From Refugee to Entrepreneurship - Fati`s Story

Fati Machalikashvili is a refugee from Chechnya. She has been living in Georgia for more than twenty years and never loses hope for a better future.

Coming to Georgia and living here was not so easy. However, with her own efforts, Fati was able to find her place and overcome a problem of alienation.

It was not easy to deal with financial problems either: Fati and her husband were unemployed. That’s why Fati planted strawberries in her little yard and began to sell them. Then, she decided to keep doing this activity and expand.

With the help of UN Women and Kakheti Regional Development Foundation (KRDF), Fati planted a new variety of strawberry, which has its special taste and exterior and is quite popular though the local market.

The pandemic temporarily prevented Fati to implement her plans. “It was a hard time for me, but I knew I had to get over it”. During the state of emergency, women's labor increased, we could not sell the products. Also, for a grocery store and a pharmacy we had to walk quite a long distance” –Tells Fati.

After the restrictions were removed, the situation in the village have improved for the better. So, Fati is going to expand her activities. She plans to grow raspberries and blackberries.

The project “Women’s Economic Empowerment project through Social Mobilization and Capacity Building” is part of the UN Women’s regional project “Women’s Economic Empowerment in the South Caucasus”, supported by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC). The project “Women’s Economic Empowerment project through Social Mobilization and Capacity Building” is implemented by Kakheti Regional Development Foundation (KRDF), Taso Foundation (TF), and CARE Caucasus (CARE).