The First Step, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia © Everychild / Onnik Krikorian

The First Step, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia © Everychild / Onnik Krikorian

One of the most enjoyable visits to projects in Georgia with Everychild was to The First Step village in a district of Tbilisi. There, children with special needs from the Kaspi Orphanage had been placed for rehabilitation and support while waiting for placement with a foster family. One Georgian girl, Eka, captivated me with her personality as I mentioned in a previous posting and it has to be said, it has been encouraging to see that the process of de-institutionalizing children with severe disabilities has advanced this far since this article on Kaspi by IWPR was published.

In fact, The First Step could be taken as a model for reintegrating the disabled in the Kharberd Children’s Home back into Armenian society. Unfortunately, donors such as the wives of former President Levon Ter Petrosian and the Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, as well as the large Armenian Diaspora, have chosen to support institutions rather than the process of de-institutionalization. Incidently, The First Step was established by the wives of the late Georgian Prime Minister, Zurab Zhvania, and the former head of the European Union Delegation to the Caucasus, Dennis Corboy.

Everychild is planning to introduce respite care into the center.

This project is being implemented in partnership with UNICEF, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Social Protection and the Ministry of Education. The International Women’s Association also provided funding. This project, like the family support and foster care project, demonstrates that parents and carers can feasibly care for disabled children at home, given the right level of support. The project seeks to reintegrate those children living in institutional care with their birth families or, where this is not possible, provide high quality foster care.

EveryChild is also developing a partnership with a local non-governmental organisation, The First Step (TFS), to set up respite care to provide professional services for children with disabilities, which will enable their parents and carers to take regular breaks. EveryChild and TFS are working together to find and support family-based carers for those children with disabilities currently living in institutions.

Actually, there’s dozens more photographs but I need to take a break for a day or so in order to complete some other work as well as shake a cold. Until then, The First Step has a web site here. It’s also worth pointing out that quite a few ethnic Armenian children as well as one ethnic Azeri were accomodated at The First Step.