Children In Strange House...

Saba Tsitsikashvili, Gori

According to the UNICEF, children from Shida Kartli region face most problems throughout Georgia. This evaluation was done before the war in August of 2008. The Human Rights Center got interested in the problems of the children who were mentioned in the evaluation of the UNICEF.

Story of Teona and Mtvarisa....

Teona and Mtvarisa Sadaghashvilis have been living in the strange house for 5 years already in the village of Kvakhvreli in Gori district. Teona has epilepsy and she is in the ninth form; Mtvarisa is in the tenth form at public school. Their father has tuberculosis.

The housewife, Mrs. Tsira says her family does not have any income. The agent of the social program visited their family two times and as she remembers both time the agent wrote zeros in the declarations; however the family was not informed about the results yet.

“I expected to involve the poverty reduction state program; however we had not been informed about results before I visited the agency myself and found out 58 000 points were granted to us; that means we are too rich to get allowance. This house where we are living in now belongs to Father Malkhaz who currently lives abroad with his family. We have been living here for 5 years. If he returns in Georgia or decides to sell the house, we will remain in the street,” said Mrs. Tsira.

“The neighbors and relatives are assisting us with food,” said the mother of the children.

Kind people give cloths to the children go to school in them. They have not bought new cloths for several years.

Teona cannot speak properly because of her illness; she said her favorite subject at school is English language.

Nana Sadaghashvili, manager of the Kvakhvreli Public School and neighbor of the family, said in her interview with us that they have chosen special method of tuition for Teona.

“I cannot describe the happiness of the children when neighbors, teachers and friends give them presents (clothes, food, etc). You can see extreme joy on the face of the children. The family faces similar problems because of health problems of two members. So many problems impact the children too,” said Nana Sadaghashvili.

Mtvarisa was watching our conversation from the distance. She seemed shier while Teona was eager to speak with guests about her illness; Nana Sadaghashvili explained:

“Mtvarisa is very smart and clever girl. She realizes the problems of her family and illness of her sister. Her father is ill with tuberculosis. I think she is shy for all these problems.”

The teacher said Mtvarisa is one of the best pupils at school; she paints very well.

“After I read Madam Bovary, I decided to write the woman,” said Mtvarisa and showed her painting. There were many other paintings on the walls. Her neighbor painter Gela Pilishvili gave her pens and brushes. Mtvarisa was lucky to find Madame Bovary and many other interesting books in the house of Father Malkhazi.

The upcoming winter is the biggest problem for the family. “We have not purchased for many years. We use to collect fire-wood in the gardens nearby. In the past when my husband was healthy he used to work in the forest and brought wood from there. Now he cannot work. But the biggest problem is that we do not have a stove either. Last year, our neighbor gave us the stove and now we cannot use it,” said Mrs. Tsira.

Despite similar difficulties the children are looking forward to January 7, the Christmas Day; last year the parishioners of the St. George Church in the village of Uplistsikhe collected products for impoverished families and assisted the Sadaghashvilis too. One of the organizers of this charity event was Mrika Ortanezashvili.

“Initially we thought impoverished people will be insulted with similar activity. We tried to keep our intensions in secret and distributed the products in the darkness. But, Mrs. Tsira was very happy to see us; so we are planning similar events in future too,” said Marika Ortanezashvili.

“We were so happy with the presents last Christmas that children are looking forward to the next Christmas now,” said Mrs. Tsira.

The Human Rights Center promised the family to assist them to involve the poverty reduction state program. We hope the representatives of the Social Agency will re-examine the family after reading this article in order to grant the allowance to them.