Father of Six Children Is About To Commit A Suicide

One broken chair and table, two gifted beds and several plates…these are the whole property of a family with six children. They live in Besiki Street in Gurjaani. Their house has the badly damaged roof. Three years old Luka and six-month-old twins, Sopho and Nino, have to live in a damp and cold room.

Ten-year-old Meri, Seven-year-old Dato and four-year-old Temuka do not share their little brother and sisters’ dastiny for several days already. The parents, because of their poor living conditions, sent their children to Telavi Boarding-School. "Neither my husband nor I wanted to leave our children there, but we were forced to. We do not have firewood to burn in winter either. A neighbor gave us an oven to warm the house. The rain leaks in our room. We tried to paste cellophane on the roof but the rain damaged it again. We did not have a bed and the Gurjaani Boarding school gave one to us last week. Before that, our children used to sleep on the wet mattresses spread on the floor without any blanket to cover," said Lia Gortlishvili, crying.

Lia's husband, thirty-year-old Robizon Begashvili, is a daily-worker, and he occasionally earns some money enough for bread.  "My brothers are also poor and cannot help us. Lia's parents work on the farm in the village of Ziari to earn their living. I have not earned anything for several days and I sent our children to Ziari to their grandmother. At least, they would have some bread to feed them. Until my elder children were with us, they gathered some wood in the village to set a fire. Our situation has graved since we sent them to the Telavi Boarding School. However, it was too difficult to find a place for them in the school. None of them could go to an ordinary school having no cloths. Mery is totally illiterate. I have often thought about committing a suicide, but if I kill myself, they would be in the harder situation." said Robizon Begashvili.

The socially excluded and impoverished family gets the only allowance from the government, which is estimated thirty lari for a family with many children. "Until I had twins, I arrived at the Administrative Board several times but nobody met me. Everybody banged the door in front of me saying they did not have time and could not assist me. People from the administrative board told me to produce mediation from the Town Municipality. However, I was not paid much attention from Municipality either. Finally I got tired and gave up demanding single social allowance…"

"…My twins were born at home. At that time, my husband worked in the village of Ziari. I was there too and he could not take me to the hospital and we did not have any money to pay doctors either. You know, if you do not have money, nobody will pay attention even if you have a voucher. Having born the children at home, my children and I got very ill. We took Sopho and Nino in Tbilisi Dighomi Hospital #2. I met Tina Tsitsishvili there, who serves in the St. George's Church in Dighomi district, and told her everything about my hard life. After that, she sends us food and cloths for children," said Lia Ghortlishvili.

Khatuna Papunashvili, the head of the Gurjaani Department of the State Agency for Social Aid and Employment, said to the Human Rights Centre that she is really concerned about the living conditions of the Begashvilis. "They were registered in the poverty reduction program too late, because their marriage was not registered and the children do not have birth certificates. Finally, having produced all necessary documents, they were registered. Social agent checked their living conditions and was shocked by their extreme poverty. We think that very soon the family will be granted with the allowances," said Papunashvili.

Officials from the Gurjaani Service Centre of the JSC Kakheti Power Distributing Company said that the Begashvilis do not have electricity because of the debts. "Robizon Begashvili has not paid the electricity bill for a long time, and subsequently, they were cut off under the law. The family will have the electricity as soon as they pay the bill. We know that they have six children, but if you are that much sorry for them, you can pay their bills and we will supply them with electricity," they said at the Gurjaani Service Centre.

Lia Ghortlishvili is criticized at the Gurjaani District Administrative Board. "If they could not keep so many children, why did she bear them?"-they said at the Social Aid Department.

"They are so poor and the children are always so hungry, that once, their mother left peeled potatoes on the table, but while she was out to do something, the children ate the raw potatoes. I think that there are not many families who live in such poverty and the local authority might be able to help them," said the neighbor of the family, Tsitsino Kachlishvili.

Despite hard life, the mother of the six children is grateful to the God. "Thanks to the God for giving me so many children and they are all healthy," she says and asks: "Why should not I bear a child if the God gives me one?"

Three-year-old Luka does not know what Father Frost is. But he has a dream: "I want my sister and brothers were with me and also I want to have food and to live in a warm house…"

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti