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Georgia

Desperate Georgians receive initial aid

While the separatist Georgian province of South Ossetia is under a fragile cease-fire, humanitarian aid has started to trickle in to help thousands of displaced people.

Heavy fighting erupted last week when Russia invaded the small neighboring country, formerly a member of the Soviet Union. The military offensive launched in and around the breakaway region of South Ossetia has left homeless thousands of innocent civilians.

Some estimate that between 1,000 to 2,000 people have died and 100,000 people have fled their homes, most from the city of Gori, where the fighting has been intense. Displaced people poured into Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and are now waiting in temporary shelters set up in schools and other public buildings-often with little food and no extra clothes, not to mention mattresses, sheets or soap.

"It's heartbreaking," says Kellie Hynes, head of office for Catholic Relief Services Georgia about the casualties and the continuing violence. "Over the course of the past week, there was massive movement of people by car and on foot from Gori and other affected areas. People often left with little more than the clothes on their backs. The immediate needs of the displaced people are immense."

Providing food, supplies

CRS has dispatched its Cairo-based medical staffer and other personnel to Tbilisi to assess the most critical gaps at shelters and hospitals. CRS Georgia will also work with the local Church and other partners to identify the greatest needs of displaced people.

A construction worker (left) and his family, who fled bombings in the Tskhinvali area. Like him, thousands of people fled their towns and saw their homes destroyed. His family is now housed in temporary rooms in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. Photo by Laura Sheahen/CRS

"Despite the insecurity, our team is safe and is working on helping the innocent victims of the violence," says Mark Schnellbaecher, Regional Director for Europe and the Middle East.

Caritas Georgia is already responding to the needs of hundreds of displaced people in Tbilisi by providing hot meals at a soup kitchen, handing out food at temporary shelters, and coordinating additional aid through worldwide Caritas partners. Caritas, which has a bakery in the western city of Kutaisi, has also been asked to provide bread to 650 people who have fled the Kodori Valley.

CRS will support Caritas Georgia to help about 700 displaced residents now in temporary shelters in Tbilisi. CRS has also been asked by the region's Catholic bishop to help families from the Gori area, the scene of some of the heaviest fighting.

A clear sense of desperation is felt among the displaced. It is reported that people are washing and reusing disposable diapers because they have no other options. In a shelter in Tbilisi, a construction worker whose large extended family lives with others in one room tugs on his worn white shirt. "This is what I was able to bring with me. Nothing else," he says, explaining how he fled his village near the bombed city of Tskhinvali.

Many people are sleeping on the schools' floors or putting wooden desks together to sleep on them. A group sleeping in a kindergarten wasn't receiving enough food. "We sat hungry for two days," says a displaced resident named Lena.

Caritas was able to provide her with food and emergency supplies.

Our work in Georgia

Working with local Church partners, CRS has helped improve the lives of Georgians for many years and opened its office in 2003. In addition to raising awareness of human trafficking there, we have supported projects that ensure good governance and media freedom and refurbished playgrounds, created libraries and a youth center.