Web Portal on Human Rights in Georgia

Irma Petriashvili from Akhmeta, who has three children and rents one-room flat, said the Social Agency stopped her social aid after she had joined the Coalition Georgian Dream.

“Irma Petriashvili applied the Coalition for membership two weeks ago. Several days ago she distributed Georgian Dream’s newspapers after what social agent visited her at home and told her allowance was dropped. She is mother of three children; social agents had evaluated her family three months before and granted lower points than beforehand. However, as soon as she joined the Coalition, the social aid was stopped,” Zakaria Kinkladze, head of the Georgian Dream’s Akhmeta office told ICK.

“We have been beneficiaries of social aid for the last 5-6 years. I have a husband and three children; we are renting a flat. Social agents evaluated our family with 13 000 points three months ago; and I took only one-month allowance since it. Two weeks ago I joined the Georgian Dream. I attended the meeting with Coalition Leaders in Akhmeta. After the meeting, social agent visited us and cancelled our aid; their decision was motivated by my membership in the political party; otherwise they could not find any reason because my family was recently evaluated,” Irma Petriashvili said.

She added that two days after joining the Georgian Dream, she was called from a hidden phone number and warned. “I had joined the political party two days before when I was called from a hidden number; the anonymous person warned me to take care of myself and my children. Then he cut off the line without hearing my reply; the stranger sounded a young man,” Irma Petriashvili said.

Despite many attempts of the Information Center of Kakheti, representatives of the Akhmeta district Social Agency did not comment on the fact.