Life in Boarding School-Chechen Refugees from Pankisi Valley Will Not Be Aided in 2-3 Years(Part II)
February 18, 2008
Special Reportage
Taus Erznukaeva uses her one room as a kitchen, bathroom and to dry laundry too. Children’s clothes are hanging on the rope stretched from one wall to another. There is a large bowl in the middle of the room where the hostess prepares dough for bread in. She has no way out; she cannot look after small children otherwise. This Chechen family, like others, cope with many difficulties while living in Pankisi Valley. The only income for many years have been the money they earn by selling the products they receive as aid from the UNHCR. With the money they bought various staff for children and the remained products they used for meal.
“Once when we received spoilt bread wheat the family hardly survived the death. The meat hanging on the window frame was a present from neighbors on the Muslim Holiday,” said the hostess.
Taus Arznukaeva speaks about the hard life of the family and the village in tired voice. She had real chance to leave Georgia and resettle to Canada together with other members other family. However, she could not do it for one simple example. She did not want to split the family. Her children got married with local inhabitants and the children-in-laws could not resettle to a third country.
(For instance we met several families in Pankisi who did not want to resettle to Europe because of European life style).
Alisultanov Solsbeg, Chechen refugee: “I am Muslim and have three children. How can I take them to Europe where terrible things are going on as I watch on TV?”
Today, the family members of Erznukaeva, like almost every Chechen are unemployed. Most refugees do not have land either.
“How can we have a land in the Boarding School,” said the hostess. “People are not employed either. Those, who have money, are supported from abroad by their relatives.”
This year, winter was too strict in Pankisi Valley. Although the forest is near the village, people cannot get fire wood easily.
“We cannot go to the forest; we do not have an axe and cannot borrow it from others either. One man was sorry for us and gave few dry branches and now we can warm the house for a short time. It will finish soon too and we will remain in cold again.”
Inhabitants of the dormitory at the end of the village have similar complaints. Kometa Temirbulatova said that she has been fetching water from the yard for nine years already because it became impossible to install water system in the building. She, like her neighbor, seems a bit disparate too. It is too characteristic for Chechen refugees.
“How long should we live in these dormitories? It is impossible to live here…”
They claim that local people are not very keen of getting employed. They explain it by psychological problems, stress and depression…
“A neighbor opened a small factory to produce sausages. But what then? People do not have money and cannot buy the sausage. Thus he is losing in his business…”
Since March UNHCR will aid the six-member-family of Temirbulatova with 240 GEL. Before that they received only food products. But the woman said that money is better than products. Though, the apportioned money is not enough for such a large family. In 2-3 years the family will not receive this aid too. Kometa Temirbulatova said that by that time Chechen refugees will have abandoned the valley. They will do their best to leave the country legally or illegally. “Now I do not have any document; I am a hostage of Georgia…I cannot return to Chechnya; it is dangerous...”
***
We passed low grey buildings on our damaged way towards only school of Dusisi. The building is divided into two. One party is occupied by Georgian school and the second is Russian school. Firewood and huge stove are necessary attribute for every classroom. Otherwise children will not be able to sit in the classrooms. The doors of all classrooms open into the yard. It is noteworthy that although both schools are located in one building their conditions are different. Russian school is opened for Chechen refugees only.
Pupils of the second form in Russian school are writing a written test. The number of pupils is not large. Nino Boghakashvili, the teacher of the primary school, said that children cannot go to school mostly because of lack of shoes and clothes.
Until now the UNHCR assisted the Chechen pupils with books. Since March the Russian and Georgian schools will be joined and the children will not receive that aid anymore. Representatives of the UNCHR said that instead children will receive money aid. Now parents will be responsible for the money: they will decide to spend it on school items, food or clothes. The government will not aid these children because they are refugees. Maybe it is the reason that new desks and chairs were sent only to Georgian school. Tamila Mangoshvili, the director of the school said that socially excluded pupils received allowances of 50 GEL. However, many pupils were not inserted on the list of socially excluded children.
It is not the only difference between these two schools. Ketino Boghakishvili said that she receives only 118 GEL for 21 working hours; while teachers of the Georgian school receive 150 GEL for the same length of working hours.
Children were too attentive to our conversation with the teacher. Some of them stopped writing and looked at us in secret. They did not want to give an interview but shared their problems with us too. We found out that children mostly suffer from the lack of football; because of that teachers often make them do writing tests.
Anzhela Kavtarashvili, goes to the eleventh form for the second year like her 18 friends (there are 28 pupils in the form in total). Last year these children could not receive their certificate for the secondary school because the school did not have status last year. The school had not had similar problem before 2007. Consequently, Anzhela Kavtarashvili has to study at school in parallel to the journalistic faculty in Tbilisi. Although children are leaving school this year the future is still vague for them. Nevertheless, they know the only thing: if they stay in Pankisi they will not find a job. Their teacher Aza Tumanishvili thinks the same. She teaches Chemistry, Physics, Algebra and Geometry at school.
We spent several hours in Pankisi Valley and of course it was not enough to create obvious picture of the situation. The only thing is evident; all social and economical problems, which are urgent not only in Pankisi Valley but throughout Georgia, is added with hopelessness and despair.
Photoreportage
Nona Suvariani, Pankisi
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