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.

Ministry of Education & Science Educational Resource Centre, Kutaisi, Imereti Region, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / NKTA 2007

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

As mentioned in the comments section of one of the previous posts, part of any successful attempt at reintegration of institutionalized children into their biological families and with foster or adopting parents has to be the provision of oversight and monitoring through visits by social workers.

As I also mentioned in another previous post, many of Kutaisi’s social workers at the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Georgia visited Newport in Wales last year and are also upgrading their knowledge and skills through a TACIS Tempus project at Tbilisi State University.

Tbilisi State University will be training social workers at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and the curriculum is being devised with cultural traditions and differences in mind. To plug the skills gap before the students qualify, the work and expertise of those already working in social work type roles will be recognised with a certificate. This certificate course has already begun, with forty mature students. It is hoped that these successful students will provide placements for the students on the four year social work course which begins in September 2006.

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World Vision Vocational Training, Kutaisi, Imereti Region, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / NKTA 2007

As part of the process of deinstitutionalization in Georgia, the Ministry of Education and Science also works with local partners such as World Vision who also have their own team of social workers and complement state services with additional opportunities such as vocational training and group homes.

It’s interesting to read the background to a problem that also exists in Armenia on a larger scale, but is rarely reported in comparison to Georgia, although I’ve tried.

GEORGIA - Infants and children in Georgia are at a greater risk of being abandoned and placed in an institution if they have a disability or come from poor or dysfunctional families. 85 to 90% of the 5400 children in orphanages and other residential institutions in Georgia actually have parents.

[…]

In response to this crisis, World Vision, together with EveryChild, UNICEF and the Ministries of Labour, Health, Social Affairs & Education, have implemented the first ‘Prevention of Infant Abandonment and Deinstitutionalisation’ project in Georgia (PIAD) . A mother & infant shelter has been opened to provide counsel and assistance to mothers ‘at risk’ of abandoning their infants. They will also have access to employment counselling, vocational and business training and small group loans through World Vision’s Micro Enterprise Development program.

The project will also demonstrate alternative family and community based care for infants, including fostering, national adoption and reintegration with the birth family.

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

I’ve been to so many boarding schools in Armenia that it’s not surprising their equivalents in Georgia are pretty much identical in terms of conditions with the wallpaper coming off crumbling walls in rooms connected by dark and poorly ventilated corridors. However, the one main difference was that in Georgia many of these soviet era institutions are emptying whereas in Armenia they are not.

At the confusingly named “Nursery Home of Estery” on the outskirts of Kutaisi, for example, there were only 18 children from approximately 90 originally enrolled and attending. This is because of the continuing policy of deinstutionalization in the Republic of Georgia and the provision of family-based alternative forms of care for vulnerable and abandoned children.

Georgia has over 4,500 children currently living in orphanages, and the vast majority of them (86%) are not in fact orphans but have been abandoned by their families who have been hit hard by poverty and other social problems. These families have no form of assistance or safety net and for those living on the edge, the institutions are the only available option.

Institutional care, however, can seriously hinder a child’s development, as they don’t receive the proper care and attention they need to flourish.

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Infant House, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / NKTA 2007

As mentioned in the last post, I’ve just returned from Georgia where I was documenting social workers working for the Ministry of Education and Science in the country’s second largest city, Kutaisi. The work was arranged through the British charity EveryChild and undertaken for the Newport Kutaisi Association (NKTA) who brought many of those social workers to the UK last year on a study visit.

The idea for this training visit came when Newport Kutaisi Association’s vice chair, Catherine Philpott and treasurer Sonia Fisher made a visit to Kutaisi last year. They saw at first hand the conditions in the orphanages and the pilot scheme that has been established to improve the status of children’s welfare. It is estimated that in Georgia there are 4,000 children and young adults living in 50 or so soviet style state institutions which lack basic necessities for a decent life. Catherine & Sonia travelled under the auspices of EveryChild, a British Aid Agency working mainly in Eastern Europe with a base in Georgia. EveryChild are consultants to the Georgian government and both are very committed to raising the standards of child welfare.

It is hoped that this exchange will be the beginning of a partnership in social work between Newport & Kutaisi where ideas, skills and friendship will become another aspect of the work of the Newport Kutaisi Association.

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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.

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

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Shelter for Vulnerable Mothers and Children, Infant House, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia © Everychild / Onnik Krikorian

As part of the process of de-institutionalization in the Republic of Georgia, the Tbilisi Infant House has a shelter for single and vulnerable mothers and children. The shelter is a joint project between Everychild, UNICEF and World Vision.

The groundbreaking PIAD project, a partnership between World Vision, UNICEF, EveryChild and the Georgian Ministries of Health & Education aims to prevent infants and children from being abandoned, create alternatives to institutions and develop policies to create and sustain a social network system throughout Georgia.

More on the shelter can be read here and here.

Infant House, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia © Everychild / Onnik Krikorian

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Orphanage for Orphans and Children Deprived of Parental Care, Rustavi, Republic of Georgia © Everychild / Onnik Krikorian

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