The Gori Regional Education Fund is a small NGO in Georgia started by recently evacuated RPCVs in the wake of last August’s war with Russia. It’s founder and director, Kelly Uphoff, found some time to talk to Kofi-Braki about her organization, the work they’re doing, and their plans for the future.

It’s a terrific organization with a terrific cause, so I’d highly recommend giving what you can to their worthy activities. Just a couple of dollars goes a long way.

Kofi-Braki: So, tell me a little bit about GREF - how it started, how it’s progressed, and some of your plans for the future.

Kelly Uphoff:

GREF started in August 2008. We were evacuated to Armenia and myself and a fellow Gori PCV [Peace Corps Volunteer] felt compelled to return and do something useful. We didn’t want to return just to help or feel less guilty for having left, so we wanted to make sure we were filling a need that noone was filling. We were in constant contact with my Peace Corps counterpart, an amazing person named Kakha Gordadze. He was working with Gori University at the time (and organization with which I had done many projects) and told me about students there who were from the conflict area and had lost income, family members, etc. We thought, “Ok, this is it”. We decided to start a semester scholarship fund for these students. At the same time, we wanted to introduce and reinforce the idea of meritocracy and the fruits of hard work into a society that is still struggling with old cronyism and nepotism. We felt it important to design a scholarship process that was, first, transparent and based solely on the student’s merit - not their last name or how much influence their relative was able to have on the process. We chose a secret selection committee (free from the pressure of influence) and developed a coding system that assigned each student a name. Ultimately, we picked 10 fantastic and needy students for our first scholarship round. In addition, we developed and found funding for other innovative educational programs, including trainings in strategic planning and fundraising. We also developed a fellowship program, funding by the International Women’s Association that gave full scholarships to some of our past winners and, in return, required that they complete some sort of community service.

We are currently waiting to award five new students with semester scholarships. In addition, we are poised to write our strategic plan and expand our innovative educational programming that uses Western-education concepts and encourages analytical and creative thinking. Among our planned programs (contingent on funding, of course) include business trainings and assistance to students hoping to student abroad. Students from Gori have little access to opportunities more widespread in the capital, especially exposure to modern educational methods. We want to fill that gap.

Kofi-Braki: Do you feel that the activities of GREF are enough? If not, what can fill the void?

Kelly Uphoff:

We are definitely in a transition period. We are moving away from scholarships and into more programming. The short-term needs of tuition assistance are not gone, of course. But, we are looking to provide many students with educational opportunities and exposure to modern ways of education that will lead to the long-term growth of the Gori Region. We are open to new ideas and support so if anyone out there is interested in helping, we are all ears.

Kofi-Braki: Kelly, I like how you raise long-term growth of the Gori region as part of GREF’s mission. I’d like to know if your initiative has any particular plans for programming that you feel will be a direct boost to regional growth?

Kelly Uphoff:

Education is the key to the growth of the region. Currently there is a real “brain drain” problem. The “best” kids go to Tbilisi and those remaining (who are likely just as bright, but with less money) have less access to a quality education. They are still learning by rote from professors who teach Soviet-style. These students graduate without the necessary practical skills and creative/analytical abilities that we take for granted. They go on to teach the younger generations. If we can fill this gap, we can stop the cycle of Soviet-style education and also graduate a new generation of modern thinkers who can then go on to start businesses, non-profits, and so on.

Kofi-Braki: You noted that Gori students and other students in the regions tend to have fewer opportunities than their counterparts in Tbilisi. How do efforts like yours help balance the field for students in the regions? And what do you think it will take for those students who can’t afford a Tbilisi education to have the same opportunities and career prospects?

Kelly Uphoff:

We try to replicate programs that were successful in the past. Kakha has had the opportunity to take classes at the European School of Management in Tbilisi, so he is interested in providing that level of business education in Gori. In Spring 2008, I led a “Tourism Marketing and Management” Training program that combined internships with hands-on classroom activities, modern materials, and an introduction to market research. These are the types of opportunities we want to expand in the region. There is a limited pool of job opportunities available. However, with empowerment and the right skillset, students will learn to create their own opportunities in the region, be it the establishment of their own business or NGO. I think that the downside to the presence of international organizations in the country is that it creates the sense that the only opportunities are in Western NGOs. With that, many of the talented students from the region and the country as a whole flock to these organizations, another brain drain. With more education, combined with approaches that support independent thinking and entrepreneurialism, we can give students the tools to create their own grassroots opportunities.

Kofi-Braki: How did your experiences as a PCV help you get this project off the ground?

Kelly Uphoff:

I could not have started and developed GREF without Peace Corps. For one, it is impossible to have the success we have had without understanding the culture at a deep level and knowing when to compromise what you are used to doing as an “American” and when to push new and maybe uncomfortable ideas. In addition, this would absolutely never have worked without our hard-working volunteer Georgian staff, including Kakha, David Makhviladze, Dali Muzashvili, Mari Zarkhozashvili, Nino Markozashvili, Shota Chilindrishvili, Lela Khubuluri, Diana Japaridze, and the list could go on and on. This, true to its Peace Corps roots, is their organization and they have taken places we are all very proud of.

