Georgia: 6 months after conflict World Vision continues to help thousands displaced
At its height, the conflict displaced an estimated 180,000 people with Georgia bearing most of the brunt. Tbilisi swelled in population by nearly 10% overnight with almost 100,000 living in more than 800 collective centres -- mainly schools and abandoned government buildings. Other cities and villages also felt and continue to feel the burden.
Though the situation continues to stress the country and its people, the number of those displaced has considerably decreased. There are 8,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living in nearly 188 collective centres in the capital, 2,500 IDPs live in 80 collective centres in other areas of the country, and over 18,000 live in 36 new settlements recently built by the Georgian government.
Nearly 3,000 IDPs are also living with host families in Tbilisi; however, the number of those living with families in the regions has yet to be determined. The Civil Registry Association (CRA) set up an electronic system for the registration of IDPs in Tbilisi and trained World Vision staff on the use of the system. At the end of January, World Vision helped install the same system through its office in Gori, one of the focal cities during the conflict, and has begun registering IDPs in the area, including the former buffer zone.
Life for these people remains difficult and many do not know if they will ever be able to return to their homes and villages as South Ossetia remains closed to ethnic Georgians. Many struggle with their new reality and new surroundings in collective centres, relatives’ homes, and the newly formed settlements, adjacent to existing villages.
“World Vision supported the immediate needs of IDPs as they fled into Tbilisi back in August. We\'ve seen them thus far through a tough winter, with food, clothing, and temporary shelter. Now we want to see them through what may be the toughest period yet -- starting new lives in government-built houses they\'ve been resettled in,” David Womble, National Director of World Vision Georgia, said. “Unfortunately, for some, the term ‘integration’ means, ‘here’s your house, good luck.’ But we\'re seeing many of these settlements already with problems -- leaking roofs, moisture, no sanitation, increased depression, no prospects for employment, no access to health services. These settlements are at risk of becoming ghettos.”
Sopo, 20, moved into the Shavshvebi settlement in December with her husband and their four-month-old son. Before that, they lived with 32 other people in a two-room kindergarten in Tbilisi. In comparison, Sopo prefers living in the settlement, even though she and her husband do not work or have any job prospects, and subside only on humanitarian aid.
“Now at least I live in a house with my family, separately from so many other people,” she said.
Sopo and her family are from Eredvi, a Georgian village directly on the border of South Ossetia that is now totally destroyed.
“We had a huge house with a fruit orchard. Our family produced agricultural products. Our income was enough for all of us,” she said. “Now we own only these three rooms. I could not even take clothes from my house [when we escaped].”
In Shavshvebi, just off the main highway a few kilometres outside Gori, the 100 plus families who now live there have gas heaters to keep their houses warm; but Sopo says the heaters aren’t enough to keep the whole house warm and at night they sleep in the cold. Like in many of the other settlements, the walls inside her new home are damp, wet to the touch, and stained in irregular patterns of faded paint that spider across the baseboards and ceiling.
“The house is very wet. My son has had the flu ever since we moved here,” she said.
Sopo’s extended family, which consists of her husband’s mother, two brothers, their wives, and their children, also live in the settlement. In Eredvi, this extended family lived and worked together in the same large house and property, now they are separated into houses. However, they stay together as much as possible and eat most of their meals as a unit.
“We are each other’s hope,” she said.
Sopo and her relatives say they rarely receive visits from the local, regional, or national government to check on their needs, and feel cut off from society. Their main problem is the lack of an indoor bathroom and no place to bathe (something common in all the settlements), and wooden floors do not make it easy to take bucket baths. And, with no running water in the settlement, Sopo and her family have to carry water from 200 metres away and have to cross Georgia’s busy, two-lane main (and only) transportation highway to get to the water source and back home.
While these problems continue to challenge IDPs, much has been done to improve their lives and those communities damaged by the conflict.
This month (February 2009), children in 11 communities will finally start their school year in newly rehabilitated schools, which included the repair or installation of floors, roofs, and windows. Already five months into the school year, many children were not able to go to school as many school buildings were in disrepair due to the conflict. World Vision, with the help of the German government, was able to rehabilitate 10 schools and one kindergarten. In addition, in each school, a Child Friendly Space (CFS) will be built so children can interact with their peers in a safe, supervised environment while classes are not in session. World Vision already built one such CFS and renovated rooms in other schools to make them CFS-ready for other NGO partners to continue their construction.
