A translation bureau for Zhinvali - TARGMANEBI's service for a small town where "donor", "report" and "indicator" have entered the vocabulary of the village council. Mountain development programmes, EU and UN projects, German and Swiss funds work with community organisations, cooperatives and the municipality in the villages around Zhinvali, and every such project starts in English: with an application, a contract, reporting rules. The local side works in Georgian - and the bridge between those two languages is our job.
Alongside the projects, Zhinvali has two other flows: tourism at Ananuri fortress and the reservoir - guesthouses, cafes and water sports that need material in foreign languages - and ordinary mountain families whose children are in Europe, while the grandparents' papers carry the stamp of Zhinvali or of the villages left under the reservoir. Tbilisi is an hour from Zhinvali and the courier comes here every week; anyone going to Tbilisi anyway collects from the office.
A project in the village - documents between donor and community
An international project has three stages, and each has its own group of documents, which have to be translated either from English into Georgian so the community understands them, or from Georgian into English so the donor accepts them:
Before the start - Georgian into English
- The community organisation's or cooperative's grant application
- The organisation's charter, registry extract and bank details
- Budget and proof of co-financing
- The municipality's letter of support and land or building documents
- Partnership memorandum and team CVs
At the start - English into Georgian
- Grant agreement and general conditions
- Reporting and procurement rules for the accountant
- Indicators, work plan and monitoring forms
- Visual identity and communication requirements
- Code of ethics and child protection policy
During the project - both directions
- Interim and final reports with financial tables
- Training materials and questionnaires in Georgian for the village
- Acceptance certificates and invoices for the donor
- Documents for auditor and monitor visits
- Success stories and press releases in two languages
In project document translation two things are checked separately: the terminology defined in the donor's guidelines - "beneficiary", "outcome", "deliverable", "eligible cost" - which has to repeat the same way in every report, and the figures, which have to match between budget and report down to the euro cent. For this a terminology base is opened for the project from the very first document and kept for years, from project to project, while the tables are checked by a financial editor.
Foreign volunteers and experts
European volunteers and short-term experts work in Zhinvali's schools, community centres and farms - language teachers, agronomists, tourism consultants. The host organisation needs their documents in Georgian: passport and visa, a criminal record certificate from the country of citizenship with an apostille (especially when working with children), the insurance policy, the diploma or qualification, a bilingual volunteering agreement; and in return the volunteer needs a certificate from the Georgian organisation on the work done, a reference and a certificate in their own language, for their university and a future employer. This two-way package is prepared on one side before the volunteer arrives and on the other when they leave.
Ananuri, the reservoir and tourism
Ananuri fortress is the most visited monument on the Military Road, and in recent years the Zhinvali reservoir has become a place for water sports and family guesthouses. Local guesthouses, cafes and boat and kayak hire businesses need descriptions for booking platforms, menus, hire and water safety rules, historical text on Ananuri and the Eristavis of Aragvi, and contracts with Tbilisi tour operators - in the guests' languages, without a stamp or notary. In a historical text, dates and names have to match the scholarly literature, even in plain language; water safety rules we prepare with legal wording, so that the document holds up if there is an incident.
Zhinvali families - before the reservoir and after
In the 1980s the Zhinvali reservoir flooded several villages and their inhabitants were resettled to new Zhinvali and the lowlands; to this day these families' papers belong to two eras - with the old village's stamp and a new address. When a son or daughter in Europe settles a parent's house matter, or a grandmother retires, it is often exactly these old, Russian-language documents that are translated into Georgian - resettlement acts, old housing warrants, Soviet employment record books. The rest is the same as anywhere - an embassy, a university, a power of attorney from Europe. One family's pre-reservoir and present-day papers are handled as one package with one transliteration, so that the grandfather recorded in a 1984 act and the grandchild recorded in a 2024 power of attorney read as one family.
Languages in orders from Zhinvali
Because of the projects, English is the undisputed leader in Zhinvali - the language of donors, reports and volunteers. German comes up with German and Swiss funds and volunteers, French with European programmes, Russian with old documents and tourism, Polish and Ukrainian with reservoir visitors. Papers from Zhinvali people in Europe arrive in Italian, Greek and Spanish; Dutch, Czech, Turkish, Arabic and Chinese are linked to individual projects and visitors.
