Georgia: Volunteer Teachers Promote Healthy Lifestyles

The Healthy Women in Georgia program makes sure Georgian youth have access to reliable health information

For four teachers at Public School 17 in Kutaisi, Georgia, teaching high school students is more than a job. It is a commitment to helping their young students navigate the path to adulthood in as safe and healthy a way as possible. Every day for three hours, Nato Kuprava, Irina Burjaliani, Tea Kutateladze and Eka Murusidze stay after school on a volunteer basis to teach their students about reproductive health, sexually transmitted diseases, drug and alcohol abuse, and other social issues such as early marriage.

Prior to this after school program, which is called Healthy Lifestyles, teenagers at Public School 17 had little to no access to accurate reproductive health and substance abuse information. Drug use, early marriage, and involvement with petty crime are common problems among Georgian youth, who often feel their opportunities in life are limited.

Healthy Lifestyles is a component of the Healthy Women in Georgia program which is implemented by JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc., and Save the Children and supported by USAID, aims to educate students about protecting themselves against the dangers of substance abuse and unprotected sex. The program also empowers students to make informed and healthy choices affecting their lives. More than 100 secondary schools in Georgia are actively participating in the program.

To become certified Healthy Lifestyles instructors, public school teachers participate in a four-day training where they learn how to discuss sensitive health and social issues with youth, as well as how to manage the program and communicate it to parents and students. The trainings are led by local physicians trained from a curriculum created specifically for Georgia by international public health consultants.

The teacher training and Healthy Lifestyles curriculum is certified by the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, as well as by Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia as a complementary reproductive health module. Thanks to the focus on domestic training, and with full backing from the respective ministries, the Healthy Lifestyles program ensures Georgian youth continued access to accurate healthy lifestyle information.

A tenth grade boy recently attended a session on quitting smoking led by Irina Burjaliani. The teenager could not quit smoking on his own and wanted help. After numerous counseling sessions from Irina, the boy put away cigarettes for good. As an added benefit, he went on to become certified as a Peer Leader and counseled other students on positive lifestyle choices. Nato, Tea, Irina and Eka have motivated an impressive 80% of Public School 17's 450 students to take part in the Healthy Lifestyles program. Twenty students have chosen to complete a two-day training to become certified peer leaders, which means they are an additional source of accurate information for their classmates.

The Healthy Lifestyles program teaches youth about the dangers of drugs and sexually transmitted diseases and empowers them to make informed and healthy choices affecting their lives.

Learn more about our project in Georgia

Back to top