***Last names of children are not given as public information in Georgia’s infant houses, orphanages, and state-run boarding schools. The majority of the boys in these places are named Giorgi or George. There are several Giorgis/Georges mentioned in the following story****

Tbilisi, Georgia (former Soviet Republic) – Growing up in a family home isn’t just the way it’s supposed to be, the way God planned it, it’s also one of the UN’s primary human rights for children. But more than ten years after the Soviet Union crumbled, thousands of children in the former republic of Georgia are warehoused in the same fashion they were in the old ugly system of the past.

The Preamble of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states, "Recognizing that the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding." Articles 5, 10 and 18 also address the rights of the child to be raised in a family environment and the obligation of States to prevent children from being separated from their families unless the separation is judged necessary for the child's best interest. Georgia signed the CRC in 1994.

Yet more than a decade after the U.S.S.R fell there are still children and young adults languishing in dilapidated, stench-filled, hidden buildings in Georgia. They aren’t getting the care they so desperately require. The conditions have surely contributed to premature death for some. But others are being rescued through the efforts of grassroots Georgian organizations, such as the International Women’s Association, working alongside international agencies such as Mercy Corp, CARITAS, and World Vision. They are part of a coalition hoping to dramatically change Georgia’s orphanage culture and eventually eliminate it altogether. The aim is to assimilate approximately 4,300 children back into their original families or foster care.

Forty-five such children exist in one of Georgia’s worst institutions. The Kaspi Psycho Neurological Centre for Disabled Children sits at the end of a pothole-covered road near the Georgian city of Kaspi. A plaque hung next to the front door of the Kaspi Centre marks the occasion in 1997 when the building was “rehabilitated and winterized” by a well-known international NGO and a major western government (unnamed here as it could have been any reputable agency or government).

Five years later the place is a shambles. The materials donated to make the place livable either withered faster than anyone could imagine, or the work was dismantled and spirited away for something else after the proud moment the plaque was hung on the wall.

Georgia doesn’t suffer the depth of paranoia known in its former days, but there is still reluctance to point fingers and name names. Privately people will tell you that money and resources aimed at some of the orphanages are often diverted. The children eat, but the meat designated for their plates often doesn’t get there. Materials and expertise aimed at the cause often miss the target, but the winds of change have begun to be felt in some of the country’s 49 institutions.

More on the good news later in this story, but first the bad.

Amongst Georgia’s 49 infant houses, orphanages, and state-run boarding schools, the Kaspi Centre is one of the most notorious. The 45 children at Kaspi were eating in a poorly lighted, aged dining hall, during a June 4th visit this year. There was no meat on the menu, just a mushy vegetable mixture that was wolfed down unassisted by most of the kids as there weren’t enough caretakers to help them. And assistance is needed as all the children at Kaspi are physically and/or mentally challenged, some of them severely.

The women who appeared to be in charge weren’t uncaring or cold. They seemed to be doing the best they could, but were obviously understaffed, overwhelmed, and ill prepared to look after individuals with such high needs. The Director of the Kaspi Centre was not there on June 4th to explain the state of disarray. One helper said the Director rarely visits the place, instead opting to spend most of her time in Tbilisi more than an hour away.

The problems at Kaspi and the other centers aren’t new. A two-year old report from the Guramishvili Pediatric Clinic in Georgia says, “They (children) have been isolated from society in orphanages that make their social rehabilitation impossible. Society has no idea about the existing problem and is not aware of its acuteness.”

These are just some of the examples from a June 4th visit to Kaspi:

§ There were four women taking care of the forty-five disabled children. There was no single individual in charge of the premises. The director had not been there in weeks.

§ There was no electricity in the badly deteriorating building. It had been off for a week.

§ There was a new roof being put on one wing of the building, but the workmen apparently assigned to the task lounged on a broken veranda for three hours during the visit.

§ The building suffered from various ills, everything from broken windows and light shades, to crumbling brick and plaster, as well as entrance doors without handles or locks, and deplorable filthy toilets.

§ A ten-year-old boy named George (there are many male children named George, pronounced Ghee-or-ghee) sat in a corner breaking slices of bread into tiny pieces, which he dropped on to a filthy floor and then ate. One of the caretakers said that is all he will eat.

§ There was no evidence of indoor heating, but when asked, a caretaker said they had electric heaters. However, electricity to the building is often cutoff and it is highly likely there is no heat for extended periods in winter in a place where temperatures often dip well below zero Celsius.

