Young Mother Threatens to Leave Her Child In Front Of the Ozurgeti District Administration

Shorena Ghlonti, Guria

“Unless they assist me, I will have to leave the child in front of the building of the district administration; it will be better for me… I do not want him to die of hunger. He has not eaten for three days,” said Manana Goguadze who lives in extreme poverty. Despite it she does not get allowance for socially disable people. She cannot get the allowance for the mother with many children and physically disable people either.

Goguadze visits the district administration together with her three-year-old disabled son three times a week and walks several tens of kilometers to get there; however, she cannot change anything. The mother of many children complains she does not have any source to feed three-year-old Luka and is going to leave him in front of the district administration.

Cold walls, one bed, broken wardrobe, a table and two chairs are her properties.

She has neither gas-cooker nor electric oven and cooks food on the fire on the cement floor in the middle of sitting room.

The impoverished woman requests to allow her to have dinner in the canteen for impoverished people, but neither this right is granted to her.

Chairperson of the Ozurgeti municipality board said the National Movement does not fund the canteen any longer and he does not have information what is going on there.

Deputy district governor Lado Kviloria clarified the new registration of beneficiaries will start next year.

According to the administration of the Free Canteen of the United National Movement (the ruling party), every day 123 people have dinner at the free canteen f. 60 000 GEL is allocated for the purpose from Ozurgeti district budget in 2009.

“At the moment we cannot assist the woman to have dinner in the free canteen. She will be able to visit our canteen if any of the beneficiaries die. Another problem is that Goguadze lives in the village far from the city,” said Lado Kviloria.

Representatives of the Guria regional office of the Agency for Social Subsidies said Goguadze’s documents are not in order and consequently they cannot study her social conditions.

“When she resolves this problem, the social agent will be able to examine her family,” said coordinator of the regional office of the Social Agency Vaso Khomeriki.

Gia Salukvadze, coordinator of Guria region office of the Political Movement for Fair Georgia, cannot understand how the district administration can estimate how many people need service of the free canteen.

He cannot agree the statement of the local official who said the new beneficiary can have dinner at the canteen after any of current beneficiaries die. “Let them find additional funds and feed everybody who needs it,” said Salukvadze.

“The district administration shall have legal document in regard with the free canteen which will clarify the category of the beneficiaries,” said Tamaz Trapaidze, head of Ozurgeti district office of the Young Lawyers Association.

“In accordance to the law, the district administration is obliged to accept every application about the free canteen and should not wait for the next year. If the local authority assumed responsibility of taking care of impoverished people, they shall assist everybody regardless their place of residence. It does not make any difference where an impoverished person lives – in the city or in the village,” said Trapaidze.