On October 12, 2010, the Public Defender, George Tugushi, the Minister of Education and Science, Dimitri Shashkin, and the Ambassador of the European Union to Georgia, Mr. Per Eklund, awarded the winners of the competition “Me Ombudsman,” which is a Web game/competition for youth.

All the three winning places were taken by pupils of public schools of the Imereti Region. The first place was taken by pupils of Public School No. 30 of Kutaisi: Ana Kldiashvili and Irena Babunashvili; the second place was also taken by pupils from Kutaisi, Mery Chachava and Mary Kukhianidze from Public School No. 37; and the third place went to pupils of the Public School of the village of Chikha, Sachkhere District, Irma Chigladze and Gvantsa Tsukhishvili.

“Me Ombudsman” is a competition organized by the Public Defender for young people aged 13-18, which served to increase the level of civic education. The competition was held with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science and was funded by the European Union project “Supporting the Public Defender’s Office.”The competition was based on network technology and was conducted by means of the Internet. In April-May 2010, the Pixel company made a special program module for the competition, which is integrated with the Public Defender’s website.

In May 2010, the information campaign was launched – posters were posted in schools, and information was disseminated on the radio and through print and electronic media. On June 1, 2010, the first round and the registration of the teams started.

In June 2010, up to 700 teams (or 1, 200 players) from different regions of Georgia were registered. Of these, 79% were from provinces, including mountainous regions. As a result of the first round, 129 out of the 700 teams overcame the barrier. On July 1, 2010, the second round started, as a result of which 10 finalist teams out of 129 were made known. On September 11-12, the Public Defender’s Office hosted the final round in which 10 teams took part. As a result, three winning teams were made known. The works of the final round were evaluated by a jury composed of five independent experts.