Running a guesthouse in the mountains of Georgia
Published: Mar 25, 2022 Reading time: 2 minutes
Barbara Jabanishvili lives in Tkiliana, a remote mountainous village, in the Pshav-Khevsureti protected area in Georgia. Taking advantage of her location, she applied for a grant from Local Action Group Aragvi (LAG Aragvi), a People in Need established project.
In the Aragvi river valley, in the village of Tkiliana, you will find Guesthouse Midamo. Barbara and her family, are waiting for their first foreign guests. So far, they have hosted only local tourists. Unfortunately, the Aragvi river valley is not a well-known area and covid-19 is still restricting international travel. However, Barbara and her family are optimistic, and they hope for tourists to arrive soon. Guesthouse Midamo is surrounded by the beautiful nature of the Pshav-Khevsureti protected area.
“We are 12 people in the family, my siblings and parents. We are permanent residents here, being intensively engaged in the business. Parents are in charge of transportation and cooking, me and my adult brother - guide services, reception of tourists,” Barbara says.
Hearing about a call for grants by LAG Aragvi Barbara decided to apply. “Thanks to the project, we bought the new furniture. Various trainings and introductory meetings are also intensively conducted, depending on specific needs. In future, we plan to further scale up the business, and hopefully, we will succeed. We also want to buy horses and start offering horse tours,” she notes.
Running a guesthouse in the mountains of Georgia
“Sustainable Development of Aragvi Communities” is a project implemented by People in Need that supports community-led development via the creation of local action groups. The project also supports economic development via sub-granting schemes that contribute to sustainable local development.
“Within the mentioned project, about 60 other grantees had been supported in Aragvi communities - Pshavi, Gudamakari and Piraketa Khevsuretu,” says Salome Bakashvili, project manager from People in Need.
LAG Aragvi is supported by the Czech Development Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic within Czech development cooperation.
