School: State school #4
    Rustavi, Qvemo Qartli, Georgia

4 students, ages 12- 15 worked together to complete this Doors to Diplomacy project on February 15, 2012. They have participated in Doors to Diplomacy in the following year(s): Never

Classes and Teachers: Teachers - Inga Gelashvili and Gvantsa Gogoladze. Students: nino, kate, nino and Goga

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://http:\\

1. Description of Our Team

Four students aged 12-15 Nini, Nino, Kate and Goga worked together on this Doors to Diplomacy project. We were enthusiastic and very motivated to complete the job successfully. We made a decision to choose this topic together as we consider the disability problem very actual in the whole world. While thinking on the project topic we came acroos the question in the list: 'How people with disability problems are treated in your country?' As it is the world problem and as we are the part of the world, we decided to describe how our Geogian People care about disabled people, what our attitude is toward them and how we can share our experience through diplomacy. There is the center of disabled people near our school and we see and meet them almost every day. Sometimes we visit the center and talk with them, so we know their problems and disires. Every memeber of our team participated in planning and designing the project, we shared our ideas and experiences. Our teachers Inga and Gvantsa helped us to set realistic goals and to complete the project in an organized way. While we were involved in searching the information they gave us istructions. It was a great experience for us.

2. Summary of Our Project

We've chosen the category 'Health and Environmental Awareness Issues' because we found the task of this project very interesting. The task is to produce website that teaches about how countries can work together to promote better healcare access. How they can share their knowledge and experience to other nations. The question: 'How people with disability problems are treated in your country?' appeared a challenge for us, because the problem of disabled people is very actual not only in our country but all over the world and every country tries to find the solution and help them to become an equal part of our society. So we decided to share our experience to out friends and to show them how disabled people are cared in our country. We want to play our roles as diplomats and with the help of this website we’d like to inform the rest of the world about the current state of disabled people. And to make people think how we can help to improve their current condition. Our wish is to help and love these people. We don’t want to care only about ourselves and ignore the people who need our help. We should try to have more opportunity to meet people whose lives differ from our ones. Through compassion we can love and help these people. We have to take into consideration their problems and act appropriately. Consideration is priceless respect for life. Showing the problems of disability through the internet is a mission and great responsibility. As technology provides a huge opportunity to inform people to different places, In this way people all over the world can see what we have done. Being in one country doesn’t mean you can not help those outside so thanks to the internet we have a power to influence at an international scale. With the help of our website we want to inform and share our ideas with the society about disability in the world and how we can help them to improve their life conditions. We can turn our experience into a life lesson.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:2-3

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dial-up modem

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:4-6

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

Sometimes we had problems with low internet connection in the school building that's why we had to work at home individualy and then shere our information or resources with the help of skype. But it didn't hurt our work.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

The main proplem we faced was working with a limited amount of time. We had problems with a low internet connection in the school building. We had to work at home separately. It was difificult so we used memory cards and skype to share information and complete the project. We gethered information in different languages so sometimes we had difficulties with the translation, but our coaches helped us to solve this problem. Another problem we had to overcome was to learn to create and publish the website. We had to learn how to use new software which was cgellenging, but with the help of our volunteer teacher from Poland everything went well. Thanks to him. In any case working on the project was a great pleasure for us.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Social attitude towards disabled people in different countries was an exellent topic to research and we enjoyed working together. While working on this project we were able to learn more about global and local problems of disability, tried to find the ways to solve them and share our experience to our on-line friends. This project has also created opportunities for students to get involved in a campaign that can really make a difference in the world!

6. How did your activities and research for this Doors to Diplomacy Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

All the activities and researches made by us to complete the project fitted our school curriculum in many ways. While working on the project we improved all the four skills : writing, reading, speaking and listening which are the main goals of our educational standard. We used several different kinds of ways to get useful information about disability and the problems that disabled people face and then using this information we managed to create our project website. The working process was long and very interesting. It gave us a brilliant chance and helped us to improve many useful skills. As a group we’ve learned how to work together as a team, listen to other people’s ideas and take into consideration their points of view , how to plan the appropriate activities to reach the goal. We’ve learnt effective communication, cooperation, observation, assessment, project management, giving each other positive feedback. How to use technology in planning and desihnind the web project.So we all learnt what it means to work in a team and what are the skills needed for it. These skills to group work will help us greatly when we have other project to work on. We’ve learnt researching useful information and relying on each other to share our project responsibilities. We learned some techniques about the internet, how the internet can be a great communication tool to find information on the web and then use it appropriately. It was a great advantage for us, as we received up to date information. In addition we’ve learnt how to create and publish website and use it purposefully. Working on the project is something different from working on our school subjects. It requires creativity to deal with the tasks. So critical thinking and creative thinking are two very useful skills that have been improved during process of building our web- project. And what is the most important thing. The project helped us to be more responsible , cooperative and purposeful students.

