Georgia - DHA-20: 01-31.Dec.97
Georgia - DHA-20: 01-31.Dec.97
Situation Report from the DHA Coordinator in GEORGIA - No. 20
Period covered: 1-31 December 1997
The First Meeting of the Coordinating Council
The first session of the Coordinating Council, established on the basis
of the results of the meetings of the Georgian and Abkhaz sides (Geneva,
17-19 November 1997) took place in Sukhumi on 18 December 1997 under the
UN aegis and the chairmanship of the Special Representative of the
Secretary-General (SRSG), Mr. Liviu Bota.
The Georgian delegation was represented by the following members: Mr.
Vazha Lordkipanidze, Mr. Revaz Adamia and Mr. Tamaz Khubua. The Abkhaz
side was represented by the following members: Mr. Tamaz Ketsba, Mr.
Sergei Tsargush and Mr. Victor Khashba.
Opening the session the SRSG welcomed the members of the Georgian
delegation, which were appointed by Mr. Shevardnadze and were
representing the Georgian side in the Coordinating Council.
Russian Federation representative participated as facilitators.
Representative of the OSCE and the states included in the group of
friends of the UN Secretary-General (France, Germany, Russian
Federation, United Kingdom, Untied States) were present as observers.
At the opening of the session Mr. Ardzinba made a speech. In the course
of the session, other speeches were made by the representatives of the
sides, Russian Federation as facilitator, OSCE and the group of friends
of the UN Secretary-General.
The participants of the session adopted a provision on the Coordinating
Council.
After the session of the Coordinating Council concluded its work,
sessions of three working groups were convened. Programmes on the
activities of the working groups were coordinated.
Working Group I is to concentrate on the -lasting non-resumption of
hostilities.- Working Group II is to concentrate on the -voluntary
return of refugees and internally displaced persons.- Working Group III
is to concentrate on the -economic and social problems- facing Abkhazia,
Georgia. In particular, communications, energy, environment, and
economics are the key issues which the group is to address so that joint
proposals and recommendations can be made.
UNICEF Consultant Visits Georgia
A UNICEF consultant is currently visiting Georgia to evaluate the
agency's psycho-social programmes (PSP) and prepare recommendations for
UNICEF's PSP activity in 1998. On 4 December and 7-9 December, she
visited Tskhinvali and Sukhumi respectively with DHA, to examine the
question of war-affected children in the areas of unresolved conflict.
In Tskhinvali, the consultant met with the director of the local NGO
Children's Fund of South Ossetia (CFSO), and the deputy director of the
Children's Art Palace. Both organisations are actively involved in
providing material and psychological support to vulnerable and
war-affected children in South Ossetia. The Art Palace (formerly the
palace of pioneers) is attended outside school hours by up to 2,000
children, who can participate in a broad range of free extra-curricular
activities, such as drawing, dancing and music.
The consultant discussed the issue of war trauma with both CFSO and the
Art Palace, and it was noted that many children who had lived through
the war (1990-1992), are now displaying disturbed behaviour, and that
there is an urgent need of psycho-social rehabilitation in the region.
The consultant also met with UNHCR, and discussed with the sister agency
the issues of outreach to returnee children in the villages and material
support (provided by UNHCR through CFSO) to vulnerable families. With
NRC, community centres and the organisation's PSP seminar series in
Tbilisi were discussed.
An information sharing meeting was attended, where agencies'
observations on children's war trauma were discussed.
In Sukhumi, the consultant met the de facto Minister of Education to
discuss the possibility of a training programme for teachers to help
them better respond to children affected by war trauma. The concept of
the training programme was welcomed.
Meetings were held with organisations currently conducting psycho-social
programmes for children. The consultant met two of UMCOR's implementing
partners for their Youth House project in Sukhumi: the Centre for
Humanitarian Programmes (CHP) and the Computer Centre. CHP conducts
several programmes for children, including game therapy and
psychological counselling. The Computer Centre offers computer classes
free of charge or at a nominal rate for children and teenagers.