The process for a community organisation and a family
The file and the donor's guidelines
An application, report or contract - in an editable format, by email to info@targmanebi.ge, with a link to the donor's terminology guidelines if there are any; a certificate or a volunteer's document - as a photo, by WhatsApp.
Donor, authority or community
Who the document is for decides whether the terminology follows the donor or language the village understands, and whether certification is needed. Tell us the call deadline from the start.
Terminology base and checking the figures
A project text is translated by a development-sector translator using the base, the budget and tables are checked by a financial editor, and a volunteer's document is done by an official-documents translator, with notarization.
File to the donor, paper in Zhinvali
You receive the file in the same format, ready to send to the donor. The courier brings the certified paper for a volunteer or family to Zhinvali or a village in the valley on the weekly visit; an organisation's staff member coming to Tbilisi can also collect it at the office.
Price and deadlines
An order from Zhinvali is handled on the same terms as Tbilisi, with the price by agreement once we see the document, and the courier comes here weekly. A project document is counted by the page and rarely needs certification; the terminology base and templates reduce the cost of every following report - the second report of a project is noticeably cheaper than the first. A grant application is done to the call deadline, a report according to volume, a volunteer's package with notarization in two to three days, a family certificate in two to three, an old resettlement document after deciphering. A contract with a community organisation fits easily into donor reporting - one invoice at the end of the month with full details, confirmed on our side by the bureau's founder, the sole trader Mariam Zumadze, ID 30601010853. A donor's unpublished reports and volunteers' personal documents go nowhere from us; a confirmed inaccuracy is corrected free of charge.
A project is starting in a Zhinvali village and you need the donor contract in Georgian? The report in English? A volunteer is arriving and their papers need to be in Georgian? Or you have your grandmother's old, pre-reservoir document? Send us the file or photo - we open the terminology base from the very first document.
Call: 501 113 200Frequently asked questions - translation in Zhinvali
We are a community organisation, and a European programme call closes in two weeks. The Georgian text is ready - how long for the English?
A ten- to fifteen-page application with a budget is usually ready in a week, fitted to the call deadline; changes in the final days are corrected without queuing. Send us the link to the donor's guidelines - we prepare the terminology from them, so that the assessor reads "their own" language.
The donor contract is 40 pages in English. Does the accountant need all of it?
The accountant needs the reporting, procurement and eligible cost sections, the manager the obligations and indicators; the rest informally or not at all. Send us the table of contents and we will mark the sections needed - the cost falls two to three times.
A German volunteer is coming to a school for a year. Which of their documents get translated?
The passport, a criminal record certificate from Germany with an apostille (mandatory for work with children), insurance and qualification into Georgian, with notarization; the volunteering agreement bilingually. They send the photos from Germany and the package is ready for their arrival; when they leave, we can prepare the certificate and reference in German.
The donor's auditor is coming and the invoices are in Georgian. What do we do?
We translate the audit package - invoices, acts, contracts, bank statements - into English in one go, with one terminology, under the bureau stamp; the amounts are checked against the budget down to the euro cent. An interpreter for the auditor's visit is also possible, by prior arrangement.
My grandmother's house was left under the reservoir, and the resettlement act from 1984 is in Russian. Now we are starting a compensation or inheritance case.
We translate the act, the old warrant and the modern certificates into Georgian as one package, with notarization - the old village name as written in the document, the modern address in a note. Handwritten text is deciphered first, and we give the price after that.
I am starting kayak hire on the reservoir. Safety rules in English - with a notary?
No notary, but legal wording - yes: the rules and the liability form have to be written so that the document holds up if there is an incident. We recommend a bilingual format signed by the guest; Russian and Polish can go in the same order along with English.
Translation bureau in the other cities of Mtskheta-Mtianeti
Zhinvali is part of Dusheti municipality, and the Military Road links it to Pasanauri, Stepantsminda and Mtskheta. Choose your city and see its local focus.