Georgia - DHA-11: 1-31.Mar.97
Georgia - DHA-11: 1-31.Mar.97
United Nations
Department of Humanitarian Affairs
Situation Report from the DHA Coordinator in GEORGIA - No. 11
Period covered: 1-31 March 1997
HIGHLIGHTS
Ministry of Health, UNICEF, and WHO Start Polio Eradication
Campaign
UNHCR, UNDHA, and Norwegian Refugee Council Visit South
Ossetia
International Rescue Committee Visits Abkhazia
University of California-Irvine Holds Conflict Resolution
Fora in Tbilisi and in Sukhumi
OVERALL HUMANITARIAN SITUATION
On 31 March, the nationwide polio eradication campaign for
children
2 months-5 years of age, known as MECACAR, started in
Georgia. For the third consecutive year, the nationwide
campaign will be carried out in two rounds, from 31 March
to 4 April, and from 5 to 9 May. UNICEF received 360,000
doses of oral polio vaccines (OPV) with droppers for this
operation. The agency also printed 400,000 vaccination
passports and 3,400 vaccination record books for health
facilities and 10,000 posters and 1,000 stickers - for the
social mobilisation campaign.
The National Centre for Disease Control, UNICEF, WHO and
MSF have created teams to monitor the process of the
campaign. On Saturday 29 March, the Ministry of Health,
UNICEF, and WHO held a press-conference dedicated to
MECACAR.
On 11 March, UNHCR, accompanied by UNDHA and the Norwegian
Refugee Council (NRC), travelled to project sites in
Tskhinvali and neighbouring villages. NRC, with support
from UNHCR and the International Rescue Committee, is
carrying out a distribution of 750 winter jackets and 750
pairs of boots to IDP children, aged 6-12. The team also
visited part of the UNHCR housing programme where Nuova
Frontiera is building 20 wooden houses for IDPs, who are
currently living in communal centres or sub-standard
housing. Beneficiaries of the project are involved directly
in all stages of preparation of the sites and the erection
of the houses. This principle is considered essential to
guarantee the future maintenance of the houses and to
ensure that the beneficiaries can expand the homes, if they
later wish to do so. In a related development, the
Norwegian Refugee Council recently conducted a survey of
refugees from South Ossetia living in North Ossetia. The
survey was conducted to create a social profile of this
group and assess the refugees' attitude toward the return
to South Ossetia. 540 families, or an estimated 2,000
persons from South Ossetia, took part. The preliminary
results show an unexpectedly high number of people willing
to return to South Ossetia. Of 540 families, 244 families,
i.e., 45 per cent, expressed their will to return. An
additional 78 families, i.e., 15 per cent, were hesitant
but not against return. The main concern expressed by the
refugees was their future housing situation.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) carried out a
preliminary fact finding mission to Abkhazia on 4-7 March.
The primary focus was to ascertain to what extent needs
exist to carry out emergency repairs to buildings such as
schools and hospitals, or repair malfunctioning water or
sanitation systems. The NGO, which was accompanied by the
United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs, visited
Gali, Ochamchire, Pitsunda, and Sukhumi. Contact was made
and extensive discussions were held with all of the major
aid agencies currently working in the region.
The University of California-Irvine held a meeting with
scientists in Tbilisi on Wednesday 19 March and in Sukhumi
on Friday 21 March to discuss environmental issues linked
to the Black Sea. Concerns about the Black Sea's
environment have been raised over the past few years in
various fora. The University of California mentioned to
participants in Tbilisi and Sukhumi that it might be in a
position to offer technical assistance, such as the
provision of information relevant to environment, to
scientists and non-governmental organisations working in
the area. The possibility of scientists and NGOs' working
together to address environmental concerns related to the
Black Sea was also explored.
SECTORS
Agriculture
The British Know How Fund launched a project which
envisages a wide scale technical aid in the field of
agriculture. Training workshops will be held for local
agricultural experts and bank employees who eventually,
after setting up an advice bureau, will train local farmers
and help them draw up business plans. The project also
includes creating a macro-economic model at the Ministry of
Food and Agriculture and strengthening the information
service at the ministry.
UNHCR is starting its 1997 agriculture activities in the
Gali region: the agency will distribute corn seeds,
fertiliser, and diesel to families who will be provided
with one hectare of land by local authorities. The project
will help 5,000 families achieve food security for 1997.
