COMPLETED PROJECTS

   

My World

Since April 2013, the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies has been implementing the project “My World”, funded by the US Embassy in Georgia.

The overall objective of the project is to produce Georgian-language youth magazine – “My World”. The magazine offers reading material for high school students and covers a variety of subjects and sectors. The articles published in the magazine touch upon politics, economics, literature, science, the arts, interesting news and events, and influential persons for the country or humanity. “My World” is issued on a quarterly basis, and each issue includes nine sections, as well as crossword puzzles, with questions regarding the material covered in the preceding issue. Articles are drafted specifically for this magazine, and the circulation is 2,000 copies.

The principal goal of the publication is to foster interest in reading among young people and to infuse them with supplementary information. The magazine is primarily designed for students aged 13-18 and is distributed in various regions, schools, or orphanages throughout Georgia. The project’s main target group is internally displaced children from Abkhazia and Samachablo, who receive the magazine through their schools in Tserovani and Zugdidi. Within the scope of the project, in order to encourage reading, every fourth issue is marked with a special quiz that takes place with the involvement of internally displaced students in Tserovani and Zugdidi, where the winners are awarded various prizes.

Since July 2020, new component, Audiovisual "My World" was added to "My World" project. These are short videos based on articles published in "My World" journal. The videos are informational, educational and entertaining and represent the most significant parts of the articles. 

“My World” is the brainchild of our founder, an ardent friend and supporter of youth, Mr. Alexander Rondeli, which he managed to bring to life with the assistance of American friends. It was with Mr. Rondeli’s great editorship and determination that the first nine issues were produced.

Below, we offer the foreword that Mr. Rondeli contributed to the first issue of the magazine:

“There are over 4,000 villages, over 150 cities and towns and hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren in Georgia. It is these young people who will soon be engaged in the development of Georgia, and many of them will secure a significant role in the community or public service.

Any society should strive towards raising a better future generation, which will not only maintain the spiritual and material wealth accumulated by the previous generation, but also multiply and enrich it. This is why developed communities and wise governments must pay special attention to raising and educating children. A human being’s development as a person begins in childhood; his or her morality and knowledge do not accrue independently. This function is served by schooling, children’s literature, and various ways of mastering education and culture. In this regard, we believe, adolescent literature plays a unique role in educating future citizens, public officials and leaders. After gaining independence, Georgia has aspired to find its place in the modern world, as well as in the international, political, and economic systems. This has proved no easy task for a novice state. The country is in dire need of educated and well-trained individuals, who will spare no effort and knowledge to protect and advance the country’s national interests. Towards this end, among other things, it is essential for young people to have access to good books or periodicals, where they would be able to come across topics or issues of interest to them.

There have been several attempts in Georgia to publish a magazine targeted at adolescents. However, the initiatives have failed to gain traction due to a lack of funding.

The present magazine, which we entitled “My World”, is a realization of a long-standing desire. This publication, which is intended for high school students and which brings together a plethora of topics, eras, and issues, will, to some extent, conceivably assist interested youths to expand their knowledge, become familiar with new subjects and issues or even see events or persons well-known to them in a different light. This, we presume, will serve as a means to broaden their outlook.

Hereby, we would also like to express our sincere gratitude to the Embassy of the United States in Georgia, which welcomed our initiative with great enthusiasm and undertook the publication costs of the quarterly magazine.

Thus, we submit the first issue of “My World” to the scrutiny of high school students with the hope that it will soon accumulate a wide range of loyal readers.”

Alexander Rondeli