By Mariam Aduashvili | Project Leader
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 16th 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 17th 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
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
