Have literally stepped in the door from six days in Georgia where I worked with the Newport Kutaisi Association, EveryChild and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Georgia documenting social services and the process of deinstitutionalization in Armenia’s northern neighbour.

Deinstitutionalisation is the focus of EveryChild’s work across the region, providing alternatives to the old Soviet style institutional care. EveryChild has been responsible for training all of the current social workers in Georgia and has also enabled over 500 children to date to be removed from institutions. The total number of children ‘deinstitutionalised’ or prevented from being abandoned to institutions in last three years equals approximately 10% of all children in institutional care of which over 100 have been reunited with their biological families while others have been found homes with foster carers.

So much to write on this subject, and especially how reform in Georgia continues in this area as opposed to the situation in Armenia where it appears to have stalled years ago, but for now I’d just like to say დიდი მადლობა to Andro Dadiani and Chris Rayment of EveryChild as well as Catherine Philpott of the Newport Kutaisi Association for this opportunity.

The photographs taken on this trip will be exhibited in Newport and London as well as Tbilisi and Kutaisi and possibly other cities in the U.K and Europe.

This work follows a study visit by social workers from Kutaisi to Newport last year. Incidentally, the statistics mentioned in the quote above have changed since, but anyway, the point is that reform is continuing and international experience is benefiting social work and deinstitutionalization in Georgia.

The delegation was made up of Tamar Chanturia of the Ministry of Education & Social Services, Lado Pataridze, Head of Resources for Kutaisi and the Imereti Region, Khatuna Gelkhviidze & Ana Kiskeidze, both of Kutaisi Social Services and Irina Samkharadze, a project manager working for EveryChild who acted as interpreter.
The aim was to learn of good practice, the development of new legislation and guidelines laid down for the de-institutionalisation of children.

The delegation were advised as to ways children, being brought up in orphanages, could be moved successfully back into family units either with their own families or with families willing to foster.

Special thanks to Ana Kiskeidze, Head of the Social Workers Group with the Ministry of Education and Science for the hospitality of her family in Kutaisi, Georgia’s second largest city, and Khatuna Gelkhviidze, another social worker. Coincidently, my mother works for social services in the U.K. in the area of fostering, but anyway. Am sorting out some of the images now, and I’m very happy with what I shot.

Thanks for that should go to Garo (AKA Christian Garbis) from Notes from Hairenik who brought over the fresh b/w film I needed from Boston when Yerevan had none.

The work had been timetabled in before starting on the Center for Regional Development / Transparency International Armenia’s Election Monitor blog, but the visit also gave me the opportunity to do some research on democratization after the November 2004 Rose Revolution as well as hold some meetings in Tbilisi with representatives of an U.S.-based media outlet and an international NGO regarding the CRD/TI Armenia blog project.

More on that later too.

Ana Kiskeidze, Head of the Social Workers Group with the Ministry of Education and Science, Kutaisi, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007