„It will be deposited into your account with every paycheck. Though even the smallest gift is rich when given with love..,“ a citizen wrote in her message to the independent opposition politician Teona Chalidze.
The „small amount“ that a citizen gave to an opposition politician is 5 Lari.
For six months, politician Teona Chalidze has been asking the public to fund her work. During this time, she has managed to gain 50-55 regular supporters.
The smallest contribution made by citizens to fund her activities is 2 Lari, and the largest amount is 250 Lari.
In total, she saves 1,500 Lari a month – this is not enough for all the activities she pursues during the month, however she says she tries to „make her budget stretch“.
At the end of each month, she presents a detailed report to her audience, supporters, and all interested citizens, describing what she did during the month and how she spent the money donated to her by citizens.
38-year-old Teona Chalidze has two children, one in public preschool and one in public school. It is worth noting that both of her children attend a state school.
She has been involved in activism since the age of 17. She was involved in party activities for almost 10 years. She was a member of the „Strategy Azghmashenebeli“ political party.
„I have gone through every level in party politics,“ says Teona Chalidze.
„I have been a field coordinator and a head of election campaigns. In 2021, I was a majoritarian candidate in Isani. The 2,778 people who went to the polls that year voted for Teona Chalidze as their district representative.“
„Throughout my career, I have never singled out ordinary citizens on political grounds – anyone who has the ambition to hold a responsible position in the country, or to lead any institution, must be in the service of the people. Therefore, a ruler must be a ruler for everyone,“- this is the young female politician’s vision.
Theona Chalidze left party politics a year and a half ago and began working independently. She thought long and hard about how to finance her own work, as he did not want to go into forced immigration or take up a completely different profession to make a living.
Teona Chalidze
She believes that it is impossible to do other things while making policy, because something always gets sacrificed.
“If a politician is focused on another task from morning until evening, doing other work, she physically has no time left to do politics, to stand by people, to go to the regions, to hold a rally at the prison, to walk around with the parents of prisoners, and to be engaged in such activism. Therefore I did everything in my power to dedicate all my time, energy, resources, and experience 24/7 to the work that is organic to me, that I love, and where I feel I am doing very valuable work.
„So I came up with this idea – something that’s less popular in Georgia, but by the way, is much more established in Europe – and I started collecting donations, the so-called fundraising,“ says Teona Chalidze.
Teona Chalidze positions herself as an independent, opposition politician who is focused on social problems and human rights issues.
My supporters are mainly socially vulnerable individuals, pensioners, and people on middle and lower incomes. I work with those whose voices are the least heard.
„I work on solving the problems of the most oppressed people in this country. I try to use my resources to give voice to the problems of these very people,“- says Theona.
The independent politician has no office. She works wherever she can find a workspace. She doesn’t like travelling by tube because her phone has no signal.
„I prefer to travel by bus all the time, because I often work while on the bus. I always have my laptop with me; I work on the go, reply to messages, write various texts, plan different activities and I also prepare the brochures, needed for these activities, myself,“- says Teona.
Theona Chalaidze, together with the parents of political prisoners, has travelled to around 40 cities in the last year : they were in the markets, bus stations and streets of these cities – distributing special newspapers that told the stories of the political prisoners and, in this way, informed citizens about the injustice that had befallen them.
Through our march, the voices of political prisoners reached at least 100,000 people. We were distributing the newspaper “Voice of Freedom from Prison”, which four women politicians and I had put together: Tea Metreveli, Barbare Gimelli -Sulashvili, and Ana Gogoladze.
„I was responsible for organising the regional trips. It became a large-scale campaign. We’re going to continue it again,“ – says Teona Chalidze.
According to Teona Chalidze, she toured 40 cities in Georgia with the families of prisoners of conscience.
Theona Chalidze focuses her work on social themes and social policy.
According to her, there is now no room left for cooperation with the so-called authorities.
The government is exploiting the problem of poverty to make citizens even more vulnerable or to force those who can afford to do so to leave the country.
The only solution is to maintain as close a communication as possible with each individual. Despite this nihilism and despair, we must convince these people that it is precisely their single voice that is decisive.
They think that, in the end, everything will be decided as someone wants; that their single vote doesn’t matter; that, for them, it makes no difference who is in power… So, if we can change these attitudes, the votes of these very people will be decisive in the next election.
The lost trust between politicians, politics, and ordinary people must be rebuilt. Everyone has a role to play in this process. ‘I see these changes as one big puzzle, and one piece of this puzzle could be all of us,’ says Teona Chalidze.
