After visiting Georgia’s second largest city of Kutaisi at the beginning of the year for the Newport Kutaisi Association and EveryChild, the U.S. branch of the Salvation Army yesterday contacted me regarding using one of my images for the front cover of a brochure they’ll be producing. They specifically requested the use of one image included in the audio slide show presentation I produced for the Newport Kutaisi Association and EveryChild.

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Nareh, Opposition Rally, Liberty Square, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

As I was just looking through my Flickr site I noticed that Aramazd Ghalamkaryan had left a comment on one of my photos of a little girl at last Friday’s opposition rally. Anyway, turns out it’s Aramazd’s daughter, Nareh, so without much further ado, here’s some more pics. I have to say though, Aramazd, she seemed more interested in passing the time by blowing pieces of paper off her hands into the air than listening to Levon’s speech.

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It’s not often that the paths of Bristol and Armenia cross, but in recent weeks and months they have. Firstly, I should point out that I spent 13 or 14 years living, studying and working in Bristol before moving to London in 1993, but most links between the South Western British city and the South Caucasus tend to revolve around Tbilisi with which it is twinned.

Nevertheless, a few months ago I ran into a well-known former British soap star from Bristol holidaying in Armenia, and a few days ago a former Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) currently based in Gavar emailed me regarding contacting any Armenians living in the city as he and his wife were planning to move there for a bit.

Now, The Bristol Evening Post — a newspaper I used to work for from 1990-93 before moving to London to start at The Independent — reports that a local receptionist is due to arrive in Armenia to work on some youth projects.

A Bristol receptionist is off to a former Soviet state to work with disadvantaged children.

Tracy Thurlow, pictured, a receptionist at Bristol property maintenance firm Integral is visiting the town of Armavir in Armenia to help set up and run two clubs for youngsters up to the age of 13.

Integral also helps to sponsor a cultural exchange between Russian children and students at the Ridings School in Winterbourne.

Tracy, of Bradley Stoke, will be working with the students helping them to improve their English and practising her Russian, which is widely spoken in Armenia.

She has already visited Russia and Romania several times, working with her local church and other volunteers to establish children’s clubs and help with a drugs rehabilitation project. Each volunteer has to fund their own travel costs and Tracy has held cake sales, mufti days, raffles and done a sponsored skydive. So far she has raised more than 1,000.

Tracy said: “I’ve been learning Russian with an audio-tape every day on my way to and from work and in my lunch hours. I’m not sure how well I’m doing as I have no one to practise with. I’m really looking forward to the trip. It’s hard work but when you get to the end of the trip and
see the difference we have made to the children, it’s all worth it.”

Bryan Glastonbury, Integral’s managing director, said: “The children’s club makes an important difference to the lives of children who have few opportunities. We are pleased to support Tracy.”

Small World.

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Mastara, Aragatsotn Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

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Mastara, Aragatsotn Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

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Nursery Home of Estery, Imereti Region, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / NKA 2007

After putting together the audio photo slide show for the Newport Kutaisi Association, I’ve been informed that a mail shot has been sent out to councilors at Newport County Council informing them of the NKA’s continuing work in Georgia’s second largest city. Nice to see the slide show being linked to and promoted as a means of raising awareness of work being conducted by EveryChild and NKA.

Dear Councillor

Please link to the excellent slideshow of the Everychild project in Kutaisi, our twinned City in Georgia. The project is an example of what can be achieved in this emerging country with our support. Newport City Council is playing a major role in this success. The Social Work team under Penny Lloyd-Evans ran an intensive training programme in Newport for five key social workers from Kutaisi in the Imereti Region in June 2006. The experience and knowledge they took back is transforming the way orphans and children in care are treated in Georgia. Following the success of this project a high level mission from Georgia is visiting London next week and we have been invited to participate.

We commissioned Onnik Krikorian a British photojournalist based in Armenia to record the results so far. There is still a long way to go but with Newport City Council’s support in this project and their lead role in the Local Democracy Agency the future looks very bright.