Kofi-Braki: So, to what extent are you and other Westerners still involved in the actual day-to-day? How has this changed and how do you anticipate this changing later?

Kelly Uphoff:

Right now, Jeremy Bauman (we started GREF together) and I are not involved in the day-to-day. We support Kakha by guiding GREF in new directions and giving advice and ideas, as well as facilitating relationships and connections in the U.S. This was always our intention - as the Peace Corps model goes, its best for sustainability if we allow the local volunteers take ownership of the organization.

Kofi-Braki: Obviously, your current efforts cannot remake the system alone. How has your relationship been with Gori State University leadership and how receptive have they been - or you think they’d be - to a more aggressive reform agenda?

Kelly Uphoff:

I think that Gori University leadership is supportive. They are always supportive when it comes to recieving assistance. The real challenge comes when you require them to challenge themselves or their staff to utilize some of these educational methods and make them a real and lasting part of the University structure and methodology. The worst thing that can happen is that these short-term opportunities are just that and don’t lead to a lasting change in the culture of the educational institutions.

Unfortunately, change is slow, especially when old systems are so ingrained. So, another benefit of our programs is that we are helping a new generation of young people with new, modern ideas and methods who can then be the next cadre of educators and change the system that way.

Kofi-Braki: Thanks, Kelly.

The point of a recent post of mine was to highlight my own realization that the country to which I was posted during my service had become so inexorably a part of my heart and mind, and quietly so, that it wasn’t long in returning that Caucasus dreams haunted my days and nights.

I suppose we all have to deal with readjusting in our own way. I notice that there are some RPCVs who have been able to adjust remarkably well compared to me. Some have picked up jobs and not looked back; some occasionally reminisce but have no real desire to spend any more time without shuki or with zetis supi for dinner every winter night. And while I certainly marveled at America upon my return, and I kind of still do, it became clear pretty quickly that my itch hadn’t gone away in the least bit.

Of course, my service was a tad abbreviated, which may explain a lot (or all of it?). But I think a great deal of it comes actually from seeing myself as ‘that kind of person’ who is over there and not here. And, to be honest, I may have actually worn myself out, bit my tongue a little too often, of telling Georgia stories. I didn’t want to ride on those stories for the rest of my life - I wanted to create new ones.

Although the specter of war seems to be fading, Georgia is such a damned mess right now. But, in a way, it’s where I’ve always wanted to be: in a work-in-progress. There’s so much to do out there, and I want to be a part of it. But most of all, I realize that Georgia has become a part of my own personal narrative. For many, the defining thread in their lives has been xyz, with their Peace Corps service complementing it in a certain way. For me, being a PCV was decidedly secondary (at best), but being in Georgia was like a mental revolution. It became the quintessential kernel for the kind of person that I wanted to be. And I couldn’t very well depend on my service to sustain that personage indefinitely, could I?

Nope. And so, I’m going back.

We’ve all met them - those PCVs that, seemingly from day one, grasp the language in a freakish way. Who sit with the host country nationals (HCNs) during the rare Peace Corps conferences and workshops. The ones that seem to genuinely feel greater comfort at site than in the expat bars. The ones that disappear and reemerge as minor Sheikhs or surprise everyone with daunting tamada (toastmaster) skills.

Most every PCV has some element of these and other things in their DNA; the kinds that end up in the Peace Corps are, in many ways, truly strange people (in a good way, I think), but even we have our cases of outliers. Those that so embrace their new home, whether out of passion or curiosity or a dissatisfaction with their old one, that it’s soon clear that Peace Corps was more than simply a calling or an opportunity, but almost a way of life.

I’d never count myself as one of those people. Although I managed to be proficient enough in the language, certainly had my share of ‘local’ experiences, and did feel a bit lost in the expat scene - I could in no way feel qualified to lump myself with those who had demonstrated just a remarkable aptitude for integration.

But, like many, after returning stateside, it becomes shockingly clear just how much of the other place stays with you. Aside from the reverse culture shock, I found myself toying more with the language in America than I dared try in Georgia. My regular close-eye on events in Georgia turned into a full-blown obsession, drawing me into a world of Caucasus punditry and commentary that I would have never predicted.

Booking my tickets for a visit back to Georgia earlier this year, I came to the realization that, in my own way, I had ‘gone native.’ No, I wasn’t wearing traditional costumes everywhere or telling everyone with an ear about my experiences, but Georgia evolved from an interesting to a central part of my heart and mind. And now, improbably, I’m planning to go back semi-permanently (at least), with an eye on making a career related to that part of the world.

What do you think? How have the clarion calls of the old site spoken to you, if at all?