In addition, the consultant met representatives from the Civil Society
Development Centre (CSDC), which is based in Gagra, the director of the
Children's Music Studio in Sukhumi, and the head of Apsabara, an
environmental group based in Sukhumi. CSDC offers kindergarten classes
and civil educational programmes for teenagers. The Children's Music
Studio provides voice lessons for children and gives them the
opportunity to express themselves through song.
The head of Apsabara displayed children's drawings from a recent exhibit
entitled, -Nature and Me.- Children from the northern Caucasus were
asked to create pictures showing their relation to nature. Selected
drawings were displayed and awarded prizes. Apsabara also participates
in a -Green Scout- programme which targets at-risk youth for survival
skills development through expeditions in the mountains.
The consultant also met with representatives from UNHCR, the UN/OSCE
Human Rights Office, UNOMIG, ACH and MSF in order to get their
impressions of the psycho-social needs of children living in Abkhazia.
EBRD Wholesale Project
Experts from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) investment
centre and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
have elaborated a new green grocery wholesale project-proposal. On 3
June 1997, the project was approved by the BOD of the EBRD, and on 21
June 1997, it was approved by the Foreign Investment Council at the
office of the President of Georgia.
In this regard, on 26 June 1997, four legal documents were signed: a
guarantee agreement between the ministry of finance of Georgia (MoF) and
EBRD, reserve credit agreement between EBRD and the MoF, a municipal
project agreement between EBRD and the Tbilisi municipality, and a
credit agreement between EBRD and Mtsvane Bazari, Inc.
The wholesale market project envisages to establish a central wholesale
market in Tbilisi and three regional collecting markets in Akhaltsikhe,
Gurjaani and Marneuli respectively.
The project is valued at USD 13,028,000, including USD 8,1 million
(ECU7.1). The EBRD contribution is a credit of USD 8,1 million (ECU 7,1
million), which will be received directly by the Mtsvane Bazari, Inc.
established for the implementation of the project. USD 750,000 are
provided through TACIS as grants for technical cooperation. The
remaining USD 4,178,000 are to be provided by the Georgian side.
The credits are provided on standard EBRD conditions, with an interest
rate of a six-month LIBOR plus one percent. The term of payment is 15
years with a five-year grace period on the principle. The project is
planned to be implemented in three and a half years.
In addition, EBRD is ensuring the release of USD 1,5 million credits,
which will be used for additional unforeseen expenditures during the
implementation of the project.
Oxfam visits Sukhumi to Discuss Disability Issues
OXFAM's regional disability adviser visited Sukhumi on 4 December 1997
to meet the local NGO, Association for Disabled People with Spinal
Pathology. The visit was facilitated by DHA. OXFAM is interested in
supporting self-help initiatives and the active participation of
disabled people in society, rather than in providing assistance per se.
The Association has recently completed a series of computer classes to
teach people with disabilities new skills in word-processing, database
management and desktop publishing. The Computer Centre in Sukhumi
provided these classes free of charge. The Association is also
establishing a database of disabled people living in Abkhazia, in an
effort to extend programming to those living in isolation. The
Association announced that they have acquired office space, and will
begin renovation with donations from the local community.
The Association plans to prepare a proposal for action to sensitise
society about disabled people's needs for OXFAM's consideration.
SECTORS
Children in Difficult Circumstances
Since April 1997 Caritas Georgia has been operating a youth centre, the
aim of which is to look after children lacking a supportive family
environment, who attend school, but spend most of their time in the
street after class. The objective of the youth centre is to take care of
them and involve them in different activities. Every day 100 children
attend foreign language, dance, music, craft, and sport classes. The
children were chosen with the help of the city school authorities, and
the departments of education and social welfare in districts of Tbilisi.
The children's ages range between eight and sixteen. The centre provides
a light lunch for the children as well. According to a Caritas Georgia
representative, the success of the project is clear: the children are
happy to attend these classes and enjoy the warmth and concern of the
teachers. At the moment Caritas is renting space for the centre in an
institution in Tbilisi. Initially it was agreed that the city
authorities would provide the centre with a building, unfortunately this
has not happened yet.
Health
The Red Cross Federation together with the Georgian Red Cross Society
(GRC) continues implementation of its visiting nurses programme (VNP).
