Temporary Accommodation Finally Granted After Suicide Attempt

Gulnara Chaghalidze decided to throw herself under a car with her three under-age children after having been refused temporary accommodation by the Health Ministry. After being moved out of resort-house ‘Mtsvane Kontsxi’ the Chaghalidzes were put up in a club house in the village of Charnali, where they were then forced out by villagers.
“I would prefer to die with my children than stay out in the street again,” said the mother in tears.

“We have been living in the Makhinjauri based resort-house ‘Mtsvane Kontskhi’, for three years. They said the Kazakhs bought it and that’s why we were moved out. The people from the Ministry told us - move into somewhere temporarily and then we will find some place for you. We spent two nights in the garages in the town, and then we applied to the Khelvachauri District Administrative Board asking for accommodation. They put us up in the former club house of the village of Charnali. We took all our furniture in their cars. We spent eight days in the club. The conditions were terrible - the ceiling was falling down. We were afraid of being crushed under the roof at night. The owner of the club turned up. Nearly twenty boys and villagers came and demanded the club be emptied, saying they were arranging funeral parties within the building. The village people are right and demand their property but what can we do?’ asks Gulnara Chaghalidze.

The Chaghalidzes had lived in the village of Zemarduli in the Shuakhevi district before moving to the resort-house. The family lost their house as a result of a natural disaster: “We have nothing, my husband has ten sisters and brothers, but all of us are here because it is impossible to live in our own house.”

Gulnara Chaghalidze with Elza, Ineza and Mirza who has a heart-disease, stood in front of the Adjaran Council of Ministers building demanding temporary accommodation. “Kakha Guchmanidze came down saying he would go upstairs and find out about an answer. He came down a little later and said - you will have no accommodation. So I had no way out but die…”

Gulnara Chaghalidze wanted a room in the former building of the Drug Treatment Centre: “There are some people lodged in the Centre, but there are empty rooms there as well. I was there yesterday and saw the place myself. But these people deceive me - as if there is no space. Several rooms are locked and nobody lives there. They force me to break into the rooms. I will fight till the death, together with my children and I will reach my goal,” says the distraught mother.
 
Several hours later Gulnara Chaghalidze was met by representatives of the Khelvachauri District Administrative Board. The Chaghalidzes were taken from the Council of Ministers building to Khelvachauri. Despite officials having insisted on not having any spots in the Drug Treatment Centre, a room there was found for the Chaghalidzes. “One woman from Tsalbani had two rooms. Kahkha Guchmanidze and representatives of the Administrative Board told her to empty the room. I have to lodge there,” said Gulnara Chaghalidze the following day.

Kakha Guchmanidze, the head of the Department for Refugees and Accommodation refused to comment the situation officially. He did say however in a conversation on the telephone that: “Thirteen families were illegally lodging in the resort-house of ‘Mtsvane Kontskhi’ for years. Nothing belonged to any of them. This family moved into the club willingly. What can the state do? A lot of people live anxiously; the state is not obliged to satisfy them all. It is of our own kind will to put these people up.”

Maka Malakmadze