Medical Centres in Georgia

SOS Social Centre Tbilisi, Georgia

The SOS Social Centre, Tbilisi helps orphaned and vulnerable children and their families in the local community. It has two programmes supporting orphaned and vulnerable children and their families. The centre provides IT skills training for 240 young people and adults. In addition the SOS Social Centre has a Play Bus.

The Play Bus, known as the 'Funny Bus', is a social centre on wheels. It is filled with toys, games and craft materials, with a team of four people. It started in October 2004, when the team started running their play activities in the local communities of Tbilisi in summer and winter. It brings, to nearly 1,000 orphaned and vulnerable children, the opportunity to play and, through play, to learn new skills and to build relationships with other children and adults. In the summer the Funny Bus goes to different regions of Georgia. The Funny Bus is free – everyone is invited to join in.

SOS Social Centre Family Strengthenig Programme (FSP) in Tbilisi and Kutaisi

The FSP is being implemented in two Georgian cities of Tbilisi and Kutaisi. The programme aims to support those families which are most likely to abandon their children, and the FSP aims to promote children’s development, including bringing them up in a safe and careful family environment.In 2008, around 372 children and 204 families in Tbilisi and Kutaisi were involved in the FSP. Based upon the application of a family member; 8 social workers of the programme contacted families studied their conditions, and defined possible involvement of those families into the programme making sure they met criteria. The families involved in the programme were given assistance according to their needs.

The programme actively worked with governmental and non-governmental organisations. In December, a partnership memorandum was signed by Charity Fund Iavnana and SOS Children. Relationships were also established with other NGOs.

The families involved in the programme are given the following types of support:

• psycho-social support
•  food provision
  
• home appliances
  
• medicine supplies

Furthermore, beneficiaries of the programme were regularly involved in educational, entertainment and cultural events.

Social workers of the programme regularly visited families. During the year, the programme manager monitored the programme implementation in Tbilisi and Kutaisi. The Play Bus actively participated in a PR campaign of the FSP.

Leaflets on the programme were printed and distributed to the local population.  The local income of the Tbilisi project grew by 7.63% and of the Kutaisi project by 2.03%.

In November 2008, SOS Children Georgia arranged an event dedicated to the protection of children’s rights. The beneficiaries of the FSP could go to the Rustaveli Theatre to see “Salamura” staged by Robert Sturua, a famous Georgian producer.

To raise the level of social awareness, as part of the programme, beneficiaries were given booklets on Coping with Stresses and Traumas issued by a non-governmental organization “Ndoba”.

Social workers at the SOS Children's Village Kutaisi had a meeting with the minister of education, governor of Imereti region and other governmental and non-governmental organisations to discuss the issues of children’s right protection.

Nana Rukhadze, National Manager of Family Strengthening Programme, Georgia

SOS Playbus in Tbilisi

The main targets of the project were:

• to bring joy and happiness to the children who are deprived of good life, because of the family conditions, unfavourable situation in our country, illness;
  
• to help them forget for a certain time all their problems and get into the world of games and entertainment;
• to conduct thematic activities in order to teach the children basic things that help them to withstand the hardships of this world;
  
• to train all kind of educators; showing them the different approach to the children;
  
• to achieve this goal the Playbus team must organise training and serve as an example
• to promote and support SOS Children

On the 19th of January and on the 4th and the 22nd of February the “Mkhiaruli Avtobusi” team conducted 3 joint activities on winter resort Bakuriani with Company “Geocell”.The aim of the activities was to organise an entertaining celebration for children, a promotional event for the Partner’s benefit and fundraising for “Mkhiaruli Avtobusi” project. The programme of activities included SOS “Mkhiaruli Avtobusi” activity with the participation of famous artists.

On the 11th of February “Mkhiaruli Avtobusi” team carried out a special activity in the Learning Youth’s Palace of Tbilisi. This activity was conducted for senior pupils, who are attending various circles in the Palace.

On the 4th of March “Mkhiaruli Avtobusi” team conducted activity for the children of Charitable Foundation "Caritas Georgia" and Day Centre “Begurebi”.  The activity was dedicated to “Mother’s Day”.

On the 1st of June the “Mkhiaruli Avtobusi” team conducted a joint activity with ProCredit Bank dedicated to Children's day.The event took place in ethnographical museum of Tbilisi. The “Mkhiaruli Avtobusi” team with help of 22 volunteers organised great entertaining event with new games, parachutes and more then 10 stations. About 1,600 children and 3,000 adults attended this event

On the 15th of September the “Mkhiaruli Avtobusi” team held a special activity for the pupils of public schools #131 and #201 dedicated to the beginning of the school year. The activity lasted for 2 hours and there were more than 200 children.

The SOS Playbus was actively involved in conducting activities for refugees from August War 2008 in Georgia. They visited and carried out activities with refugees in Gori (the city which was bombed during the war) and Tbilisi.

 “Mkhiaruli Avtobusi” team took this initiative to support children suffering with cancer and their families. From the month of January the “Mkhiaruli Avtobusi” team made decision to start a partnership with the Cancer Centre, department for Children. The Children's Cancer Centre is a Non-profit, Governmental Organisation, which supports children with cancer or chronic blood disorder. The Centre serves about 50 kids with life threatening illnesses.The activities were planned and conducted according to the

The needs of the kids in order to create a supportive environment for oncology patients and their families. Programmes and services that we offer are designed to develop skills needed to cope with chronic, life-threatening illness, to educate and entertain both patients and their families.  In summary:

• Total number of activities 227
• Total number of children/ teenagers 18302
• Total number of adult guests/ participants 3896

SOS School Support Programme in Tbilisi

During the accounting academic year, in Public School #170, the implementation of pilot project was on. 70 children of the Village were involved in the project. Presentations prepared by various circles with the participation of children of the Village were demonstrated in the school.

During the year, the educators of the children's village were in close contact with the teachers as well as administration department of Public School #170. At the end of each trimester, educators of the children's village monitored results achieved by pupils.

By the end of the accounting academic year, a progress value of Public School #170 is 87%, while the factor of progress of those children living in the Village is 91%.

By the end of December, educators monitored the operation of pilot circles. Both strengths and weaknesses were observed in the operation of those circles. In particular, they did not manage to significantly raise the level of learning of those children who were behind. Therefore, those pupils who are behind in studies or are preparing for higher educational institutions still need additional assistance of coaches.

SOS School Support Programme in Kutaisi

During the year 2008, a process of providing children with stable education was implemented successfully. 71 foster-children went to Public School #19 in Kutaisi. Children became members of various circles and studios both in the children's village and outside according to their interests and talents. To improve the quality of circle operations, individual schedules were developed for each child.

In 2008, in Public School #19, Kutaisi, a programme of improving learning and teaching quality was corrected in accordance with topical requirements. The academic level of children was raised in result of that programme implementation, but in accordance with new requirements, some changes needed to be made to the circle operations. In particular, a decision was made that subject circles would be changed into subject clubs, which would work on the basis of children’s interests in contrast to subject circles, where children were involved by classes and worked solely on school materials.

At Public School #19, Kutaisi, FSP, Step-by-step Development, Improvement of Quality of Learning and Teaching continued being implemented for those children from the city’s poor families.