Iruza Kakava, 45, Politician/Social Entrepreneur

In 2014, Iruza Kakava entered a room with 40 men who were resolute that she should not become a politician.They had other people in mind. But Kakava walked out with their support and, weeks later, won over local voters as well when she was elected to the Zugdidi municipal council.

Re-election came in October 2017. Kakava, who represents the villages of Koki and Khurcha for the ruling Georgian Dream party, is one of only seven female members of the Zugdidi municipal council.

The 45-year-old had to cross two borders before becoming the woman she is today.

In 1993, at the age of 21, she fled her hometown of Gali in war-scarred Abkhazia with her two little brothers, eight and 12 years old. They left behind the graves of their parents and a burnt house. Ahead, Kakava had an entire life to rebuild.

After crossing the Enguri River, she settled in the Samegrelo village of Koki, not far from Akbhazia. She married a man who backed her from the start. The couple had two children.

Kakava fought two battles: trying to support her family and trying to get an education. While caring for her brothers and children, she enrolled in university and, at 30,received a degree in English.

Then came the second barrier, a social one. Kakava engaged in developing her community and founded a local NGO and foundation to support the socially and economically disadvantaged. As someone who knows what it means not to have a home, she works with the council’s housing and social affairs committees to try and guarantee a home for every homeless family in the villages she represents.

During just over three years of work on the council, “I have seen that one woman equals 20 men,” she explains. In the villages she represents, women oftentimes outnumber men during public meetings. “If there’s anything accomplished in our district, it is thanks to the women.”