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your Doors to Diplomacy project?

We used lots of different technologies while working on our project. Mainly computers were used to get information about the competition rules and about the project we were working on. In addition we shared information through skype and mail. It's comfortable and saves our precious time. Various Softwares - for the purpose of creating our web pages Cameras – to take pictures. Video camera – to take videos. Telephones for communication purpose to connect with each other. Our school provided us with the computers and we also used our ones at home. Library – to look up needed information Newspapers - to collect reports that are related to our topic. Oral interviews with our partners, sponsors, teachers and parents of disabled children. All these tools were a key to our success to make the web project .

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your Doors to Diplomacy project both on-line and in person.

To our point of view it’s important to share ideas and experiences with as many people as possible. Our webpage is a good chance to spread our project all over the world. It allows people to think about the people who don’t have lives like us and make decision how to help them . You can learn lots of information and become more familiar with the problem. We conducted a campaign ( share) informing people about the problem that disabled people in our country face and about our role to help them to get integrated in the society. As a result of this many governmental and nongovernmental organizations offered them help in different ways. We held an exhibition in the center of disabled people in our town , where their students exhibited handicrafts and drawings for us and other guests. It was a great support and encouragement for them to feel themselves as an equal members of our society. We presented important aspects of our research as a poster and a newspaper and displayed in our school. Many students from our school and from our partner school were interested in what we were doing. Our action gave them a chance to think about the problem or discuss the topic. We managed to get them involved in our project. We published an article in our local newspaper informing our citizens about the disability problems and about the people who are spending their life in the center of disabled people waiting for us. We hope that with the help of booklets, ads, school newspaper, media and website our society will learn more about this important issue. And what is the most important they will be given a chance to think how they can help disabled people to make their lives different.

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

We think our project has already made a difference. We involved many different members of our community, strengthened the 'relationship' between us and the people around us. While working on the project we discovered that many people don’t have enough information about the problems and needs of disabled people in our country. They also don’t realize what they can do to make their lives a bit better. With the help of our project not only our schoolmates and our residents but people all over the world will start to think about this problem. We hope when our website is published people will understand what we’re trying to tell them and actively participate to care disabled people around them. We believe in our community to be sensitive and wise in our town as well as in the whole world. While looking for the sponsors of our project we talked with the members of some governmental and nongovernmental organizations. We explained them our decision and the purpose of our project. They liked the idea and joined us in different ways. By connecting with them we’ve created relationships that will allow us work even furtherer to help and support our beneficiaries. Collaboration between our school, the center of disabled people, media and our sponsors is a model that other communities can pattern in their efforts to demonstrate caring about people who need our help. We involved everyone, almost all the students and the teachers in our school who saw us working on the project showed a great interest and observed very keenly what we were doing and we think they’ve learned lots of things from our project.The feedback that we were given was constructive and positive. Not only our friends and citizens who has received the informative leaflets desined by us and every person who has read the article in our local newspaper describing our projec but all the people who will read our web will be able to get knowledge that helps to increase their awareness about people who need our help.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

Our project wouldn’t have been successful without the people who’ve helped us along the way. We had many helpers throughout the project. Our friends Tamuna and Salome helped us to write the article for the newspaper and to make a school newspaper. ETAG and American Corner in our town gave us a chance to use their library for researching useful information for the project. They also sponsored our beneficiaries and gave them the English books and games as a present. Our teachers Inga and Gvantsa helped us greatly with translation and provided us with lots of ideas while working on the project. They helped us to get organized and held the project under control. Our town library provided us with information. They gave us direction where to go and what to use among the huge number of resources. In order to create a website we needed the support of a professional who could be an advisor and helper for us, so our volunteer teacher from Poland Bartosz helped us to design the website. An editor of our town newspaper Temuri published an article about the goals and outcomes of the project. Not only the main original group, but the whole school was actively involved to fulfill this important project. Thanks to the people who helped us: our school principal, teachers, students, our friends, volunteer teachers from New Zealand and Poland. Academy of The World Languages, Supermarket 'Prince', Technics Shop “Geobit”, Dental Clinic “Dense”, our local media and many other people were interested in our project and sponsored our beneficiaries. We'd like to give them lots of thanks. We couldn’t have done all this work without the help and support of these people, so We’re really thankful for them.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Working on the project was a great chance for us to get knowlege in different aspects, especially in diplomacy and to improve many useful skills that will help us in future. So thanks to people who gave us this brilliant chance to be the part of you.