On March 27th, 2014 the presentation of the book – “Open the Door” – was held at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, 1st Academic Building (Room 115).
Organization of the presentation was initiated by the Ministry of Education and it was attended by students and lecturers of various vocational institutions.
The presentation was opened by the director of inclusive education project, Marika Zakareishvili, who spoke about how important it is to know the problems faced by people with disabilities.
A representative of the Open Society Georgia Foundation, Nino Kiknadze, talked about how the book was written and how important it is to open the door to drug-addicts and to people with autism, Down syndrome and other health problems.
“The environment is limited, not people”, said the writer Alex Chighvinadze. His story is called “The Station” and is about a writer in a wheelchair. Lasha Bughadze talked about the story written by Davit Gabunia. This is the story of a mother of a child with Downs Syndrome. Writers read excerpts from their stories.
The project was launched by the initiative and support of the Open Society Georgia Foundation. This is the collection of stories written by nine contemporary Georgian authors – Aka Morchiladze, Lasha Bughadze, Davit Gabunia, Gio Mgeladze, Dato Turashvili, Erekle Deisadze, Ana Kordzaia-Samadashvili, Anina Tefnadze and Alex Chighvinadze.
Before writing their stories, a meeting between the authors, patients and human right defenders was held in Rooms Hotel Kazbegi in Stepantsminda. After the meeting, the writers were given one month to write their stories.
Nine contemporary Georgian authors wrote stories about palliative care, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, autism, Down syndrome, drug addicts (intravenous drug users), persons with disabilities and mental health problems.
Through literary works, the project aims at promoting patient’s rights and raising public awareness about the problems they face.
