Knolevi – Village of Constant Stress

We won’t be responsible if anything happens to you there, we recommend staying and seeing the rest of the village,” said Georgian soldiers to an International Rescue Committee representative, who was attempting to cross the conditional line dividing the village Knolevi into two parts – the buffer zone and another smaller district known as the hot zone. The two border a line on a road, including a piece of inhabited ground that separates Georgian and Ossetian checkpoints from each other.
Another Ossetian military post lies up in the hills, can observe the entire gorge.
“Ossetians shoot almost every day, whenever they want. For example, yesterday they had been shooting around five minutes, it was into the air, but anyway, it is terrifying to listen even if you know they don’t shoot at you,” said Eliso Maisuradze, a village resident. Another woman, short and very thin, with a wrinkled rather nervous face, said that Ossetian soldiers react to her every single word or abrupt move; they considerate unacceptable and immediately shoot.
She lives close to the woods, and as she says, her activities in her backyard have been never left noticed by the soldiers. She is not alone with that feeling, almost all 32 families living in Knolevi, express the same feeling of ominous presence. As if “Big Brother” is always watching them. Tskhinvali, capital of South Ossetia lies in no more than 35 kilometers from Knolevi.
That feeling of fear and constant stress made doctors reason that the villagers suffer from massive high blood pressure.
Manana Amonashvili, a program manager at International Rescue Committee remembers one of the last visits there in the Buffer zone villages, when she brought doctors to examine the people.
“Two doctors spent the whole day examining people and they both were surprised with the results at the end of the day – the majority of the population suffer from high pressure, they concluded it was as a result of war and recent life under the permanent stress,” she claimed and added that the primary, urgent need of the population is to have long-term professional psychological aid, “Furthermore, it is obvious that a large number of somatic disease are caused by the stresses.”



Amonashvili is leading protection monitoring program throughout the twenty five buffer zone villages, which began from January 2009. She spends five or seven days in the villages and knows almost everyone by name, their problems and struggles.
The International Rescue Committee launched its emergency work in Georgia when the August War began between Georgia and Russia. From 2009, the Committee spread its long-term program into twenty five buffer zone villages, monitoring human conditions and supporting them with special references to different governmental and international organizations to provide them with needed health or any other kind of care. Being founded (1933) by the suggestion of Albert Einstein, to assist Germans suffering under Hitler, now the International Rescue Committee is on the ground in forty two countries providing emergency relief, relocating refugees and rebuilding lives in the wake of disaster.
“In case of urgent needs we also have a modest budget to deliver some aids to some individuals,” the program manager says. She has set local volunteer network that helps them to be informed and cover all twenty five villages at the same level.
Knolevi inhabitants conveyed they feel abandoned by everyone. After the war, all 32 families returned back to their houses, some of them found their homes burnt. They receive governmental aid, about 24 – 30 GEL per person; also they receive free monthly food products and some of them get aid for children. They also have free medical service and medicines. Listening to them, one can only guess that they are in an informational vacuum and are not fully aware of their rights and aids due to them.
“We have heard that head of our municipality has changed, but this new one is originally from the lower village and he doesn’t want to arrive here, neither he nor his representatives,” said one of the gathered women, hoping to learn some useful news from us.
Manana Amonashvili is concerned about the medical service system, “Almost all kinds of services are free of charge for victims of war, but the fact is that the Minister of Health and Social Care releases the order for free medical service just for one month, after each month he produces the document again for one more month. Sometimes the process impedes the services and doctors have to wait for the new resolution and at the end of the day patients suffer from it, especially when one needs emergency surgery.”
She has to repeat to the people about their rights over and over. But the way to the regional center is long, and one singular procedure needs two or more visits to the center, which is problematic for them.
Delivered aid is clearly not enough, particularly when people have been cut from their fields. Eliso Maisuradze showed their fields, which goes up to the hills – now the territory is controlled by Ossetians.
“We have left just small gardens closer to home and we cultivate them to get some vegetables and fruits, while we had a good piece of land and we usually lived with it,” she told.
Olena Petsun, adviser at Directorate General of Democracy and Political Affairs at European Council and Sabrina Burchler, Human Rights Adviser at European Council Georgian office, studied the situation and listened to these and some other stories in Knolevi. They have planned to include these hardships in the next report, which they are about to release. Insecurity and poverty are issues they plan to emphasize.
Amonashvili from the International Rescue Committee, on her way, marked infants of the village as feasible bodies for the next feasible support delivered to the village. Fortunately, all three children had no vitally important needs to solve. This time.
Anna Chichinadze
12.06.2009

I'd like to share some photos taken by me in village Knolevi, I visited today, Saturday June 6. Knolevi is the last buffer zone village to South Ossetian conditional boarder created after the August war between Georgia and Russia in 2008. My report about the village for "Georgia Today" is coming soon, t-x

Grand pa from Knolevi

A girl (my favorite shot from Knolevi)

Knolevi village women

"Kitchen," as the family has been left without house, they have no place of the kitchen in their newly built shelters

house burnt during the August war

white "house" at the end of the road is Ossetyan check-point

The article below is not a culture piece (as i used to have them before), but I'm keen on covering social issues as well, so I'm presenting one of them. I'd like to have your comments on it. t-x :)

