New wheelchair for Giorgi who just wants to return home
Bela’s entire family hid in a basement but it wasn’t deep enough to block the terrifying sound of gunfire.
When the shooting stopped, Bela took hold of Giorgi and carried him two kilometres on foot, labouring under the weight of her son, to reach the main road.
Her husband decided to stay in the village to secure the house. “I wanted to stay there with my husband, but I am a mother and have to take care of my children. It was very difficult for me to leave my village”, she says.
Bela and Giorgi sought refuge at her cousin’s house in Tianeti, north Georgia. Giorgi hasn’t been able to move far from the bed he sleeps in as he cannot move independently. He shows signs of shock lacking interest in the people around him or interacting with them.
But if you ask him if he wants to go home, he nods his head with an emphatic ‘yes’.
His mother Bela told World Vision staff at the Mtskheta refugee camp where the family is registered that she is afraid he will never be the same after this shock. The only thing Bela asked for was a wheelchair for Giorgi to enable him to leave the isolation of a bed and move around independently.
It took two days for World Vision staff to procure a wheelchair for Giorgi. “This is the first time that Giorgi has smiled after leaving the village”, said Bela after receiving the wheelchair for her son from World Vision
But Giorgi’s disability and need for special care makes living in a refugee camp environment especially difficult for the family.
“I cannot live in a refugee camp with Giorgi. I can bear everything but Giorgi needs special care, water and a calm environment. These camps have tough conditions - it would be impossible for us to live there.”
In the interim, Bela has decided to stay with her relatives in Tianeti, together with her younger daughter Lela and husband, who joined the family after the situation in their village deteriorated further.
The family now believes that their home has been burnt to the ground, together with the majority in the village and all of its residents have since fled. Before the conflict erupted, Bela and her husband earned a small income by selling their agricultural produce. Now it seems unlikely that they will be able to work their small plot in the near future.
“I think in this situation we have to support each other, even though we don’t have much income and economically I would say we are in a bad situation. But we will share everything we have with them,” said Bela’s cousin Maia who is currently hosting the family.
Yet Bela understands that she cannot depend solely on her relatives’ support over the longer term.
She fled that the house without any identification documents and doesn’t know how she will be able to receive Giorgi’s disability allowance, which for now will be the only income for her family.
The future for her and her husband looks as bleak as the basement they fled from - they don’t know where they will live in the future or how they will feed their children.
Nearly 100,000 people like Bela have been driven from their homes by the conflict in Georgia according to the United Nations refugee agency. More than 210 public buildings are providing temporary shelter for the displaced.
World Vision Georgia is responding to the urgent needs of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) through the distribution of food in cooperation with the World Food Programme and non-food-items such as hygiene kits, as well as providing medical supplies to Tbilisi’s main ‘Republican’ hospital.
As of August 12, World Vision has helped more than 1,300 IDPs. World Vision is currently working in partnership with the UN and other agencies carrying out needs assessments in all the centres in Tbilisi, with a special focus on the needs of children.
When the shooting stopped, Bela took hold of Giorgi and carried him two kilometres on foot, labouring under the weight of her son, to reach the main road.
Her husband decided to stay in the village to secure the house. “I wanted to stay there with my husband, but I am a mother and have to take care of my children. It was very difficult for me to leave my village”, she says.
Bela and Giorgi sought refuge at her cousin’s house in Tianeti, north Georgia. Giorgi hasn’t been able to move far from the bed he sleeps in as he cannot move independently. He shows signs of shock lacking interest in the people around him or interacting with them.
But if you ask him if he wants to go home, he nods his head with an emphatic ‘yes’.
His mother Bela told World Vision staff at the Mtskheta refugee camp where the family is registered that she is afraid he will never be the same after this shock. The only thing Bela asked for was a wheelchair for Giorgi to enable him to leave the isolation of a bed and move around independently.
It took two days for World Vision staff to procure a wheelchair for Giorgi. “This is the first time that Giorgi has smiled after leaving the village”, said Bela after receiving the wheelchair for her son from World Vision
But Giorgi’s disability and need for special care makes living in a refugee camp environment especially difficult for the family.
“I cannot live in a refugee camp with Giorgi. I can bear everything but Giorgi needs special care, water and a calm environment. These camps have tough conditions - it would be impossible for us to live there.”
In the interim, Bela has decided to stay with her relatives in Tianeti, together with her younger daughter Lela and husband, who joined the family after the situation in their village deteriorated further.
The family now believes that their home has been burnt to the ground, together with the majority in the village and all of its residents have since fled. Before the conflict erupted, Bela and her husband earned a small income by selling their agricultural produce. Now it seems unlikely that they will be able to work their small plot in the near future.
“I think in this situation we have to support each other, even though we don’t have much income and economically I would say we are in a bad situation. But we will share everything we have with them,” said Bela’s cousin Maia who is currently hosting the family.
Yet Bela understands that she cannot depend solely on her relatives’ support over the longer term.
She fled that the house without any identification documents and doesn’t know how she will be able to receive Giorgi’s disability allowance, which for now will be the only income for her family.
The future for her and her husband looks as bleak as the basement they fled from - they don’t know where they will live in the future or how they will feed their children.
Nearly 100,000 people like Bela have been driven from their homes by the conflict in Georgia according to the United Nations refugee agency. More than 210 public buildings are providing temporary shelter for the displaced.
World Vision Georgia is responding to the urgent needs of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) through the distribution of food in cooperation with the World Food Programme and non-food-items such as hygiene kits, as well as providing medical supplies to Tbilisi’s main ‘Republican’ hospital.
As of August 12, World Vision has helped more than 1,300 IDPs. World Vision is currently working in partnership with the UN and other agencies carrying out needs assessments in all the centres in Tbilisi, with a special focus on the needs of children.
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