In recent years some children have been rescued from the Kaspi Centre and similar warehouses of human misery, but many more remain virtually invisible in the ailing system.

In 1998, officials from the Guramishvili Pediatric Clinic in Tbilisi rescued ten residents of the Kaspi Centre. All ten were afflicted with severe mental disabilities. Most were malnourished and had an assortment of physical ailments such as bedsores, scabies, and other skin diseases brought on by neglect. All of the children improved, but were sent back to Kaspi just months later where they slipped back into their former conditions. The clear message started to be absorbed by people who cared. These children had to be removed permanently to better situations.

One such child is now thriving, less than a year after being transported from the Kaspi Centre to a brand new facility in Tbilisi. Thirteen-year-old George is one of twelve children from Kaspi now living at the brand new First Step House. When George arrived he was malnourished, unresponsive to touching or talking, and covered in bedsores. Eight months later, he’s gained weight. His skin is smooth and healthy, and despite his mild physical and mental disabilities he’s got the energy of young teenager. He watches cartoons. He plays on the teeter-totter outside and before lunch he led the other children in a rousing sing-along for a visiting camera crew.

Built with municipal funding and operated by money from World Vision, the First Step program and building is not designed to be another new layer of institutionalization in Georgia. It’s meant to be a transition point for children to be eased back into their families or taken into foster homes.

George’s mother didn’t know that her son had been moved from Kaspi to the First Step facility until she saw him on a Georgian TV news report. She barely recognized him as he had gained weight and was in better overall condition than she had ever seen him. George’s mother, like thousands of other mothers of these children, has major problems of her own. As one of Georgia’s many internally displaced persons, she had neither the capacity nor the ability to look after a disabled child. But if First Step is able to take George the next steps, his mother will be trained and guided to take her son back into the home.

The First Step New Children’s Shelter is directed by paediatric Doctor Nino Muselani. She and her staff of twelve take care of 12 children who have been institutionalized for all or almost all of their lives, mostly in the Kaspi Centre. Everything about First Step is so dramatically different than Kaspi that it’s difficult to believe the two places are in the same country, just an hour apart by road.

George now stands a good chance of eventually returning to his family. Had he stayed in Kaspi, he might have died as countless others already have. Records are difficult to find or even non-existent. In many cases the children in these places have simply perished with little or no notice. The most common causes of death are from easily treatable illnesses such as pneumonia or dehydration.

The formula to reunite Georgia’s orphans with their biological families or foster homes also includes work aimed at improving family life. World Vision has recently started a two-year program to assist with the deinstitutionalization of children. Not only will it provide adequate care for the kids and a push to close down the worst orphanages, it will also employ social workers to train parents on how to look after their disabled or difficult children. It will provide economic assistance to some families who have been living under internally displaced conditions for several years. There’s also a component to help orphaned children who are becoming young adults find their way to a self-sustaining place in Georgia society.

In two years, World Vision Program Manager Nancy Archer wants to see many of Georgia's orphaned children living with their original families or in foster homes.” The program is part of a coalition with partners such as the British charity Every Child, as well as UNICEF, Mercy Corp, Georgia’s International Women’s Association, and other local NGO’s.

World Vision will concentrate initial efforts in two “babies homes” with focus on four areas:

1. Prevention of Abandonment – stopping the flow of children into institutions.

2. Deinstitutionalization – initiating alternative forms of childcare, including reintigration with the birth family, foster care, or national adoption.

3. Alternative and Transitional Care – including temporary community-based family care for two groups of children. A/ children who are temporarily unable to reside in a family due to severe physical, mental or behavioural problems; B/ over aged youth who must leave residential institutions due to age and need skills development training before moving into the community on their own.

4. Community Based Prevention – Community based development programs intigrated into targeted areas (World Vision Area Development Programs) with child sponsorship. (This program is slated to run in the fiscal years FY 04 and 05)

Appendix
World Vision promotes full implementation of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child in Georgia. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children highlights and defends the family's role in children's lives.

In the preamble and in article 5, article 10 and article 18, the Convention on the Rights of the Child specifically refers to the family as the fundamental group of society and the natural environment for the growth and well-being of its members, particularly children. Under the Convention, States are obliged to respect parents' primary responsibility for providing care and guidance for their children and to support parents in this regard, providing material assistance and support programmes. States are also obliged to prevent children from being separated from their families unless the separation is judged necessary for the child's best interests.

Photo: Steve Matthews