No Place for Street Children, but the Street

June 1 is Children’s Defense Day

June 1st, International Children Defense Day is one of those rare celebrations, when Georgian society nationally expresses charity for socially unprotected children. 2009 went without exception – taking children to zoo, parks, cafйs, presenting them with gifts.
However, the main point of the day was defense, and expressing through entertainment programs, protection of Children’s right on leisure.
Entertainment and leisure is one of the rights all children should have, but there are some more vital rights that every state and civil society should provide.
The main problem that the Georgian Public Defender office cites is related to street children.
“In almost every field referring to children and youth, the state leads some reforms and we move forward, except street children. There is not even one single long-term project designed specially for street children,” said Meriko Maghlaferidze, children affairs officer at Georgian Ombudsman office who also mentioned that eventually, these kinds of children are inclined to violence and crime.
A program launched in 2005, provided rehabilitation houses for street children. The project has been funded by Georgian NGO “Child and Environment,” who consists of five rehabilitation centers for vulnerable children throughout the whole country. Each of the houses is capable of receiving around fifty children per day.
However all of them are day-centers and only one “Begurebi” keeps about 20 children per night.
“Child and Environment” has donors and international organizations that help, but according to its director Nana Iashvili, after the last project, USAID has strongly recommended to find alternative sources of financing. Indeed they’ve gained state financing, (it funds five lari per day, per child), but without one exceptional service – a mobile group working on the ground.
“We received refusal from the Ministry of Health and Social Care, who reasoned the specifics of this service, but it is vital in determining the existence our houses,” Iashvili said.
Working on the ground, in the streets is the basic and most important part in taking care of street children.
“Our social workers meet children, gain their confidence and convince them to come to the rehabilitation centers, it is very hard, particular and decisive step when working in this sphere; I don’t really know how we work so far,” said the director.
Specifics of the program are that after they first come to the centers, children spend the whole day, having two meals and different classes, including a school preparation program, working on enamel, singing and some others. If someone doesn’t take the child on their first visit, it is a small chance that the child will get there on their own. Iashvili has decided to address donors or charity organization for help.
Though Nana Robakidze, head of the “Begurebi” rehabilitation house remembers several examples of getting the street children back into society, finding jobs and normal life, the program still has gaps regarding the deliverance of children from the street.
Teona Aslanishvili from international NGO “Save the Children” refers to the unreliable service of day-centers, when talking about the absence of concrete state programs to aid street children. Under the program she is managing Rebuilding Lives Project, “Save the Children” together with UNICEF and USAID has done a research project counting and registering street children in four main cities of Georgia including Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Batumi and Gori. The research showed that in 2007 children listed in urban areas counted 1,600, most of them being boys aged 5-14 years old.
Aslanishvili claims on having no general state policy over these issues. Indeed, the Social Service Agency under Georgian Ministry of Health and Social Care doesn’t include a program connected to vulnerable children.
“We have programs for socially unprotected families, and children are obviously included there,” said Eka Alavidze, representative of the agency.
Aslanishvili of “Save the Children” accents on the fact that prevention of children from street in their early years of being in the street is much more effective than any other services given later.
“More time child spends in the street, the more difficult it is to get him back to normal life,” said the Rebuilding Lives Project Manager. She also emphasizes that creating mobile groups working in the streets will be much more effective than any other step.
Another problem Aslanishvili mentions is system protecting children from family abuse. She intends creating social network including teacher, police, psychologists and some other structures to defend child from problems at home.
“If a child comes to school beaten, or muddy, doesn’t prepare lessons, that may be because of dramatic situations in the family, and it needs adequate and timely reaction,” said Aslanishvili.
Alongside with the street children issue, UNICEF representative in Georgia Ciovanna Barberis presents a list of concerns the organization has towards the state. Infant mortality, nutrition and poor pre-school education.
According to UNICEF’s research, the infant mortality rate goes up to 31% per year, when the state shows about 14.1% of the same findings.
Barberis mentions two kinds of problems there, including giving birth at home in rural areas, instead of maternity houses (mainly she highlighted national minorities who have that tradition) and furthermore, sometimes people face low professional qualifications and access to health care representatives.
The same reasons cause low attendance of children in pre-school educational centers.
“There is a huge difference in rates comparing urban and rural population in terms of giving children pre-school education, in villages, people think they do best for their children keeping them at home,” said the UNICEF representative. Research shows that only 40-41% of the children attend kindergartens. Also she mentions poor equipment of schools with needed materials.
According to the UNICEF findings, about 11% of children of the population have been observed in stunting tendencies, when about 22% suffer from obesity. Barberis notes about lack of proteins and vitamins delivered to children.
“Though, there are strong capacities to solve problems fast, things are slowing down and they don’t go the pace we’d like to see,” she concludes. UNICEF’s full report about the children’s conditions will be issued in a couple of months.
Information to know, an orphan having neither mother nor father regardless the work abilities of the trustee receive only Gel 22 monthly state aid. Children with disabilities under the age eighteen receive Gel 22 as well. Families having children less than 18 years, in the amount of seven or more receive Gel 35 monthly aid.
Anna Chichinadze
5.06.2009