Real Changes Supports People with Disabilities in Mestia
Iquote: “Together for Real Changes (TRC), is a Disabled Persons Organization (DPO) and peer-to-peer model bringing services to people with disabilities and their families in the most isolated regions of Georgia. The TRC team involves the local community and municipality from the outset and encourages family involvement in all aspects of the program.” That, from their own document, sums up this remarkable organization better than I could. It has existed in Georgia since March 2013, and I especially appreciate its focus on the far-flung parts of this country instead of Tbilisi, which gets the lion’s share.
A few days ago, TRC had a training week for local people with disabilities and their families at its new location in Mestia. This was an ideal opportunity for me to visit and see what was going on.
Ruta Casabianca from America, originally a Peace Corps volunteer in Georgia, met me and showed me around. Perhaps it was not too surprising to find some familiar faces at TRC’s center, as well as some new ones, given the year that my wife and I lived in the town soon after we were married. A Polish physio-therapist, with the help of a Georgian-Polish interpreter found at the 11th hour to replace one who had to drop out, was teaching her skills to local parents and medical staff. Children were on hand, one with cystic fibrosis, another with autism, receiving care in the facility’s brightly colored rooms. Here they can even stay with family for a week at a time for intensive training and help. In the residential building, an enthusiastic group of local women were being tested after training in psychology.
Flashback to about two decades ago, soon after I arrived. Special needs children were being kept out of sight in orphanages in Georgia, where some died of malnutrition; others were rescued, either in time or not. The ones with purely physical disabilities were denied any education. It could not stay hidden forever, though, and things have slowly improved. The fight for rights for such people and children goes on, as does the battle against the stigma of disabilities. Not to mention the huge lack of access for them to many places… I’m talking to YOU, Hanmer Guest House.
TRC also has operations in Borjomi and Sighnaghi, further demonstrating its commitment to the regions, where little if any such help is available. Racha might come next. As always, fundraising can be a real challenge, but Ruta and her people are forging ahead, doing all they can. I was really inspired by their dedication. Some foreign embassies and governments, notably those of Japan, Bulgaria and Poland, are getting on board. Hurrah for the former Iron Curtain countries which are now helping one another and others too!
The Kakha Paliani Rehabilitation/Habilitation Complex and Home-Care Service, as it is known, is up and running, with its official opening to be this autumn. Located a bit past Mestia’s airport, its two buildings were given construction help by a local electrical company, but the utility bills are high; no breaks for NGOs, which seemingly are expected to be rich, even when clearly they are not.
Another quote, this one from a TRC fact sheet: In Georgia, UNICEF reported that 77,000 children live in extreme poverty below the threshold of 2 GEL/day. The level of poverty amongst the families who have children with disabilities is striking: 44% of families interviewed as opposed to 13% nationally, according to the Geo-Wel Baseline Study completed in July 2014 for World Vision Georgia's Caucasus Sub-Regional Social Inclusion of Children with Disabilities, so far, the only such study in Georgia. “The research confirmed [World Vision's] suspicion, attitude is the biggest barrier...”
There is a long way to go, and this subject is only given a brief introduction here, but one can see the progress and hope.
Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with nearly 2000 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/
He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri:
www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti
By Tony Hanmer