Georgia Conflict: Young mother and son flee to uncertain future
Women and children huddled in the cellars of their homes in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali over the weekend, only to leave their hiding places when the deafening sound of gunfire eased. In those desperate moments, children and younger siblings would be packed into vehicles leaving town for a safer place – leaving the nightmare behind.
Now many families forced apart by the conflict are trying to find relatives or at least word that their loved ones are safe.
Shushanik and her three-year-old son Elisei are among the 100,000 people displaced by the conflict in South Ossetia and Georgia proper according to estimates by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The violent conflict that erupted in Tskhinvali last week has already devastated thousands of lives.
The Russian Federal Migration Service, which has been registering people since the early days of the conflict says 34,000 people have crossed the border into Russia, with 13,000 currently staying in the Southern Federal district, made up of North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Stavropol krai and several other regions.
Shushanik arrived at a reception centre in Alagir; a North Ossetian town about 1.5 hours drive from the border with South Ossetia on Saturday last week. She had spent two days in her apartment with her son and mother fearing for their lives while violence broke out around her home.
“My son Elisei had a fever and the cellar was wet and cold. We live on the ground floor so we decided that it’ll be safe there.”
“I was scared out of my mind. Bullets were flying around like hail”, Shushanik adds. The young mother battled to keep calm but was gripped with raw fear during those terrifying moments.
On Saturday afternoon when the shooting stopped for a few hours, Shushanik’s uncle came with a van and took her, her son, her mother, grandmother and some of her neighbours to North Ossetia where they received emergency assistance and the assurance of longer-term accommodation.
"World Vision is beginning its response in North Ossetia in partnership with the local and international community to ensure the assistance compliments those efforts already underway. We will be focusing our assistance on the children so that they can begin to heal and cope with the traumas they are experiencing as a result of this conflict,” said Siobhan Kimmerle, National Director for World Vision in the Russian Federation.
“With the start of the school year just two weeks away, World Vision Russian Federation is considering how best to assist children and their families to prepare to start the academic year in communities where they have been given temporary shelter”, Kimmerle added.
World Vision Russian Federation participated in an interagency visit to temporary shelters to assess the needs of those displaced in North Ossetia on Tuesday. While the immediate need for food, shelter, water and sanitation, health care, and basic non-food items is being met for the short term, it is unclear whether child protection, psychological care, and the emotional and spiritual well being of children are being addressed.
Given its experience in the protection of children in emergency situations, World Vision anticipates that it will establish ‘Child Friendly Spaces’ (CFS) to provide children with a safe and structured place for informal learning and constructive interaction with other children and child protection specialists.
CFS’s would also enable mothers like Shushanik to better cope with the stress and anxiety of displacement.
“Tskhinvali is completely destroyed. There is nothing left there. I don’t know when we will be able to come back,” says Shushanik.
This the second time that Shushanik has been forced to leave her home in her young life. Born in Armenia, she was three years old when she moved to South Ossetia, the home of her mother.
When the first conflict broke out in 1991, and at just six years of age, Shushanik was made a refugee for several years in North Ossetia.
Gratefully, she can’t remember much of her ordeal. She hopes the same will be said for her son Elisei.
Now many families forced apart by the conflict are trying to find relatives or at least word that their loved ones are safe.
Shushanik and her three-year-old son Elisei are among the 100,000 people displaced by the conflict in South Ossetia and Georgia proper according to estimates by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The violent conflict that erupted in Tskhinvali last week has already devastated thousands of lives.
The Russian Federal Migration Service, which has been registering people since the early days of the conflict says 34,000 people have crossed the border into Russia, with 13,000 currently staying in the Southern Federal district, made up of North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Stavropol krai and several other regions.
Shushanik arrived at a reception centre in Alagir; a North Ossetian town about 1.5 hours drive from the border with South Ossetia on Saturday last week. She had spent two days in her apartment with her son and mother fearing for their lives while violence broke out around her home.
“My son Elisei had a fever and the cellar was wet and cold. We live on the ground floor so we decided that it’ll be safe there.”
“I was scared out of my mind. Bullets were flying around like hail”, Shushanik adds. The young mother battled to keep calm but was gripped with raw fear during those terrifying moments.
On Saturday afternoon when the shooting stopped for a few hours, Shushanik’s uncle came with a van and took her, her son, her mother, grandmother and some of her neighbours to North Ossetia where they received emergency assistance and the assurance of longer-term accommodation.
"World Vision is beginning its response in North Ossetia in partnership with the local and international community to ensure the assistance compliments those efforts already underway. We will be focusing our assistance on the children so that they can begin to heal and cope with the traumas they are experiencing as a result of this conflict,” said Siobhan Kimmerle, National Director for World Vision in the Russian Federation.
“With the start of the school year just two weeks away, World Vision Russian Federation is considering how best to assist children and their families to prepare to start the academic year in communities where they have been given temporary shelter”, Kimmerle added.
World Vision Russian Federation participated in an interagency visit to temporary shelters to assess the needs of those displaced in North Ossetia on Tuesday. While the immediate need for food, shelter, water and sanitation, health care, and basic non-food items is being met for the short term, it is unclear whether child protection, psychological care, and the emotional and spiritual well being of children are being addressed.
Given its experience in the protection of children in emergency situations, World Vision anticipates that it will establish ‘Child Friendly Spaces’ (CFS) to provide children with a safe and structured place for informal learning and constructive interaction with other children and child protection specialists.
CFS’s would also enable mothers like Shushanik to better cope with the stress and anxiety of displacement.
“Tskhinvali is completely destroyed. There is nothing left there. I don’t know when we will be able to come back,” says Shushanik.
This the second time that Shushanik has been forced to leave her home in her young life. Born in Armenia, she was three years old when she moved to South Ossetia, the home of her mother.
When the first conflict broke out in 1991, and at just six years of age, Shushanik was made a refugee for several years in North Ossetia.
Gratefully, she can’t remember much of her ordeal. She hopes the same will be said for her son Elisei.
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