Diana Imedashvili`s Success Story

"The idea of empowering women is very productive for rural development - now more active and powerful women live in Pankisi".

Diana Imedashvili is an active entrepreneur from the village of Birkiani in Pankisi, who has been involved in the cafe business for a year and has many customers, both tourists and locals. Diana always cares about her customer satisfaction and thinks that this will not only have a positive impact on her business but also on Pankisi promotion too.

Running your own business is not easy at all, especially for rural women and Diana is no exception in this regard: “I have met many difficulties during my business development process. I found it especially hard to arrange the relevant documents, as I had no practical knowledge of this. Also, at the beginning it was very problematic to promote my café, which took me a quite long time”. Diana made many mistakes while running her business, but as she says, she learned a lot from her mistakes.

Diana was supported to develop her business and relevant skills by the project “Women`s Economic Empowerment through Social Mobilization and Capacity Building” implemented by Kakheti Regional Development Foundation (KRDF), TASO Foundation (TF) and CARE International in the Caucasus (CARE). The project is supported by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) within the framework of the regional project "Women`s Economic Empowerment in the South Caucasus". Under the framework of this project Diana has added a bakery to her cafe, which will increase her capacity in future.

At the beginning when a group of women was created as part of the project, there was a problem of meeting space in Birkiani. That is why Diana decided to make a part of her café as a meeting place for women. “I knew it was a very good project for both the village and the rural population. I was waiting for each women`s meeting with a great pleasure and it always made me happy to see the women were satisfied at the end of each meeting. ”

Although Diana has been involved in the business for a year, she did not know much about effective production, but her involvement in the project gave her a great experience. “The trainings held within the project has improved my knowledge and skills: I found out my rights and responsibilities, learned how to write a project and calculate in advance. The project really motivated me and the Pankisi women in general. We started thinking and realizing that we can do a lot of good things”.

Currently Diana is doing an accounting internship as part of the project, which helps her a lot regarding her business activities. Also, she has been arranging the documents and now is a successful entrepreneur in Pankisi.

“A strong woman will always benefit her community and her family. Woman has the ability to do several things at the same time - to take care of her family and do her own business.” In future, Diana sees herself as a stronger and more active woman. She`s not going to stop in one place and wants to learn more. She has big plans and hopes for future.