During the month of November 1997, in the framework of VNP, GRC doctors
provided basic social and medical assistance to 3,100 pensioners, who
live alone and require home visits, and about 60,000 pensioner patients
through polyclinics countrywide. On 13-14 November, the Federation
organised a special workshop in Tbilisi and invited 35 GRC doctors from
across Georgia. The main topic of the seminar was the case management
and treatment of cardio-vascular diseases. Furthermore, on 19-21
November the Federation/GRC arranged a seminar for 40 psychiatrists in
east Georgia. The two main topics were: the International Classification
of Diseases (ICD) (psychiatric section, 10th revision), and case
management treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Diseases (PTSD).
Multi Sectoral Assistance to IDPs
The Red Cross Federation recently started a
reconstruction/rehabilitation project in nine communal centres in west
Georgia (Senaki, Khoni and Menji). The project envisages employing 200
IDPs in reconstruction work. In total, 4,800 internally displaced
persons will benefit from the programme by improving their living
conditions.
Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) recently distributed hygienic parcels to
10,000 IDPs in Adjara and 20,000 IDPs in Zugdidi city and surrounding
villages. The contents of the parcels were: soap, washing powder, tooth
brush, tooth paste, sanitary towels and shampoo.
Women and Business, a local NGO, continues to operate a laundry service
run by IDPs which was opened with the support of the NRC in Spring 1997.
The project has been successful and now IDPs are running it on their
own. In addition, Women and Business received funding from Save the
Children to operate a beauty salon and from the British Embassy's Know
How Fund to operate a dry cleaning service in the same premises at the
Hotel Sakartvelo in Tbilisi. In total, 39 IDP women are employed in the
three projects. Services are provided for free to certain IDP
categories such as orphans, disabled, families with many children,
elderly and for modest prices for other IDPs. Furthermore, the NGO
invites professional consultants to provide special training courses for
beginner businesswomen.
Water and Sanitation
The Know How Fund at the British Embassy agreed to fund a small project
for the urgent rehabilitation of a water filtering station in South
Ossetia, which must be completed before the winter sets in. The
filtering station has been patched up by the Tskhinvali sub-office of
Medicins Sans Frontieres-France (MSF) in the past. The current project
will be carried out by the local water company, with whom MSF has worked
before, and will be monitored and supervised by MSF. The donation will
mean that the water filtering station should be functional by the new
year, and the area of Tskhinvali around and including the republican
hospital will have access to proper water supply at last.
Food Aid
WFP informed that 300 MTs of Japanese donated wheat flower for Georgia,
along with 1,000 MTs for Armenia arrived in the Poti port on 10
December. 415 MTs of Finish donated vegetable oil, is due to arrive
before the end of December. The Swedish donated vegetable oil, 450 MTs
is due to arrive in Georgia by the end of the month. 135 MTs of American
donated wheat flower is scheduled to arrive 1-15 January, and an
additional 1,920 MTs should arrive by the end of January. The Swedish
government has confirmed a sum of SEK 1,500,000 (USD 199,468) to the WFP
emergency operations in Georgia and Armenia.
Shelter
The first shipment of humanitarian aid from the Caucasian department of
the German Refugee Council was provided for the Tskhinvali population.
Families in need received shoes, clothes, etc. In the near future, the
German Refugee Council will provide food aid for the vulnerable
population of Tskhinvali.
Announcement
Please note that Toby Lanzer, who headed DHA's field coordination unit
here since May 1996, will be departing from Georgia on 1 January 1998.
He will be leaving the United Nations, we hope temporarily, to complete
his doctoral dissertation at the University of Oxford. An announcement
concerning Mr. Lanzer's replacement should be made in the next situation
report.
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: undha@access.sanet.ge
Inter-Agency Support Branch (IASB) - Geneva
Mr. David Bassiouni - Chief
Ms. Katarina Toll Velasquez
Tel.: (41 22) 788.1402 - Fax: (41 22) 788.6386
Registry E-Mail: Abu.Conteh@dha.unicc.org
Complex Emergency Division (CED) - New York
Mr. David McLachlan-Karr
Tel.: (1 212) 963.0226 - Fax: (1 212) 963.1388
E-Mail: mclachlan-karr@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
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