UNHCR is supporting Action Contre la Faim (ACF) with a
similar project in five villages of the Zugdidi area, where
ACF is implementing a corn production programme. The
project beneficiaries are 740 IDPs each of whom will be
allotted a half-a-hectare land plot and will be provided
with corn seed and fertiliser.
Premiere Urgence is implementing an agricultural project in
Rustavi. The city authorities offered small plots of land,
called family allotments, to 40 families. Premiere Urgence
will provide two mini-tractors, agricultural tools, and
seeds to the families. Eventually, the family allotment
project aims to initiate a cooperative of users who will
work with the Municipality of Rustavi.
Children in Difficult Circumstances
UNICEF, in collaboration with a local NGO, Barbale,
supports psycho-social rehabilitation projects in four
children's institutions in Senaki, Kaspi, Temka (Tbilisi)
and Gldani (Tbilisi). The projects include psycho-diagnosis
of children, training of tutors and nurses, preparation of
manuals for tutors and nurses on special care and child
development, arranging workshops to develop children's
manual abilities and working skills, and organising
excursions for children to develop their social skills. As
of 15 March, UNICEF restarted its -Sunday School- project,
implemented by a local NGO, -Ndoba,- providing psycho-
social support to sixty IDP children residing in Tbilisi.
Counterpart Foundation delivered raincoats, winter jackets
and coats to the orphanage in Senaki, Samegrelo.
Education
Swiss Agency of Development and Cooperation, has started
school rehabilitation projects in the Tsalenjikha district,
Samegrelo: the agency will renovate a school in the town of
Jvari and proceed on the construction of a school in the
village of Jgali. Both projects will be completed by mid-
summer of 1997. International Rescue Committee (IRC)
organises an informal education programme in the framework
of a community development project for schoolchildren from
IDP families at twelve communal centres in the Samegrelo
region. The programme involves basic educational
activities, teaching poems and songs, organising art, music
and language classes.
Energy
The Georgian Government is conducting negotiations with
Iran on natural gas supply to the republic of Georgia.
Provided the agreement is finalised, Georgia, which until
now has received natural gas from the Russian Federation
and Turkmenistan, will receive one billion cubic meters of
natural gas, more than enough to see Georgia through next
winter. The possibility of supplying oil to Georgia from
Iran is also being discussed. The Iranian side also
expresses readiness to take part in the reconstruction of
the Zhinvali hydro-power station which will allow increase
the volume of power generated by hydro- electric power
stations, as well as solve the problem of providing
drinking water to Tbilisi.
Food Aid
World Food Programme (WFP) finished the first of two
rounds of food distribution, which it has planned for
1997. About 2,755 MTs of food commodities (wheat flour,
sugar, and vegetable oil) were distributed to 180,000
beneficiaries in west and east Georgia during this round.
The second round of distribution is starting in April and
will continue until June.
During the reporting period, the International Federation
of the Red Cross (IFRC) and Action Contre la Faim (ACF)
continued providing food assistance to local vulnerable
groups as well as internally displaced persons in the
Samegrelo region: IFRC distributed food parcels to 5,778
single elderly pensioners in Tbilisi, 4,813 single
pensioners in twenty-seven districts of east Georgia, 2,
881 single pensioners in eight districts of west Georgia,
and to 1,658 single pensioners in five districts in
Ajara. Further, IFRC distributed bulk food (wheat flour,
rice, beans, sugar, vegetable oil) to 5,312 IDPs in
Kutaisi and four districts of the Samegrelo region. In
addition, IFRC delivered food to thirty-one medical
institutions and children's boarding schools in east and
west Georgia. Along with IFRC, ACF continued providing
monthly dry food rations to 12,000 beneficiaries in
Chkhorotskhu, Martvili, and Tsalenjikha (Samegrelo). Of
these beneficiaries, 3,720 persons are residents and 8,
280 are IDPs.
Health
UNICEF, in close collaboration with the Ministry of
Health of Georgia, held a training course on diphtheria
case and contact management in Batumi. Twenty-two
infectionists, bacteriologists, and epidemiologists from
Batumi and four districts of Ajara were trained during
four days at the Batumi hospital of infectious diseases.
ACTS Georgia distributed medicines and medical supplies
to medical institutions in Tbilisi and Lanchkhuti,
Chiatura, Senaki, and Surami as well as to the monastery
in Shio Mghvime, Mtskheta.
Georgian Foundation delivered medicines and medical
supplies to the Tbilisi State Medical University, the
cardiology clinic of Hospital no. 1 in Tbilisi, the
agency also handed medical equipment to the Sepsis Centre
and the surgery department of Hospital no. 2 in Tbilisi.