In a joint effort with UNICEF, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and the embassies of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, World Vision will be providing schoolbooks this month for every child in four districts and regions affected by the war -- Khashuri, Kaspi, Kareli, and Gori. A careful assessment was done to ensure that the specific books based on each school’s curriculum would be delivered and available for each student. These books will then be available for every child, every year at each school.
World Vision, through a grant from UNHCR, also completed the winterisation of 10 collective centres in the Kaspi district, just south of the city of Gori. This area was also affected by the conflict as Russian troops maintained control of Gori and the surrounding communities for many weeks after the bombings. These 10 buildings are now ready to house those not able to return to their villages in the South Ossetia territory. The rehabilitation included the installation of toilets and bathing facilities, as well as providing dry, clean rooms.
Also this month, World Vision, through funding from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), will begin helping over 23,000 people in 34 villages in the Gori district to care for their cows. The organisation will work with the 6,500 households and 11,000 cows to provide 1,600 tons of feed and train farmers in cow deworming, with the help of 17 veterinarians hired to help in this process.
World Vision continues to distribute food as it has from day one and has conducted its ninth food distribution of World Food Programme (WFP) food this month, delivering 30-day food supplies to 7,300 IDPs living in collective centres in Tbilisi, and all those living with host families. It is also finishing its 2nd round of WFP food distribution in 18 villages in the Gori district, helping over 19,000 conflict-affected persons, including former IDPs who were able to settle back into their homes. And on February15, World Vision will begin delivering food to IDPs living in 11 of the 36 settlements.
The organisation also continued to deliver non-food items to IDPs in Tbilisi and the conflict-affected areas, which included 6,000 blankets and over 5,000 hygiene kits.
There is still much work to be done to help the more than 35,000 still displaced and the thousands more severely affected by the events last August. Relocating people and providing supplies goes a long way, but these people will need more in the form of long-term psychological and social aid to make sense of what has happened to them and to carve out a new, hope-filled future. World Vision will continue to adapt to the new challenges that Georgia’s people face and help provide solutions so they can live a full, productive life.
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Though the situation continues to stress the country and its people, the number of those displaced has considerably decreased. There are 8,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living in nearly 188 collective centres in the capital, 2,500 IDPs live in 80 collective centres in other areas of the country, and over 18,000 live in 36 new settlements recently built by the Georgian government.
Nearly 3,000 IDPs are also living with host families in Tbilisi; however, the number of those living with families in the regions has yet to be determined. The Civil Registry Association (CRA) set up an electronic system for the registration of IDPs in Tbilisi and trained World Vision staff on the use of the system. At the end of January, World Vision helped install the same system through its office in Gori, one of the focal cities during the conflict, and has begun registering IDPs in the area, including the former buffer zone.
Life for these people remains difficult and many do not know if they will ever be able to return to their homes and villages as South Ossetia remains closed to ethnic Georgians. Many struggle with their new reality and new surroundings in collective centres, relatives’ homes, and the newly formed settlements, adjacent to existing villages.
“World Vision supported the immediate needs of IDPs as they fled into Tbilisi back in August. We\'ve seen them thus far through a tough winter, with food, clothing, and temporary shelter. Now we want to see them through what may be the toughest period yet -- starting new lives in government-built houses they\'ve been resettled in,” David Womble, National Director of World Vision Georgia, said. “Unfortunately, for some, the term ‘integration’ means, ‘here’s your house, good luck.’ But we\'re seeing many of these settlements already with problems -- leaking roofs, moisture, no sanitation, increased depression, no prospects for employment, no access to health services. These settlements are at risk of becoming ghettos.”
Sopo, 20, moved into the Shavshvebi settlement in December with her husband and their four-month-old son. Before that, they lived with 32 other people in a two-room kindergarten in Tbilisi. In comparison, Sopo prefers living in the settlement, even though she and her husband do not work or have any job prospects, and subside only on humanitarian aid.
“Now at least I live in a house with my family, separately from so many other people,” she said.
