FWCC World Office London

Georgian Friends’ Relief Work Off to a Good Start

Mikheil Elizbarashvili, of Friends House Georgia, writes that the generous contributions from Friends around the world are being put to good use assisting refugees in Georgia.

I have a list of collective centres in Tbilisi , but I have been helping with the registration of refugees and I know the situation in the many collective centres myself. So we try to deliver the items that they need most. Usually we stay in touch with coordinators of the collective centres. Every collective centre has a coordinator—that is the person elected from the refugees who is responsible for the aid that they receive, distribution etc. Every coordinator has a list of refugees who live there and the needs that they have.

The situation with the distribution of aid by the government for refugees is not equal. The collective centres which are located in centre of the city (the district were most of the state agencies and international charity organizations are located), received the mattresses, blankets and have no problem with food. The ones which are located at the edge of the city do not get any aid at all, or get it in very small amounts, and they survive only because there are some people in the neighbouring buildings who sometimes bring them food from their homes. We try to help in these collective centres. We deliver food, mattresses, blankets etc. to the collective centres according to their needs.

Due to this, in some collective centres refugees get food twice a day and in the others they get 100 grams of sugar for 10 days and bread only once in 3 days. Some of them receive only military dry food packages from the US government which are not good for a long term use.

There are a few big collective centres (schools where around 300 refugee live) which have a medical checkpoint. That is a room were a medical doctor comes for a few hours per day to provide medical assistance. But unfortunately these medical checkpoints do not have any free medications for the refugees. We know which collective centres have such a medical checkpoint and will deliver them the medication and nappies (diapers) for the children.

Some polyclinics, which are located near the schools, also started treating the refugees for free. But since most of them also do not have free medication available, the only one thing they can do is to provide medical advice. We also delivered the medication to a few such polyclinics and medical checkpoints, and will continue to do so. The doctors will give the medication to ill refugees.

My father Jimsher continues to visit the collective centres providing medical assistance to refugees and giving the medication to those ill refugees who need it.

We would like to thank Friends for the financial assistance that you are providing to Georgian Refugees via Friends House Georgia.

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Donations can be made in Sterling or Dollars through PayPal. Cheques in Sterling can be made out to “FWCC” and sent to 173 Euston Road, London, UK NW1 2AX, marked for “Georgian relief work”.