On December 8-11 the training session on Storytelling and Listening was held with the support of the Open Society Georgia Foundation and the Open Society Foundations.
Benaifer Badha and Anastasia Bezverkha, trainers from the organization titled as Narativ based in New York, taught story telling techniques to 22 participants, representative of marginalized groups such as injecting drug users, former drug users, autistics, people with physical and mental disabilities, LGBT, HIV and people with Hepatitis C, victims of torture and domestic violence, palliative care patients etc.
Over three training days participants have learnt how to tell their own stories, what kind of listeners they should be and how they could help breaking down stigma through telling their true stories. 
‘I have never experienced emotion like this before. I could feel the sufferings of people from being stigmatized to the extent I did not anticipate. Autistic Sandro, 33 years old Nino, who has been diagnosed with two types of cancer and only has one year left to live, Gocha with disabilities – these people, who have never talked to anyone about their own stories are now ready to speak out about their life experience.’- Nina Kiknadze, the organizer of the training from OSGF says.
As the end of the training eight participants have been selected for participation in the short 3 to 5 minutes films the OSGF is planning to shoot. Training participants will be telling their personal stories that, later on will be shared with broader audience through social and traditional media channels.
