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Ketevan was born and raised in the multicultural City of Borjomi in Georgia. As a child, she often noticed and questioned the inequality and marginalization she perceived among different ethnic groups in her region. She recalls her first civic activism at the age of fifteen, which was related to the Rose Revolution in 2003 in Georgia. As a member of a young activist group, she was very much wishing for a democratic transition of the Post-Soviet era in her country.
Later, Ketevan became a law student at the Georgian-American University in Tbilisi. She was especially interested in the human rights situation in her country. The fact that democratic development and peace have become the core of her societal vision, she relates to personal experience:
“I will never forget some moments from the war between Georgia and Russia in 2008, when together with my family and neighbors, I spent two nights in the basement. These were very disturbing and warm hours at the same time. We tried to make fun of how to continue the house renovation in the basement. For me, these were the moments when I realized, it is not enough to know about human rights and peace, it’s necessary to act for them.”
In 2010, Ketevan joined the Youth Peace Ambassadors program by the Council of Europe, where she learnt more about the issues of social inequality, discrimination and conflicts around Europe.
Ketevan finds Humanity in Action to be a very friendly and vibrant community that works towards social justice, pluralism and strong democracies through education and civic engagement, which she believes to be a powerful tool to shape the future.
Ketevan believes that non-formal education has played a huge role in her personal and professional development. She finds that Fellowship programs provide an excellent opportunity to learn, connect with like-minded people and make a difference with own actions.
Ketevan worked with ethnic minorities to empower women and promote gender equality and integration in the regions of Georgia. Also during her master studies at the University of Flensburg Ketevan stayed connected with the fields of diversity and peace: She wrote her master’s thesis on ethnic minority education and researched how multilingual education can influence social cohesion in multicultural societies.
“We cannot fully plan our future. Rather, we walk into it, with our wishes usually carried by steps taken in the past. I am happy to work for Humanity in Action today, grow with the team, aspiring towards common goals.”
About Humanity in Action she first heard from a friend, who himself got to know the organization at a celebration on a small island in Brandenburg – this is how information sometimes spreads. She learnt more about its work and found it to be close to her own interests. When she learned about the job opening in the Berlin office, she thought there couldn’t have been a better fit.
