Granted!

Sam and I have been working on separate grant proposals for projects in Akhalkalaki. Sam wrote and submitted grant proposal for the Small Project Assistance (SPA) program, a USAID-funded grant program for PCVs to support community development, to build and "English Cabinet" at his school in Akhalkalaki. This would be an English classroom, equipped with a computer, projector and speakers, English textbooks and cds, and some other necessary materials to make a more conducive, modern learning environment for kids in his English classes. I wrote a grant proposal to the VAST program (Volunteer Activities Support and Training Program, funded by the President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief, which provides PCVs with a pool of grant money for HIV/AIDS-related projects) to hold a Women's Health Peer Education program with some of the women and girls from my fitness club and to purchase some equipment for the fitness club.

We have both just recently gotten the good news that both our grants proposals were accepted! I have been able to purchase most of the materials I'll need for my training sessions and for the fitness club. I hope to hold 10 training sessions (with the first one scheduled for tomorrow evening!) on different topics, including physical fitness and nutrition, hygiene and communicable diseases, HIV/AIDS prevention, STIs and others. My friend and counterpart and all-around great person Marianna is going to help me facilitate all of these trainings and she and I spent a few hours today putting the final touches on our session plan for tomorrow. I'll be sure to update on how the training goes!

Sam hasn't had his grant money deposited in his account yet, but has been able to hold a meeting with his teaching counterpart to plan out their next steps. He and his school will have their work cut out for them! They will need to purchase their materials for the classroom, set everything up, hold computer training for the English teachers and create and give pre-tests to all the English students once the school year gets back underway, so they can monitor the effectiveness of the English cabinet in helping improve students' English levels. They hope to have everything up and running for the start of the school year in mid-September.

So we've cleared the first hurdles on these projects and gotten financing. Now comes the next step of hard work and actually carrying out the projects. Once we have some results (and pictures!) we'll post some updates!