Tent Town in Post War Period in Gori

Saba Tsitsikashvili, Gori

People were called to gather in the tent town at 2:00 PM; volunteer from Tbilisi was shouting over a megaphone. They called for the IDPs to gather near the water tap. There are toilet and bathe cabins near the tap. “You will hear good news for you; do not be lazy to come… I do not get high salary for my work here; I come here from Tbilisi every day to assist you…” the volunteer from Tbilisi did not stop and was shouting in the megaphone.

Nearly 50 people gathered near the tap, mostly women. Representatives of the international assistance center made various statements to them. It is the organization which installed toilet, bathing boots and water taps in the town of tents.

“I am very sorry to say it but I ask you not to use toilets and tents for other purposes,” said the representative of the international organization caused serious confusion among people. They asked to explain what she meant in “other purposes”.
“I am very sorry to say but for example, bath-cabin is sometimes used instead a toilet,” explained the guest. Apparently, during night when people are lazy to go to the toilet cabins and stand in the queues there, they prefer to go to a hidden place behind the tents. Consequently, terrible smell is developing by midday and the heat.

Besides that volunteers hired by the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation and Tbilisi City Hall call upon the IDPs not to leave rubbish in front of their tents. When these volunteers tried to teach IDPs lessons about property care of their trash the rubbish bin in front of them was full of garbage. So, IDPs were unable to put any more rubbish in the overflowing bin.

Activists from Tbilisi supervise everything in the tent town…they supervise IDPs, food, humanitarian aid etc. They also monitor the distribution of the beds and chairs. Currently, 2 133 people are live in tent town in Gori. Supervisors state that the number of IDPs in the tents has recently increased.

One bed is missing in the tent 32. Representatives of the Red Cross inspected the tents at 12:00 AM and they discovered an extra bed in that tent. So they took it away to the central tent. We were told in the tent 32 that a man from the family sheltering in their tent came drunk at night and slept in his wife’s bed. So, Red Cross people concluded that one bed was vacant in their tent and took it to be used in another tent.

Volunteers claim that there are empty beds in some of the tents. “This is because some people do not stay in tents at night and go to their relatives,” explain the volunteers.

The IDPs say that medicine delivery system must be organized and complain that treatment procedures to deal with the sick are complicated. A sick person must wait for three days and three nights for a needed medicine despite the severity of his/her conditions. Patients’ conditions deteriorate in three days and they become even more ill.

We saw 6 IDP children in Gori Nursery Home #12 who suffered from an infectious virus. A doctor examined the children, and diagnosed their condition. He told that he could not give them medicines. ” Food is bought once every 4 days. Children can not eat the food because they have lost their appetite after four days. Please help us solve medicine related problems,” said a mother of 6-year-old Sandro and 11-year-old Tamuna who lives in Gori Nursery Home #12 in Gori City center together with her children.

The IDPs residing in Nursery Home #1 live in the best conditions of all IDPs in Gori district. The IDPs themselves admit this. The IDPs who left the village of Disevi and now are living in Nursery Home # 1 do not complain about cold or about being hunger. Along with other parts of Nursery Home #1 Lali Baiadze, the nursery home principal let the IDPs on the second floor where private school Intelekti was situated. Lali Baiadze told us that Intelekti is not planning to start school year as yet. “I have already told about 40 teachers of the nursery home to find another job as I could not oust IDPs from the building and leave homeless people in the street,” said Lali Baiadze.