Education Georgia Project #15899

Challenging Positive Attitudes Toward Stalin

by Radarami

Project Report | Dec 9, 2014
Radarami Update - November 2014

By Brian Gillikin | Program Manager

Dear friends,

It has been a truly exciting few months here in Tbilisi. Before getting to updates, however, Radarami would first like to plug a little thing called “The Holidays.”

‘Tis the season, and as such, we’d like to give a little something back. As you may or may not have heard, we've come up with a few small, but deeply heartful gifts we'd like to give back as our little way of saying “Thank you” for your support.

And don't forget: these make great gifts for friends and family interested in the work you've supported in Georgia.

Donation - Our Gift to you

$10 - $30 - A thank-you postcard

$30 - $75 - A postcard plus a Radarami 2015 calendar

$75 - $150 - All the above, plus a Radarami 2015 desk calendar

$150 - $300 - All the above, plus a personal letter and picture from a Radarami reader in Georgian and English

$300 - $500 - All the above, plus a Radarami tote bag*

More than $500 - All the above, plus we’ll include your name in English and Georgian in our next publication’s Special Thanks To section

*Tote bags won’t arrive until after New Years as one of our trans-Atlantic supporters has agreed to include them with his luggage on his US-bound flight home for the holidays.

The donations made through the end of the year end will go towards:

No. 15 in the Read & Connect Series: Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage by Heather Rogers. Translation has already begun on this look into the global waste industry, capitalism, and garbage. We look forward publishing this work, funded by the US Embassy’s Book Translation Project and by your donations in late-Spring 2015.
2nd printings of Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error by Kathryn Schulz and Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. Yes, we’re almost out of copies and demand is still high.

And now to the news...saving the best for last...

With much energy, patience, elbow-grease, and the help of OSGF and you, our generous supporters, The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen by Kwame Anthony Appiah, and The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement by David Graeber, Nos. 12 & 13 in the Read & Connect Series, are printed and distributed to readers throughout Georgia.

In mid-September, we loaded up a van full of fresh copies of Honor Code, and headed west. Neither storms nor floods nor fog nor flat tires nor the lack of physical roads could hold us back from Honor Code presentations and lively discussions on the role of morality, ethics, and honor in societies in Ozurgeti, Batumi, and Shuakhevi. We also covered new territory, delivering books to Khulo and the Adjaran high villages.

For Democracy Project, we set our sights even higher, venturing out in early November to Zugdidi where we joined longtime readers and supporters at the Central Library for discussion and cake before heading up to Svaneti for a event in Mestia’s City Hall where teachers from 10 villages were introduced to Radarami and received in total over 300 books. We wrapped the trip up in Kutaisi with what ended up being a lively debate on democracy and governance.

And the news that we’ve all been waiting to hear: Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin is being printed at the time of this writing. A massive effort made possible by too many people to name, we’re thrilled to at last see No. 14 in the series released out into Georgia. A huge feat, and our thanks go out to the Heinrich Böll Foundation and as always to you, our global network of supporters. We look forward to heading out into rural Georgia in January and February to stoke the flames of this important book.

As Radarami seeks innovative ways to reach curious Georgian audiences, we have launched the trial version of online radio station called “RadioRami”, with technical support through OSGD/SIDA’s MicroWav.FM innitiative. Through this platform, we will be able to air recordings of Radarami events, interviews, public lectures, and other Georgian language content focused on the global conversation to new and wider audiences. Right now, we're streaming contemporary classical music from 9 am - 9 pm Tbilisi time, but in the next weeks, we'll be adding Georgian language content focusing on Radarami books and the global conversation. To take a listen, click here.

Radarami will continue to spread the global conversation in Georgia one book and one reader at a time as we move into 2015. Stay tuned for more exciting developments at Radarami. If you have any other questions or comments, please email brian@radarami.org.

Thank you again for your generous support.

Best wishes,

The Radarami Team

Links:

http://eng.radarami.org

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Sep 9, 2014
Radarami Update - September 2014

By Brian Gillikin | Program Manager

July 1st Event - How Children Succeed

Dear friends,

After escaping the heat of Tbilisi for environs around the globe—Egypt, China, Turkey, Albania, and Guria (to name a few)—the Radarami team is back and ready to heat up the printing presses with Nos. 12, 13, and 14 in the Read & Connect Series.

But first some updates on what else has been going on with engaging Georgian readers in the global converstation.

On July 1st, Radarami held a book discussion on our 11th book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough at the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia in Tbilisi. Despite the heat, over 80 people attended, prompting a lively discussion and distibution of over 150 books (which was every book we'd brought).

Radarami expanded our regional library distribution this summer. In mid-June, we headed up to Khevsureti with Step Forward's 'Books for High Villages' initiative for the opening of a new library in the village of Barisakho. We also sent books to school and public libraries in Ozurgeti and to the Open Beach Library in Batumi.

