Education Georgia Project #10977

Read&Connect:Georgia Joins the Global Conversation

by Radarami

Read&Connect:Georgia Joins the Global Conversation

Project Report | Jul 5, 2016
Radarami Update July 2016

By Mariam Aduashvili | Project Leader

Interviewing youth for Radarami research

Dear friends,

Summer has finally come and where this usually means a quiet season in Tbilisi, Georgia, it won’t be that quiet for Radarami! We have a lot of exciting news for you.

First of all there are a few new translations coming up!

In our previous report last March, we announced the upcoming publication of the 17th book of our Radarami series, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg. The book has been translated, edited and formatted and we are waiting from the final contract with the publishing house to start printing. We hope to launch the book in late July, after which 5500 copies will be spread all over Georgia.

In the meantime, we started translating our 18th book, Oil and Honey: The Education of An Unlikely Activist by Bill McKribbe - the founder of 350.org, who has been at the forefront of the grassroots movement to fight global warming for more than 25 years. We look forward to discussing environmental issues with Georgians through this passionately written book in the coming fall.

Furthermore, we are currently translating Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia by Peter Pomerantsev with partial funding from the Open Society – Georgia Foundation. Peter Pomeranstev, a British journalist of Russian heritage, offers a unique, insider insight into contemporary Putinism and the Kremlin propaganda machine. Through his narrative driven by personal stories, Pomeranstev describes how the Russian President has now fully established control over the media in the country. As Russian propaganda significantly influences Georgia as well, it will be especially interesting to discuss this book with Georgian readers.

And now about Radarami adventures! At the beginning of April, Radarami traveled to 6 different cities in the west of Georgia to promote our 16th book of the Read & Connect series – Traffic, why we drive the way we do. We visited newly built community centers where we had the chance to engage new readers. At the start of June we also conducted short research about young Georgians with help from Annie Farnsworth, a volunteer from Austin, Texas, visiting Georgia. She, with the help of Georgian volunteers, gathered information from a broad sample of Georgian youth regarding their habits concerning interpersonal connection and access to information, as well as their interest level and attitude towards new ideas and points of view. Traveling to Ozurgeti, Telavi, Batumi, and Poti a wide range of educational levels can be seen, but one thing remains the same: the generally high interest level from students to learn about the world whether or not they have access to the proper resources to do such. And we are eager to help supply them with our books!

We plan to place custom-crafted boxes filled with books in five cities around Georgia. These boxes will be placed in social spaces such as parks or near bus stops where all people are welcome to take a book for free or donate one of their own. For each book, Radarami will donate published non-fiction book from our "Read and Connect" series.

All donations from this month will go towards translation of the following books: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness by Richard Thaler and Moral Blindness: The Loss of Sensitivity in Liquid Modernity by Zygmunt Bauman and Leonidas Donskis. With your help we can make it happen!

Thank you for your continued support!

Please contact us in case of any questions or comments at mariama@radarami.org.

Have a great summer!

The Radarami Team

Library box in Ozurgeti, Guria

Book Launch in west Georgia

Radarami readers

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Mar 29, 2016
Radarami Update March 2016

By Mariam Aduashvili | Project Leader

Radarami Book Discussion at Gori

Dear friends,

Spring is upon us, and with it a new round of Radarami activities!

In our last report in December, we mentioned that we were in the middle of printing the 16^th book in our “Read and Connect Series,” Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do by Tom Vanderbilt. We are happy to say that the launch of Traffic was an absolute success, drawing a lot of media attention on Rustavi 2 (see the video link attached) and other outlets throughout the country. Our book launch event, held at the new social café Generator 9.8 in Tbilisi, was completely packed. Also in Tbilisi, we teamed up with local organization “Zebra” that focuses on pedestrian rights in a joint event. Besides our events in Tbilisi, we traveled to a number of communities in Gori and the Kakheti region to facilitate book discussions as well.

We’ve also been working to spread our message and distribute our books in new areas in Georgia where we have not been active in the past. In March, we traveled to the small town of Tianeti, where we gave a general presentation about Radarami’s mission. The presentation had a huge turnout, and each attendee walked away with two or three free Radarami books.

Another new initiative by Radarami is the launch of our new nation-wide book clubs, called “Tabunis.” The word “Tabuni” is taken from old Georgian, meaning “guild” or “group.” In Imeretian, “Tabuni” means “flock,” while in Gurian it means “comrade.” We like this word, because it conveys that our Tabuni meetings will be places for members of our community to feel included and among friends. We also like this word because, in the Javakhetian translation, it means a “group of people with equal status.” Members of our community come from all different ages and backgrounds, but at Tabuni meetings they will all be equal, and everyone’s opinion will be valued. We hope that these book clubs will allow our readers to both be more active in engaging with our books and in discussing them in a community context.

In the coming months, Radarami will be publishing the 17^th book in our series, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg. With funding from the US Embassy, we are excited at the prospect of starting discussions about women empowerment throughout the country.

Currently, we’re also looking for funding to publish two more books in our pipeline: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness by Richard Thaler and Oil and Honey: The Education of An Unlikely Activist by Bill McKribben. We hope that you will continue to support us so that we can bring these important titles to Georgia!

If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact us at mariama@radarami.org.

Thank you again for your generous support.

All the best,

The Radarami Team

Radarami Project Presentation in Tianeti, Georgia

Radarami distributing books for free!

Radarami Book Discussion in Telavi, East Georgia

Radarami new book launch in Tbilisi

Event for the pedestrian rights in Tbilisi

Links:

Report about the new book with english subtitles.

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Dec 18, 2015
Radarami Update December 2015

By Mariam Aduashvili | Project Leader

Our new Book's Cover

Dear friends,

The Christmas time is upon us! And here are some exiting updates from Radarami!

With much enthusiam, patience, and the help of US embassy and you, our generous

supporters, 4500 copies of Traffic: Why We Drive The Way We Do (and What It Says about

us) by Tom Vanderbilt, Nos. 16 in the Read & Connect Series are being printed in this very

moment and we can’t wait it to launch it in 7 days ahead, right before Christmas in the

newly opened social café Generator 9.8, in the heart of Tbilisi.

On another note, this fall Radarami marked one year since the launch of “Honor Code: How

Moral Revolutions Happen” by Kwame Anthony Apiah and as you know publication of the

books is only one half of the work that we do; the larger vision of our program is to connect

Georgia’s intellectually curious readers with one another, therefore in order to keep the

momentum, we went back to some of the regions, where we launched the book last year

and invited our readers to participated in the lively discussion and share their thoughts about

this book with us after they’ve read it. Enjoy some of the photos from the trip to Ozugeti and

Kutaisi.

Wish you all the great holidays and note that the donations made through the end of the year-end will go towards:

1. Translation and editing of No. 17 in the Read & Connect Series: “Oil and Honey by

Bill Mckibben”.

2. 2nd printings of “Bloodlands: Europe between Hilter and Stalin” by Timonthy Snider,

one of our most popular books, we are out of all the copies and the demand is so

high!

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

Thank you again for your generous support.

Best wishes,

The Radarami Team

Discussion in Ozurgeti, Guria, 1st December 2015

Discussion in Kutaisi, Imereti, 30 November 2015

Discussion in Kutaisi, Imereti, November 30 2015

Radarami Books at Kutaisi, Georgia

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