Sopo and her family are from Eredvi, a Georgian village directly on the border of South Ossetia that is now totally destroyed.
“We had a huge house with a fruit orchard. Our family produced agricultural products. Our income was enough for all of us,” she said. “Now we own only these three rooms. I could not even take clothes from my house [when we escaped].”
In Shavshvebi, just off the main highway a few kilometres outside Gori, the 100 plus families who now live there have gas heaters to keep their houses warm; but Sopo says the heaters aren’t enough to keep the whole house warm and at night they sleep in the cold. Like in many of the other settlements, the walls inside her new home are damp, wet to the touch, and stained in irregular patterns of faded paint that spider across the baseboards and ceiling.
“The house is very wet. My son has had the flu ever since we moved here,” she said.
Sopo’s extended family, which consists of her husband’s mother, two brothers, their wives, and their children, also live in the settlement. In Eredvi, this extended family lived and worked together in the same large house and property, now they are separated into houses. However, they stay together as much as possible and eat most of their meals as a unit.
“We are each other’s hope,” she said.
Sopo and her relatives say they rarely receive visits from the local, regional, or national government to check on their needs, and feel cut off from society. Their main problem is the lack of an indoor bathroom and no place to bathe (something common in all the settlements), and wooden floors do not make it easy to take bucket baths. And, with no running water in the settlement, Sopo and her family have to carry water from 200 metres away and have to cross Georgia’s busy, two-lane main (and only) transportation highway to get to the water source and back home.
While these problems continue to challenge IDPs, much has been done to improve their lives and those communities damaged by the conflict.
This month (February 2009), children in 11 communities will finally start their school year in newly rehabilitated schools, which included the repair or installation of floors, roofs, and windows. Already five months into the school year, many children were not able to go to school as many school buildings were in disrepair due to the conflict. World Vision, with the help of the German government, was able to rehabilitate 10 schools and one kindergarten. In addition, in each school, a Child Friendly Space (CFS) will be built so children can interact with their peers in a safe, supervised environment while classes are not in session. World Vision already built one such CFS and renovated rooms in other schools to make them CFS-ready for other NGO partners to continue their construction.
In a joint effort with UNICEF, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and the embassies of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, World Vision will be providing schoolbooks this month for every child in four districts and regions affected by the war -- Khashuri, Kaspi, Kareli, and Gori. A careful assessment was done to ensure that the specific books based on each school’s curriculum would be delivered and available for each student. These books will then be available for every child, every year at each school.
World Vision, through a grant from UNHCR, also completed the winterisation of 10 collective centres in the Kaspi district, just south of the city of Gori. This area was also affected by the conflict as Russian troops maintained control of Gori and the surrounding communities for many weeks after the bombings. These 10 buildings are now ready to house those not able to return to their villages in the South Ossetia territory. The rehabilitation included the installation of toilets and bathing facilities, as well as providing dry, clean rooms.
Also this month, World Vision, through funding from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), will begin helping over 23,000 people in 34 villages in the Gori district to care for their cows. The organisation will work with the 6,500 households and 11,000 cows to provide 1,600 tons of feed and train farmers in cow deworming, with the help of 17 veterinarians hired to help in this process.
World Vision continues to distribute food as it has from day one and has conducted its ninth food distribution of World Food Programme (WFP) food this month, delivering 30-day food supplies to 7,300 IDPs living in collective centres in Tbilisi, and all those living with host families. It is also finishing its 2nd round of WFP food distribution in 18 villages in the Gori district, helping over 19,000 conflict-affected persons, including former IDPs who were able to settle back into their homes. And on February15, World Vision will begin delivering food to IDPs living in 11 of the 36 settlements.
The organisation also continued to deliver non-food items to IDPs in Tbilisi and the conflict-affected areas, which included 6,000 blankets and over 5,000 hygiene kits.
There is still much work to be done to help the more than 35,000 still displaced and the thousands more severely affected by the events last August. Relocating people and providing supplies goes a long way, but these people will need more in the form of long-term psychological and social aid to make sense of what has happened to them and to carve out a new, hope-filled future. World Vision will continue to adapt to the new challenges that Georgia’s people face and help provide solutions so they can live a full, productive life.
-Ends-
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