Care for 20 homeless people in Tbilisi, Georgia

Our shelter is an open place, where we welcome members of our local community who wish to get involved and visitors from further afield.  Recently, Theresa Tollemache visited from the UK.  Seeing our work with fresh eyes, she gives a good rounded picture of our set up, which we hope you will find interesting. 

"We spent a very happy and extremely impressive two hours at the Mkurnali House and the centre where several young people and families live having been rescued from poverty and a criminal past.  They are all suffering from punishment for petty crimes and in some cases an action that should not be considered as a crime.   Our host Nino Chubabria has dedicated her time to finding legal support for these teenagers and pledges to look after them in the Mkurnali house until they find permanent work.  Jamil has been with her since he was 14 and arrested with a prison sentence for stealing an apple in a neglected garden in his village where he tended the cows.  A few years later Nino has put him in charge of running the house which he does in the most efficient and loyal way.  

We visited Pavel who is working on restoring cars in a garage near to the home.  He is determined to set up a business with a local business man restoring and selling cars and he already had an apprentice who was working with him.   We were shown a little work shop in the house where some of the residents are filling cartridges with ink for re sale.  Pavel’s brother and others also make beautiful enamel earrings and pendants for sale.  

A fine Georgian feast was laid on for us and prepared by Inga who is one of the volunteers.  All those in the house joined us at the table to enjoy really delicious food.  Most were still out working so we did not meet all the residents.

The house itself is spacious and has its own courtyard where they are able to light a fire and make shaslik (kebabs).  The building is in a very quiet area on the edge of Tbilisi, with leafy courtyard gardens, chickens wandering and helpful friendly neighbours mainly from Azerbaijan.  The houses are dilapidated and the Mkurnali house itself is in need of attention.  Their neighbours are going to help them with renovating a concrete stair case and adjoining party wall but the roof of the building badly needs repair. 

Nino Chubabria is an exceptional person and is working tirelessly to help the young men, “her boys” in her words!,  to forge a new life away from the despair they had been living in before.  From her gentle and firm kindness they are learning to build up trust in the world around them and become honourable hard-working citizens.   We were so impressed by everything we saw and know that the support the GlobalGiving community gives them is extremely important for the future of these young people and the people who are caring for them."

We love a win win solution and that is what we were able to create recently in our own neighbourhood.   Rather than choosing between a troubled teenager and the community he was disrupting, we have been able to improve life for everyone.

Parkhat is a neighbour of ours.  He came from an Azerbaidzhani family who settled in Tbilisi.  He is 15 and a half years old and has been growing up without his mother.  She left him and his father and went off with another man after finding that her husband had cancer. Parkhat’s father is a good, hardworking and honest man and it is terribly sad that he is ill and does not have anyone to help him. He is unable to look after Parkhat whose behaviour became much worse after his mother left them. 

Before we got involved, there were a lot of complaints from the other neighbours:  

- My car was scratched this morning. It must’ve been Parkhat.  

-My car was broken into and they stole cash and cigarettes from it. It must’ve been Parkhat.  

- Parkhat made my kid smoke cigarettes.  

- He’s a disgusting kid. I forbade him to be friends with my kid. I told him a million times, but he still comes around and calls my son quietly.  

Nino’ our director's car has also been scratched a few times but she and the other neighbours didn’t want to go to the police, knowing Parkhat’s circumstances and the family he grew up in. 

Parkhat was obviously known to the local police, so as soon he reached the legal age of 14 he got arrested for damaging someone else’s property. We found out about it when the other neighbours came to us to ask us to help the boy and save him from imprisonment. We were all terribly sorry for Parkhat’s father - he was unable to handle this situation on his own as he badly needed help himself.  

We stepped in and talked to the police and Parkhat was finally released without a court hearing. We talked to Parkhat and made it clear that if he wants to put his life back together, we are here to help him. The boy was scared and lost and he promised that he would join our trainning course and change his behaviour. Since then Parkhat has found a second home at the Mkurnali shelter where he spends a lot of time learning his new skill of making jewellery.  He has become great at making beautiful enamel and silver pieces. Now he never misses his school and helps his father as much as he can.  He loves music and jokes and he is just happy and adorable.  

We are very grateful to you for helping us extend our hospitality to young people like Parkhat.  He may not be homeless, but we are thankful that we were able to turn his life around before it went seriously off track.  In doing so, we've made our neighbourhood a better place for everyone.