Through collaboration with Peace Corps Georgia, 120 books were distributed to new Volunteers in 60 schools and NGOs throughout Georgia, and, with the help of Suze Rutherford, a particularily ambitious Peace Corps Volunteer, we were able to deliver 4 sets of books to the Kakheti Regional Development Foundation in Akhmeta and 8 sets to the Pankisi Women Club and Pankisi Women's Council for capacity-building for the women. Suze plans on setting up reading clubs in both Akhmeta and Pankisi, and we look forward to sending more books her way in the future.

With only a few small strings left to tie up, the two publications funded in part by the Open Society Foundation and by your generosity are being printed shortly—The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen by Kwame Anthony Appiah this week and The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement by David Graeber soon thereafter. We look forward to the conversations that these two books will spark in our readership.

Likewise, Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin is going through the last edits, and we’re gearing up for what will likely be a very exciting time of discussion and debate on Stalin's role and status in Georgia. We continue to be grateful for your support throughout the length of this project as well as for partial funding through the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

As we move into the coming months, we're looking to continue honing our skills, strengthing our mission, and spreading the global conversation one book and one reader at a time. Stay tuned for more exciting developments at Radarami.

If you have any other questions or comments, please email brian@radarami.org.

Thank you again for your generous support.

Best wishes,

The Radarami Team

Photo Credits:

Levan Mujiri

Links:

http://eng.radarami.org

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Jun 12, 2014
Radarami Update - June 2014

By Brian Gillikin | Program Manager

Dear friends of Radarami,

Spring has arrived in Tbilisi, bringing with it beauty weather, fresh fruit and vegetables, and some exciting things here at Radarami, including our eleventh book launch, three upcoming publications, as well as a few goodbyes and hellos.

Because of your support, Radarami recently published and launched our eleventh book,How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough. The book is a fascinating look at how failure and exploration build character inside and outside the classroom. On April 27th, we journeyed out to Café Marleta in Telavi for the book launch. The launch featured short introductions by Tinatin Khomeriki, the book’s editor; Tamar Gakhokidze, the manager of the Newton School in Tbilisi; and Nino Kiknavelidze, a child psychologist who led a very active discussion between the event’s seventy attendees, each of whom received copies of the book.

Radarami has a busy summer ahead with three publications going to the press. The two publications funded in part by the Open Society Foundation and by your generosity—The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen by Kwame Anthony Appiah, andThe Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movementby David Graeber—are both nearly edited, and we hope to have them both printed by early July.

We’re also happy to say that Timothy Snyder’sBloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalinis likewise just about ready for publication. We’re very grateful for your support throughout the length of this project as well as for partial funding through the Heinrich Böll Foundation. We’re excited that this publication is finally coming to fruition because it will add a much needed voice to the political divisiveness of in Georgia over Stalin, who is still admired by many as a national hero. We hope this publication will be instrumental in a public reappraisal of his role.

In April, Radarami took part in the Wandering Books Initiative. Radarami books were placed in public places with a note saying, "I'm a wandering book, you can take me and leave me somewhere after you read me". Please follow the link for the short video we made about this project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eKGMATdR9A

Naturally, Radarami isn’t stopping here. As we look to the rest 2014, we will be working to fund publication ofThe Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It by Paul Collier, which examines the fifty failed states which are home to the poorest one billion people on Earth, and what needs to be done as they fall further and further behind the rest of the world. We’re also continuing to expand our distribution network, recently adding more libraries and utilizing Georgia’s nearly ninety Peace Corps Volunteers, all of whom work in the regions, for book dissemination.

On a final note, Radarami was sorry to say goodbye in mid-May to our director Sabrina Badger who departed to pursue further education and opportunities in the US, and and in the beginning of June to Mitch Belkin, who will shortly depart to Indonesia on a Fulbright Teaching Scholarship. Under Sabrina’s leadership, Radarami published three books and procured funding for three more, and Mitch was at the core of what Radarami has achieved in the past two years. We wish them the best and are grateful for their time of direction and growth here at Radarami.

However, we’re glad to welcome onboard several new faces here at Radarami. We have recently been joined by Brian Gillikin, who has taken over many of Sabrina’s former duties. Brian was formerly a Peace Corps Volunteer in Rustavi, Georgia and has since worked for American Councils and JumpStart Georgia here in Tbilisi. We are also joined by Arianne Swieca, who is transitioning into Mitch’s former role within the Radarami team.

If you have any other questions or comments, please email brian@radarami.org.

Thank you again for your generous support.

Best wishes,

The Radarami Team

Photo Credits:

Giorgi Kvintradze

Links:

http://eng.radarami.org

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