Today at noon, the representatives of UN Women Organization visited “Shevardeni” team base. They thanked and gave some presents to the Georgian Rugby Union and rugby national team for their involvement in violence against women campaign.

Giorgi Nizharadze, president of Rugby Union, National team’s head coach Milton Haig, “Lelos” Lasha Khmaladze and Vazha Khutsishvili and Erika Kvapilova, the representative of UN Women Organization in Georgia attended the special press conference.

“Georgian Rugby Union does its best in order to settle zero tolerance against the violence against women and girls, as well as family violence in Georgia. Recently, the attitude of society against this phenomenon has changed and nowadays such kind of violence has become more unacceptable. We would like to thank our rugby players for their great effort. We believe that rugby as a type of sport can play a positive role in creating of society free of violence in Georgia and change attitude and behavior of society towards gender equality. Partnership between us and Rugby Union is a unique and a role model at international level. Many share this experience and thank you for such support”- said Erika Kvapilova.

The guest presented “Lelos” sport accessories logo branded “UNiTE to End Violence against Women” campaign.

Giorgi Nizharadze: “First of all, I want to thank for your cooperation. I remember 2011 and the first day, when the girls arrived and introduced statistics on which I had no idea. Of course, I agreed to cooperate without hesitation. This anomalous phenomenon may exist in 21^st century and we will do our best to eradicate it in the future. This is contrary to the Georgian culture, society based on family and Georgians attitude towards women”.

Milton Haig: “I live in Georgia for the fourth year and proudly participate in this campaign. Besides rugby players, we are husbands, fathers of girls and this problem is very close to our hearts. It does not matter, we play in Georgia or abroad, we are always ready to support”.

After the press conference, video presentation was held. In this video, little girls thank to the players for their support.