Care for 20 homeless people in Tbilisi, Georgia

Our young people look after each other.  It was thanks to them that we got involved in their friend, Maia's case.  Maia was raised in a wealthy family, her father was a professor and her mother was a lecturer, they were raising her only child in luxury. When she was 7 years old, her parents were in a horrible car crash and they both died. As soon as they passed away a lot of relatives appeared that Maia didn’t even know about. The relatives took everything from her house, and some other relatives moved to the three-room apartment they had (In Tbilisi’s most prestigious district), as if they were going to take care of Maia. She was being abused verbally and physically for a year and when she couldn’t take it anymore she ran away from home and never went back. Suddenly she was living on the streets.

At the age of 16 she fell in love with a boy and they started living together in a rented house. For years they were living peacefully, both of them were working, the boy was working in a workshop, at least Maia thought that he was. One day police came to their house and discovered a lot of stolen items.  Since the boy was not in the house and was in hiding the police caught Maia instead and blamed her for stealing these items.

We investigated and found evidence to prove that the boy was guilty.  We found witnesses and, with the help of street children, we also found the boy. We succeeded in making the boy confess and come to the police. (We also helped him and he was sentenced to prison with agreeable terms.)

Maia was released from prison; we got her apartment back from the hands of her abusive relatives. Maia returned to her own apartment and she is expecting a baby. She is happy and she is looking at the future with hopeful eyes.  This is one more positive result from our programme of legal support for homeless and vulnerable young people that you are helping to fund.

This is not the only good news this month.  We have also reopened our enamel jewelry workshop with the help of another organisation called MAC.  This means that we can give more jobs and training to young people living at our place and to young people who used to live at a shelter for street children that has recently closed.  We have also given a home to some of those from the closed shelter who had nowhere else to go.

We are also helping our wider community.  On the request of the International Women’s Association our boys are delivering food to six elderly people living alone.

Thank you very much for all you do to help our young people to flourish.  If you'd like to help more young people like Maia, then today is a particularly good day to make a donation because it is a GlobalGiving bonus day.  This means that a bonus will be added to all donations made today, 16th March, up until midnight (EDT).

Thank you very much to everyone who supported us in 2015. Thanks to your regular gifts we can plan with some certainty how to organise the feeding of our residents. This year we helped our 21 permanent residents and also didn’t forget about street children who turn to us in search of food which provides a little stability in their lives.

Our house lives on a pretty much hand to mouth basis with donations which we receive from supporters like you and local in-kind donations from individuals and a few organisations. If you would like to make a donation, this would be a great time to do so. Anything you can give us is hugely appreciated.

The challenge we faced this year remains the same as in previous years – we are the only organisation in Tbilisi which takes care of vulnerable homeless teenagers and young adults over 16 years old. Once they turn 16, they are on their own if they have previously been in a shelter or orphanage. There are no state programmes which specifically help these youngsters.

Despite the lack of state support, we do our best to give our young people a secure feeling of home and also look for any opportunity for them to receive vocational and domestic skills training so that they can look forward to a stable future as adults.

One of those training courses is sponsored by the McLain Association for Children (MAC) which continues to provide the basic education for our children and teenagers who need to catch up with general subjects. This organisation also helped us establish an enamel workshop for our teenagers. Once they learn this craft they will be able to earn money for themselves.

With the help of the local TBC bank we are able to pay costs towards the most essential needs of our small children, while our local supporter Tea Dzokhadze gives us 100 GEL/month ($42 or £28). The local Doctor Madona Ukleba and the Mgaloblishvili Clinic look after the health of our children.

This is a magical time of the year and we are also preparing for our New Year celebrations. This year we have received a wonderful gift from the local branch of EBRD – three Christmas trees! Our toddlers Georgy, Vano, Nastya and Mary will take part at a New Year party at their kindergarten – they have already learned their New Year poems by heart.

We are looking forward to cooking Georgia’s famous dish “satzivi” (chicken in walnut sauce) – we have saved plenty of walnuts which we gathered this autumn.  Our friend and the head baker in one of Tbilisi’s restaurants “Oqros Kstkha” Nino Mikeladze will bake us a holiday cake. We will provide a holiday dinner for as many as we can afford to feed. 

We would be very grateful if you can help us to feed as many street children as we can during this festive season. It is wonderful to see their eyes lit up and to realise how excited these children can be at this very special time of year!