Catherine Philpott,
Chair of Newport Kutaisi Association

Links:
Audio slideshow of Onnik Krikorian’s recent visit http://www.oneworld.am/photojournalism/kutaisi/
Everychild visit to Newport 2006 http://www.nkta.org/Whatachieved/Socialworkvist06.html
Local Democracy Agency: http://www.nkta.org/Aerilonline/Newonline/valmorbidareport.html

Incidentally, I’m interested in pursuing more work in Georgia as well as Armenia so any organizations, charities or media outlets interested in my ongoing work on key themes and issues such as poverty, children in institutions, mental health, democracy, landmines and minorities can contact me via the email address in the right hand column of this page.

SOS Kinderdorf Children’s Village, Kotayk, Kotayk Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

In February last year, as part of my ongoing work on children in institutions or deprived of appropriate parental care, I wrote an article and produced a photo story on the work of SOS Kinderdorf in Armenia. The article was just one of many that have dealt with the issue of poverty and abandonment in both Georgia and Armenia.

[…] SOS Kinderdorf has into the largest organization dealing with orphans and children deprived of parental care in the world. The Hermann Gmeiner Foundation, as well as individual donors, funds the organization’s activities. There are currently over 60,000 children living in 450 villages operating in 132 countries. An additional 500,000 children receive support through kindergartens, schools and youth centers.

[…]

Regardless of it’s size and success, however, what makes SOS Kinderdorf different from other organizations dealing with children deprived of parental care is in its approach. Although many Diasporan-based organizations have sought to support institutions for abandoned children, a new government policy aimed at removing children from residential care in Armenia instead seeks to promote alternatives.

“The main thing that makes us different from State orphanages is that we provide long term family-based care,” says Ashot Kocharyan, National Director for SOS Children‘s Villages in Armenia. “When I say long-term, I mean in terms of our commitment to the care and upbringing of our children. We don’t stop when they reach the age of 18, but continue up until the age of 22 and sometimes 24.”

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After EurasiaNet put together my photos with audio commentary for the 12 May parliamentary election , I’ve started to look at doing the same for new work. Actually, I’ve always put together my work in formats such as Macromedia Flash, but used text instead of audio to set the background. Anwyay, here’s a first attempt to change that. It’s on social work and de-institutionalization in Georgia for the Newport Kutaisi Association.

[…] poverty levels remain high with some families having no choice but to place their children into State-run Children’s Homes and Boarding Schools. Commonly referred to as orphanages, 85-90 percent of 5,400 children enrolled into such institutions actually have parents. Of concern are recent reports from the international Children’s Charity, EveryChild, which warn that institutional care can seriously hinder a child’s development.

As a result, the London-based organization, which also has an office in Tbilisi, is now working with the Georgian government, and in particular its Ministry of Education and Science, to reintegrate such children back into their biological families or to place them in foster care. According to EveryChild, over 500 children have already been removed from institutions, including one hundred who have been reunited with their biological families.

Other organizations are also working to assist children from institutions in finding employment when they become adults through vocational training programs. Centers for the rehabilitation of children with disabilities, another group at risk of being institutionalized, are also being opened in urban centers, including the second largest city of Kutaisi.

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Kutaisi, Imereti Region, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / NKTA 2007

Some more photos from last week’s visit to Kutaisi, but this time of a rehabilitation center for children with cerebral palsy. On the second floor was the Tonusi center for children with mental disabilities and in the same building, a private school for the same.

Again, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Georgia work with these centers and it was interesting to later meet some of the kids from there in their homes now that they’ve been reintegrated into their families or placed in foster care.

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Motsameta, Imereti Region, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / NKTA 2007

International Women’s Day coincided with my visit last week to Kutaisi to document the work of social workers from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Georgia for the Newport Kutaisi Association. With a national holiday otherwise preventing me from visiting more institutions, I instead accompanied some of the social workers and beneficiary families to the nearby religious sites of Motsameta and Gelati, one of two UNESCO World Heritage Sites around Kutaisi.

The Gelati Monastery for a long time remained one of the main cultural and enlightening centers in old Georgia. It had an Academy which employed the most celebrated Georgian scientists - theologians and philosophers, many of whom had previously been active at various orthodox monasteries abroad or at the Mangan Academy in Constantinople. Among the scientists were such celebrated scholars as Ioann Petritsi and Arsen Ikaltoeli.

Due to the extensive enlightening work carried out by the Gelati Academy, people of the time used to call it “a new Hellas”, “a second Athos”.

The Gelati Monastery has preserved a great number of murals and manuscripts dating back to the 12th-17th centuries.

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