Since late 1993, MSF-Holland implemented various health
initiatives including drug distribution, expanded
programme of immunisation, cold chain programme, blood
transfusion and a dispensary for vulnerable persons. The
activities took place mostly in Ajara, Guria, Poti and
Tbilisi. As MSF-Holland is now closing its office in
Georgia, the drug distribution programme and dispensary
have been transferred to HealthNet International.
The OXFAM UK-I community health facilitators continue
working with eleven IDP communal centres in Senaki and
eight centres in Chkhorotsku, Samegrelo, discussing with
IDPs health care issues such as the importance of
sanitation and the measures to be carried out to prevent
commonly- spread diseases, such as diarrhoea.
Since January, UMCOR has been distributing essential
medicines to children's polyclinics and state pharmacies
for children aged 0-15 in Tbilisi. Medicines are free of
charge for all residents, as are services for certain
vulnerable groups. In January and February, approximately
5,000 beneficiaries were served. The volume of patients
visiting one children's policlinic surveyed has increased
three times relative to numbers before the programme
started. UMCOR has also expanded its medical distribution
programme to include the Tskhinvali and Gori regions. In
March, medicines were delivered to health facilities in
both Gori and Tskhinvali. The agency continues
distributing medicines and medical supplies in the
Kutaisi and Tbilisi areas.
Multi-Sectoral Assistance to IDPs and Refugees
As reported last month, IOCC-Lazarus is running an income
generation project, where IDPs produce wool blankets. 300
of these were recently given to UMCOR for distribution to
the central hospital, the psychiatric hospital, and the
TB dispensary as well as the boarding school for orphans
in the town of Tskhinvali.
Counterpart Foundation delivered boots to IDPs in Khobi
and Senaki, Samegrelo and together with the ACTS-Georgia
Kutaisi Office, distributed raincoats, boots, bed linen
and children's underwear to IDPs living in Kutaisi,
Imereti.
OXFAM UK-Ireland (Zugdidi) continues its psycho-social
programme in Samegrelo. In February, two play groups for
children 2-6 years of age in Senaki and one group in the
village of Onaria, near Zugdidi, were formed. Children's
play rooms were renovated and necessary materials were
provided. In February, OXFAM-UK-I rehabilitated four IDP
centres in Chkhorotskhu, three centres in Zugdidi, and
three centres in Senaki. 427 IDPs benefited.
Status of Funding: the UN's Revised Appeal by Sector
The table below shows the status of funding as of 27
March 1997. A new contribution was reported to WFP, which
has now received all of the resources it sought. UNHCR's
shortfall has, according to the agency, grown because its
carry-over funding was reduced. Requirements in the
income generation sector have fallen because IOM has
withdrawn its project from the appeal.
In sum, donors have responded with 48 percent of the
appeal's revised requirements.
SECTOR REQUIREMENTS CONTRIBUTION SHORTFALL
Food Aid 6,547,596 6,669,182 0
Agriculture 3,594,000 298,009 3,295,991
Health and
Nutrition 2,686,300 0 2,686,300
Refugees and IDPs 10,818,881 6,425,631 4,393,250
Shelter 2,269,000 40,000 2,229,000
Education 1,142,400 223,881 918,519
Special Needs 963,500 228,684 734,816
Income Generation 699,100 0 699,100
Capacity Building 194,000 0 194,000
TOTAL 28,914,777 3,885,387 15,150,976
This report is available on the internet through
RELIEFWEB: http://www.reliefweb.int
United Nations Office in Tbilisi, Georgia
Mr. Toby Lanzer
Tel.: (995 32) 94 31 63
Fax: (995 32) 95 95 16
E-Mail: toby@undha.org.ge
Inter-Agency Support Branch (IASB) - Geneva
Mr. David Bassiouni - Chief
Mr. Paul Hebert
Tel.: (41 22) 788.6381
Fax: (41 22) 788.6386
Registry E-Mail:
Rosemary.Addo-Yirenkyi@dha.unicc.org
Complex Emergency Division (CED) - New York
Mr. Kazuhide Kuroda
Tel.: (1 212) 963.5713
Fax: (1 212) 963.3630
E-Mail: kuroda@un.org
Press to contact (DHA-Geneva)
Ms. Madeleine Moulin-Acevedo
Tel.: (41 22) 917.2856
Fax: (41 22) 917.0023
Telex: 414242 DHA CH
E-Mail: Moulin-Acevedo@dha.unicc.org