Giving Shelter and Family Environment to Vulnerable Children

Monday, August 18, 2014

Giorgi, 15, was living alone in a 10 square metre room, without electricity or running water, before coming to Crisis Intervention Centre. He was spending most of his time on the streets of Tbilisi selling small icons and earning money for food. He had never attended school. When his mother was alive, they both begged for money on the streets. If the mobile group members had not approached him and explained the opportunity of staying in  better conditions, in a friendly environment and having chance to study, he would be still on the streets.

“I am very happy that I came here,” he says. “Here, I study reading, drawing and also am respected by people. I already have friends and I feel that I am not alone any more,” said Giorgi.

" If left to themselves these children may end up in prison selling drugs, committing petty crimes or in prostitution. Without help they will never leave the streets." - said Maya Mgeliashvili, Project Manager.

World Vision Georgia aims to assist and support children and youth living or working on the street. This initiative is funded by the European Union, led by the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs with UNICEF, and implemented in cooperation with partners Caritas and Child and Environment. In frame of the project 3 mobile groups work on the streets with children, trying to earn their trust so that encouragements to leave the streets for shelters and then build new lives are heard and heeded.