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Before They Went to Bed…a Story about Old People

September 20, 2007

When Will Sequestration Be Canceled on Bank Account of “Catharsis”

It is 2:00 PM. The wind is so strong that unless you are on fire you should not go out in the street. It is time to have dinner. Heavy glass door is opened and closed after every second. You can see grey hair everywhere-on the left, on the right, in front and behind you. Suddenly you also have feeling that you are getting grey. You are bowing your neck, start walking and speaking like an old woman and greet your old years all of by sudden. Everybody knows each other here. It makes no difference for them that in 15 or 20 years they will have lived one century already. In their old age they still can put lipstick on and sit at dinner-table with plastic necklace on.

I can smell soup in the entrance. I also smell an old person that is so familiar to you. I wonder how these people manage to find the perfume that was in fashion thirty or forty years ago. I can hear crockery from the kitchen. A TV is making terrible sounds in the next room. Nearly twenty people are watching the film very attentively and seem to be deep in emotions. Mr. Niko hit his fist on the knee to demonstrate his feelings, and then he leaned back to the chair in relief.

They seem to have some hooligans too. There is a huge board on the wall in the entrance where you can read various kinds of letters. “We call upon those people who behave badly and disturb our solitude. They should either learn to behave well or we demand the administration to prohibit such people to enter “Catharsis”, the Council of Elders.” Beautiful letter is decorated with colorful pencils.

People are entering the dining-room slowly. I can hear only whispers, sound of plates and spoons here…the wind is blowing outside.

There are paintings of beneficiaries on the walls. I have never seen so many macramé in my life. One of the employees, a seventy-nine-year-old woman is making them.

Grandmothers, (as local employees call old women here) live on the third floor. We are going upstairs. The door of doctor Guliko’s room on the second floor is open. I think Mr. Davit has got dust in his eyes. He is cleaning his eyes with handkerchief and complains with the doctor…

I approached the room of grannies. I thought they will not like to take photos but I was wrong. They eagerly agreed to pose before my camera.

-No, let me sit like this,” Mrs. Elene is doing her hair; she was doing puzzle two minutes ago.

-Take my photo too, please. I will stand close to that sunflower. I did not like the previous one, I looked gloomy in it,” said eighty-one-year-old Zhenia.

-I will sit on the bed,-eighty-four-year-old Eteri is putting her hands on her knees like they did in 1940-50s while taking photo.

There are ten or twelve beds in a comfortable room. All beds are made only one old woman is lying in bed; she has spent ten years in “Catharsis.”

Their stories are similar but each of them retells her own story in different emotion. Mrs. Zhenia’s son sold her house and the old woman had nowhere to go so she came to “Katarzisi”. Mrs. Eteri is waiting for her son to arrive from Mexico; eighty-four-year-old Elene has not heard anything from her child and grandchildren for two years already.

I wonder who brought white flowers to old women. But it is not important…they say they are happy there, they have food on time, they live in warm and employees take good care of them, but…anyway grannies are crying.

I am so eager to leave the room…I would rather fight with wind than looking at those crying old women.
 
I left the room and heard somebody singing. I opened the next door and enter the theatre hall. I guessed there is a rehearsal for a choir “Khandazmuli”. I occupy the seat in the back row…

-Ana, Ana, mind, I will seize that paper from you,” Mr. Nodari is getting angry who is a director by profession but goes to Katarzisi every day and trains the choir.

Dariko is singing in the first voice. Venera forgets to join her as a second voice.

-How many times should I repeat you to be attentive,-Mr. Nodari rebukes them and the choir starts from the very beginning.

Eighty-eight-year-old Mr. Levani enters the hall late. He occupies his place on the stage and joins singers. The song is getting more and more active…

-Who is speaking there? Mrs. Zinaida, you must not speak while singing. How long time did you work as a teacher? Forty-eight years? And then you should know that person must not speak while singing, - Mr. Nodari is very angry-Stop fussing, don’t you see we have a spectator.

Slowly the rehearsal turned into a concert that old people gave only for me. One should have seen how they tried their best to sing well. They were changing each other on the stage; they were reading rhymes of famous poets or their own ones in turn.

