Care for 20 homeless people in Tbilisi, Georgia

In our last report we told you of some of the extra tutoring we have offered to children of our residents.  This summer, we have continued the educational theme by helping a group of four children of former residents.  Having battled homelessness and many other disadvantages, their parents are unable to help them with their school work and they have fallen seriously behind.  In year seven, they did not recognise all the letters of the alphabet.  Each day, our teacher has been offering catch-up lessons, and now they are reading!  Their maths has also made great progress.  Alongside school work, they have also been able to learn new sports and have had outings.  Of course, not all of the children were interested in studying from the start, and not everyone came right away. But once they saw how much fun the others were having — and realised that being here isn’t only about school — some have already expressed a desire to join the programme.

This is not the only way we have been helping our fomer residents.  While delivering food parcels to families living in villages around Tbilisi, we often noticed that their yards were very unkempt.  So during the summer we visited a different beneficiary family each Saturday with the children.  Together we helped clean and organize their yards and surroundings.   The children really enjoy these 'Saturday cleanings. They are excited, enthusiastic, and—most importantly—they are gradually learning how important it is to live in a clean and orderly environment.  After every clean-up, we have a small picnic, which the children absolutely love and look forward to.

Lastly we love being able to report on our young resident, Christina's amazing successes.  This year, she won first place in the World Cup gymnastics competition and took first place in every tournament she participated in!  Thank you to everyone who donated so she was able to join the national team.

We all know how important education is for building a future.  Sadly for those who are already vulnerable, accessing education is not always straightforward.  Here at Mkurnali we do our best to overcome the difficulties and make sure that as many beneficiaries as possible are either in education, vocational training or employment.

Vlad, one of our beneficiaries, had a very particular obstacle in his way.  Fortunately, our lawyer, Inga, was able to help.  The story began when Vlad signed up for vocational school and was accused of faking his high school diploma because of missing official stamps and a strange signature. His old school had merged with another, making things harder to confirm. The Ministry of Education couldn’t verify the diploma, as records were moved to the Tbilisi Central Archive. When they checked, the list of graduates was missing the former director’s signature, who had passed away. The deputy director vouched for Vlad and agreed to testify in court. Teachers and classmates backed him up with photos and other proof. In the end, the court ruled in Vlad’s favor, ordering a new diploma. With the fresh certificate, the case was dropped, and Vlad finally got to continue his studies.

Our director, Nino, has also been helping some of our younger residents with their school work.   She explains, 'At the Mkurnali shelter, three school-age kids are catching up on their studies. Christina misses a lot because of her sports schedule, Celia’s education wasn’t a priority where she lived before, and Niko is just getting started. I tutor them daily, sometimes online, and have brought in an English tutor to help out.  The hard work has paid off—grades are up, and Celia’s doing especially well after struggling before. The English teacher also runs a trial programme for adults, and if it keeps going strong, we’ll keep it running.'

As you can see, we are more than just a homeless shelter, working hard to make sure all our residents have a positive future.  Thank you for all your help and support.  We could not do it without you.