Project title: Inter-Religious Understanding Through Graphic Arts

Supported by: International Coalition of Sites of Conscience 

Budget: $2,850

Duration: September 6 – December 10, 2021

In 2019, it became known that the mass graves of the victims of the 1937-1938 Soviet repressions were discovered in Adjara, Georgia. The discovery of the mass graves is very important event for Georgia as the study of stories of the repressed people, their proper commemoration, and immortalization has a key role in the formation of collective memory of countries and understanding of the totalitarian past, which is confirmed by the experience of other post-Soviet countries. At the initial stage, some particular steps were taken by the government for studying the mass graves.

The main participants in this project will be students of the St. Matthias Apostolic Gymnasium-Boarding School, who will create comics about the stories of those repressed people, focusing on showing the religious understanding between the Muslims and Christian communities. With the spreading of such comic books about the stories of the repression victims, we expect a new knowledge about the repressive regime and personalities to emerge in the community. It shall also enhance even greater empathy among the victims of a religious minority group. The comics will be distributed both in Georgia and through the channels of the International Coalition.

The increasing interest of the younger generation in the issue of the repressed as well as their involvement in relevant discussions is important for raising general, public awareness. With this project, the society, the government, and the decision-makers will once again see the importance of the issue of the memory of the victims for the society, that this topic is not secondary and the new generation is involved in promoting the topic.

Project Objectives

- Raising public awareness about the discovered mass graves in Adjara;

- Enhancing dialogue among the local Muslim and Christian population;

- Attracting government’s attention to the issue of the discovered mass graves in Adjara.

Project activities:

- Lectures and discussion sessions on the topic of repression and repressed people;

- creation of  3 thematic comic books;

- distribution of the comics and other PR activities;

- submitting and discussing  the output of the project to the Coalition;

Timeline and Budget

Contract