Let’s share with you the ingredients of a successful team building exercise: take the first month of summer in Georgia, add the Black Sea to it, mix it all with like-minded people and mental harmony – voila, you get an incredibly cool retreat for the entire UnMode team.
To provide an opportunity for emotional reboot, to get positive emotions, a sense of “shoulder” and unity, to express support for each other was the main objective of our trip to the Black Sea coast of Georgia. After the productive work it was very important to spend time together as one big friendly family: most of our activists work in a high-risk environment and the participants from Ukraine work in conditions of war and incessant stress.
Many participants came with their children, families and even pets. It was the first time we had such a big friendly team and the event turned out to be very heartwarming and warm. The choice of the village of Ureki on the Black Sea coast of Georgia, with its beautiful magnetic sands was a very good decision. It couldn’t have been any other way in such a hospitable and bright place.
“I have no words to express my gratitude to all those involved in this ingenious idea of traveling to Georgia to learn and recharge. It’s very important for activists, and even more so now!” shared her impressions of Svetlana Makogon, activist of the Ukrainian society “Volna”, Krivoy Rog, Ukraine.
Natalya Kaluzhskaya from Mariupol, Ukraine, also told about the trip: “I am grateful and very glad that I had a chance to see this beautiful country. Georgia touched my heart. The attitude and attitude to us Ukrainians is very good. Everyone who knew my story called me live and offered accommodation free of charge. But now I feel that my place is here in Ukraine. Because there is a lot to do and work.”
This year we were able to invite for training and organize a follow-up retreat on the Black Sea coast in Georgia for activists from Ukraine, members of the All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with Drug Addiction (VOLNA). In the conditions of the ongoing military aggression of Russia in Ukraine, our main task as a regional network of communities is to help Ukrainian activists to preserve not only their physical health and lives, but also to gain the psychological stability to continue human rights work in war conditions. Activists from Ukraine are an example of true valor and heroism. No one left Ukraine, everyone stayed to help their beneficiaries. We just have to help those who help others at the risk of their lives.