-Sofio, are not you in mood of dancing? –asked Mr. Nodari…

Eighty-one-year-old Sofio is dancing Georgian national dance so energetically that I envy her…

-I will tell you one rhyme, please, would you mind? It is about love,” Ana asked me and said the rhyme without hearing my answer. The rhyme about love was followed by another one about Georgia…

The concert only for me lasted one hour and half. I told good-bye to singers and left the hall…there is silence in the building. The dinner has finished and most part of old people went home. Those who remained cannot part with each other and continue telling the stories of old people. Every next day is similar to previous…everything is the same till the night…till they go to bed.

Unresolved Problem

International Humanitarian Association “Catharsis” assists nearly 355 beneficiaries in Tbilisi. They feed them everyday and give cloths. 14-15 old people permanently live in Catharsis. “Here old people have chance to meet each other. Here they can feel that they are not alone. They have theatre and beauty saloon here; doctor looks after them. If one of them dies and relatives cannot find place to bury him/her, there is a cemetery close to Catharsis building for such particular situations,” said Zaur Aladashvili, president and founder of the Catharsis.

Aladashvili stated that Catharsis is lives on Georgian charity. “You cannot find any famous or less prominent organization that has not assisted our organization at least once. We live on donations only. We have rented out two rooms in our building and it brings us monthly income. Besides that UN Food Program assists us very much and sends enough wheat, oil and beans for our beneficiaries once in three months.
 
Late in 2006 Tax Inspection checked accounting documents on the Catharsis recorded from 2004.

Zaur Aladashvili: “Tax Inspection considered that we had not paid enough taxes to state budget. According to their information the hidden sum amounted to 65 000 lari and 40 000 lari was estimated as a fine finally our total debt reached 105 000 lari. “Catharsis” started struggle for truth in two ways. We brought suit against the conclusion and called upon the society to support us in order not to leave old people without care. We made video-records where our beneficiaries urged people for help. Finally we managed to collect 65 000 lari several months later and transferred the money to the bank. Thus we paid the essential part of our debt. However, we did not stop our struggle to prove our truth and applied to the Civil Court. The latter refused to accept our suit because we could not pay the state fee of 3 500 lari to the court. According to Georgian Law on Asylums, Asylums for Disabled People are free from all kind of taxes. Besides that, we could not pay the fee because our bank accounts were sequestrated. We appealed against the refusal at the Appeal Court. The latter partially satisfied our appeal and considered that according to the case materials International Humanitarian Union “Catharsis” shall be granted with the status of the Society for Disabled People. Besides that, Appeal Chamber considers that Court Board must make decision to accept the suit of the “Catharsis”. At the moment Administrative Board within the Tbilisi Civil Court started to discuss the case on the humanitarian organization. Unfortunately, we must declare that the state “assists” homeless and hungry old people in this way.”

Results of the monitoring carried out by Public Defender’s Office in 2007

In May of 2007 Public Defender’s Office carried out monitoring in almost every asylum for disabled and old people to investigate the situation regarding the human rights in them. “Catharsis” was one of them.

According to the monitoring results, because of the sequestered bank account, repair-works is stopped in the building of Catharsis. Every beneficiary of the asylum is satisfied with nourishment. Sanitary norms are preserved. Interrogated beneficiaries appreciate personnel’s attitude to them. They excluded the fact of discrimination on various grounds in asylum.

In addition to that, representatives of the Public Defender’s Office stated that beneficiaries are satisfied with first medical aid. However, part of respondents complains about the lack of medicines.

According to the monitoring results, the time to meet relatives is not limited. The schedule of the asylum enables beneficiaries to leave the building whenever they wish. There is a TV and radio set in the house. Old people receive newspapers and can use telephone.

Almost every interrogated beneficiary said that they can apply to the asylum administration or any other corresponding body if they have complaints.

Human Rights Center found out at the Administrative Collegium within the Tbilisi Civil Court that judge Zurab Rukhadze is in charge of the case on Catharsis. However, the hearing is not earmarked yet because the schedule is too heavy.

Nino Tarkhnishvili

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