What Iliauni Students Showed Georgia in 100 Hours
A student-led fundraiser for children with DMD became one of the clearest expressions of solidarity and civic resistance Georgia has seen in years.
When Ilia State University students started their live marathon for children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the initial goal was 100,000 GEL. By the time the 100-hour livestream ended, they had raised 1,670,938 GEL and 48 tetri (Approximately $628, 252,14).
In a country where people are financially pressured and politically repressed, raising this amount of money in 100 hours says a lot about the public mood.
However, the real meaning of this marathon is not only in the numbers. It is in who organized it, when they organized it, and what the public response showed. The campaign was launched by “Protect Iliauni,” a student initiative that has been resisting Georgian Dream’s higher education restructuring, especially the part of the reform that effectively dismantles Ilia State University.
The students started the campaign on May 20 with the goal of raising money for urgent needs of children with DMD, including wheelchairs, adapted vehicles, respiratory equipment and other daily or medical needs. By May 23, the campaign had already passed 1 million GEL, and the support came not only from individual citizens, but also from businesses, publishers, public figures, universities and others.
VIDEO/Formula TV: Morning of 22 May. After spending the night livestreaming on Facebook, IliaUni students rushed to the parents of children with DMD, who had also spent the night protesting outside the Government Administration, to tell them they had raised 1.2 million GEL.
The parents of children with Duchenne have been protesting for more than a month, demanding newer medications such as givinostat and vamorolone that can help to slow down a disease that gradually destroys children’s muscles, mobility, and breathing. Around 100 children in Georgia live with DMD.
On May 19, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that the government was dealing with “people’s money” and had to decide whether spending around 50 or 60 million GEL annually would bring real results, or whether it would simply enrich the “pharmaceutical mafia.”
The very next day, the public gave him a very decisive answer: yes, it was their money and they wanted it spent on saving children. This was a slap to the government’s argument about responsible budgeting - something they used to cover up their political indifference.
The second meaning of the marathon is the most important one for Ganatleba readers. The fundraising wasn’t organized by just any group - it was organized by the students of the university that is on the verge of being dismantled.
Ilia State University is one of the main targets of Georgian Dream’s higher education restructuring. Under the new distribution of fields, Ilia State University is left only with pedagogy and ABET-accredited STEM programmes. This is an effective dismantling of the independent Ilia State University, long known for its commitment to academic freedom. The restructuring cuts most of its academic programmes, including law, liberal arts, social sciences, humanities and other fields that have made Iliauni one of the most important academic institutions in the country.
Ilia State University itself called the decision unconstitutional. The university said the decision undermines higher education, university autonomy and academic freedom, destroys internationally recognized research areas and academic programmes, and affects more than 17,000 students and up to 3,000 employees. The university also said the decision was not based on evidence or research data and did not take into account the position of field experts.
For years, the Georgian Dream propaganda tried to demonize Iliauni and its students, portraying them as the enemies of Georgian culture and values. However, many people across Georgia didn’t think twice before trusting Iliauni students with their money.
It was one of the biggest solidarity campaigns we’ve seen in many years. For the first 24 hours, the propaganda machine was mostly silent. And, maybe because some of us are still naive enough to hope for basic human limits, it almost felt like this might be the one topic they would not touch. But as the marathon grew, and especially as businesses and public figures began joining the campaign, the silence ended. UK sanctioned propaganda TV channel Imedi published attacks trying to link “Protect Iliauni” to party politics, while also repeating the argument that the Health Ministry already allocates 3 million GEL annually for wheelchairs and primary needs.
This was probably the most cynical part of the whole story, because the answer came from the parents themselves. Some of these parents are still using someone else’s wheelchair because they cannot afford one for their own child. So when propaganda tried to say that the state was already taking care of these needs, the families’ own reality answered better than any political statement could.
The 1,670,938 GEL raised for children with DMD will help families with urgent needs. That is already important enough. But politically, the marathon did something else too. It exposed the government’s indifference, showed that resistance is still alive when people are given a safe way to participate, and proved once again why academic freedom – and the engagement of students – matters.
VIDEO: Parents of children with DMD chant “madloba” (“thank you”) after the marathon raised 1.5 million GEL.
Iliauni has never been only an academic institution in the narrow sense. It has been one of the few public universities in Georgia associated with academic freedom, independent thought, international networks, and a student body that is not easily controlled. This is why the attack on Iliauni is bigger than Iliauni. It is about whether higher education in Georgia remains a public good, or becomes something controlled.
The marathon made this question easier to understand.