Chief of Mission of IOM Georgia, Mrs. Sanja Celebic Lukovac met with Governor of Imereti Region Zviad Shalamberidze and presented the results of the project implemented in the region during 2020-2022 within the “Sustainable Reintegration and Community Revitalization Pilot Initiative in Communities of Return” project funded by the International Organization for Migration Development Fund (IDF). 

The pilot project, which was applied in four municipalities in Imereti region, including Tskaltubo, Baghdadi, Khoni and Kharagauli, was intended to support the sustainable reintegration of the returnees as well as revitalization and strengthening of the returning migrants’ communities. 

“We met the Governor of Imereti region and briefed him about the successful implementation of the project in Imereti region, four municipalities and also updated him of the future plans. We are looking forward to our future cooperation in the region to strengthen the reintegration infrastructure for returning migrants in their communities,” said Chief of Mission of IOM Georgia, Mrs. Sanja Celebic Lukovac.

In the framework of the project, in all four municipalities the Service Hubs are already functioning, which inform, consult, and refer the returnees and local community members regarding the social-economic programs and services exiting in the region and in the country. 

Besides this, the project supported the migrants and non-migrant community members joint business initiatives, as well as the community revitalization projects in the returned migrants living area. 

“Recently we’ve been closely cooperating with the International Organization for Migration and the results presented clearly show that this collaboration was much effective as the socio-economic conditions of the community members involved in the project improved. The organization has vivid and great plans for future cooperation in the region and we will do our best to make our joint efforts more useful for the returnees and for the whole community,” said Governor of Imereti Region Zviad Shalamberidze. 

Overall, in four municipalities, more than GEL 150 000 was spent for the infrastructure and business projects implementation.