The picture of the President on the flawed wall and the slogan – “Georgia without poverty”

Shorena Glonti, Guria

75 year old pensioner, first group invalid Jenia Tepnadze has been living in the extreme poverty for years now. All her property consists of the old metal bed, small table full of medications and one shaky chair. Her only income is a monthly pension and a social help – 30 lari.

As she states, her whole salary can’t even buy the vital medications that she needs. The walls of her house are soon to be ruined. It’s been years now she’s asking for help from the local government. She addressed the President’s administration twice, but her social status has not been changed yet, on the contrary – it’s worsening day by day.

“I’ve been living in this tent since 1976. I know a lot of people are in the same situation, but can this comfort me?! My whole pension is spent in the pharmacy,” – explains Jenia Tepnadze and adds, that she makes dinner only once a month, in case her son visits her.

“My every day food is tea and the dry bread. How can I make dinner? I can only buy couple of kilos of potato. I try to economize on the electricity. I don’t have a gas or electric stove. Soon, I won’t be able to turn on that one lamp. I won’t even be able to buy the candle,” – says the elder.

She’s been hoping for assistance from Ozurgeti Municipality and Regional Administration for years now: “I addressed Ozurgeti Municipality and Regional Administration several times. I was asking for the homeless people’s assistance aid. They’ve been promising for years. They promised me 5000 lari last year, but then stated that they don’t have enough finances and can give me just 2500. I recently found out, that they transferred money in the middle of June, but I never received this money. It’s still on my account. I can’t even get my one room reconstructed with this money. When I went to the governor, he said to his co-worker – this lady needs help, let’s help her, but…”

The flawed wall has a 2008 calendar with the President Saakashvili’s photo on it with the following slogan: “Georgia without poverty.”

As she states, she sent a registered letter to the President Administration twice, but has never received an answer: “If President read my letter, I think he would have helped me, but I can’t tell you if it ever reached the addressee.”

According to Jenia Tepnadze, in the entrance of the governor’s office, his assistant Tamaz Makharadze verbally assaulted her shouting: “Woman, we already helped you!”

“I objected saying that my name was not a woman and he should have addressed me politely. What did the assistant of the governor imply; the money that they “gave” me?!” – asks she and blames the Ozurgeti Municipality in lying that the assistance issued under her name, has never been given to her in actuality.

“Your family has been given on time material help 600 lari in 2008 and 200 lari in 2009,” – states the letter that Jenia Tepnadze received from Ozurgeti Municipality local government, signed under the name of Lavrenti Qviloria. For some reason, the date of this document is September 16, 2008. Since Qviloria is on her vacation, we could not receive her comment on this matter.

As the Ozurgeti Municipality social service states, according to March 5, 2008  #5 annex, 100 lari has been issued for Jenia Tepnadze and 500 lari according to May 14 #14 annex. (600 lari overall).

But Tepnadze is assuring that she has not signed anything and never received the money. The local government told us, that since Tepnadze could not move because of her sicknesses, the money was received by her son and the document was signed by him.