge For Social Inclusion Kutaisi office, which were coordinated by the KNIA headed by Madona Megrelishvili, brought many possibilities for our children. The co-founder and executive Director of the Bridge For Social Inclusion, was invited to Wales, the UK to visit child, youth care and education facilities to share experience with their staff and bring new ideas and opportunities to our community. It was all possible thanks to Coleg Gwent and members of the Newport association. The visit contributed a lot to our strategy planning in the future.

A great donation was made to the Bridge For Social Inclusion by the “GOL” club. Its representatives, Tim Hartley, Gareth Edward, Winston Dainton and other members of the club came to Kutaisi with lots of different learning resources, toys and other materials for children with disabilities of the Day Centre Programme. They left one of their motor vehicles as a present to the centre.

We are delighted to receive so much warmth, love, devotion and support from our Welsh friends. The team of the Day Centre has decided to use half of the money for the renovation project as the construction work scarcely funded by donors, has created a lot of problems in the last 6 years. It has also been decided to invest the rest of the sum in child assessment and diagnostic tools. We hope to improve the availability of new resources in the best interests of all children in the Imereti region who need to be carefully examined, screened and diagnosed.

We will be always grateful to you for your help and support. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Everybody!

On behalf of the staff, children and their families

It’s difficult to fully put into words how much I enjoyed my time in Georgia, and my time as a guest of the KNIA; equally, I found it an thoroughly enriching and valuable experience that introduced me to so many wonderful people and taught me so much about Kutaisi, Georgian politics, and the UN.

I arrived with my friend Libby, also a young person from Newport, late on the night of the 9th September 2018 into the gleaming new terminal at Kutaisi International Airport, before being driven to our hotel for our stay, the Bagrati 1003 in the city centre. Over the next few days before the conference, we were most warmly welcomed by representatives of the KNIA, many of whom were also affiliated with the Akaki Tsereteli State University.

Amongst these activities, we were shown around the Botanical Garden of Kutaisi by KNIA member, Nita Khachidze, which we found to be peaceful and tranquil. It was a great pleasure to see Newport Street, and the plaques unveiled by the NKTA and the KNIA to celebrate twenty-five years of friendship between the two cities.

It was a great pleasure to meet with members of the English Philology Department of the Akaki Tsereteli State University, as well as the principal.

With a group of current students, we had a look around the university’s campus, and were shown the oldest scripts held in the libraries, as well as the new library and zoological museum.

In the next few days, we explored the area surrounding Kutaisi, including Okatse Canyon, where a suspended platform over a sheer drop has been recently constructed to thrilling effect, Kinchkha Waterfall, and Martvili Canyon. We also visited places of theological interest near to Kutaisi, including Bagrati Cathedral, Gelati Monastery, and the local Orthodox churches such as the Church of St George.

After a day of training in advance of the first international Model United Nations conference of Kutaisi and a Georgian cultural evening, we travelled to the Georgian parliament on the outskirts of Kutaisi for the first day of the Conference.

Libby and I represented Moldova for the purposes of the conference, which is designed to present participants with a third-party view of major international challenges; in the morning’s subcommittee in the morning, we discussed international responses to the migrant and refugee crisis. In the afternoon, all of the delegations met as a General Assembly for the first time. We returned to the Kutaisi State Opera and Ballet Theatre in the evening for a demonstration of Georgian polyphonic singing and folk dancing, which was most impressive.

On the final day of the Conference, we firstly met the mayor of Kutaisi at City Hall, and then, as the General Assembly reconvened, Libby and I argued strongly in favour of a resolution. We were eventually awarded second place in the category of Best Delegation - something we were most grateful for. I continued my journey around the Caucasus, firstly to the wonderful Georgian capital of Tbilisi and then by overnight train to Yerevan, Armenia.

Georgia is rapidly becoming a modern, European nation. Of course, these changes don’t come overnight, but it is genuinely so exciting to see Kutaisi become directly with Europe’s great cities: Athens, Berlin, Vienna, Prague, London, Budapest and many besides. I think Georgians have so much to gain through looking to Europe and the outside world - just as Kutaisi has shared a mutually beneficial relationship with Newport over the years. Long may it continue.

My visit to Georgia was the highlight of my 2018 summer. Despite having been told prior to going how generous and welcoming the Georgian people are, the reality of how wonderful they are is unimaginable!

In my short time visiting Kutaisi, our hosts ensured that we did not miss a thing. My favourite moments included our trip to the theatre, exploring the various monasteries, and experiencing the many nature oriented trips we had, including seeing the botanical gardens and canyons. I particularly enjoyed visiting the university. It is always fascinating to compare aspects of another culture to your own, especially when guided by current Kutaisi university students who are passionate about their studies.

The Kutaisi-Newport International Association members ensure that Edward and I experienced every aspect of Georgian culture, especially the food! It was fantastic to meet the people who had made our journey possible, as I know I speak for both of us in saying that we absolutely adored our time spent in Kutaisi.