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| Section The ICRC in Georgia
©ICRC/J. Barry
The tracing services of the ICRC provide a lifeline for relatives separated by conflict, even though restoring contact and tracing the missing can take time.
Protection activities remain the priority for the ICRC in Georgia, where it has worked since 1992. Direct assistance programmes for displaced people and the extremely poor have been phased out, but the ICRC keeps an emergency-response capacity and seeks to encourage the authorities to find long-term solutions for vulnerable population groups.
The ICRC makes regular visits to prisons throughout the country to monitor the treatment and conditions of detainees. It supports efforts by the authorities to curb the spread of tuberculosis in prisons. It also continues to help the Georgian and Abkhaz authorities shed light on the fate of some 2,000 people missing since the armed conflict. Civilians are still at risk in some areas from unexploded munitions, which kill and maim. The ICRC provides support to orthopaedic rehabilitation centres in Tbilisi and Gagra. The ICRC works to help the authorities incorporate international humanitarian law into local legislation and to have it put on the training agenda for the military and in schools and universities. It also encourages efforts by the Red Cross Society of Georgia to implement its new statutes.
Presence (2009): 261 staff, including 31 expatriates Our world. Your move. in Georgia
Winter clothes bring warmth and colour to children’s day
Campaign page on icrc.org
Campaign portal: ourworld-yourmove.org
The year 2009 has great significance for the ICRC and the entire Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement: it marks the 150th anniversary of the battle of Solferino and the 60th anniversary of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949. In observance of these anniversaries, the Movement has launched a campaign, Our world. Your move, to remind everyone of his or her individual responsibility to lessen human suffering.
Georgia is one of the countries being highlighted as part of the campaign. Following the armed conflict with Russia in 2008, many displaced and isolated families remain in need of help.  Key document20-3-2009 Western /Central Georgia and South Ossetia: helping the most vulnerableSix months after the end of hostilities between Georgia and Russia, the humanitarian situation for most of the affected populations has improved, although chronic problems remain.
(The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Operational update Includes Photo 5-1-2009 Georgia: victims of conflict hope for a brighter year aheadAs Orthodox Christmas approaches in Central and Eastern Europe, many displaced and isolated families affected by the armed conflict between Russia and Georgia five months ago remain in need of help. For elderly people, like 60-year-old Nunu Doliashvili, the holiday season would have been very bleak indeed, were it not for some much-needed assistance from ICRC. (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Feature Includes Photo Event2-7-2009 Our World. Your Move. Events in Georgia.(The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Event Includes Photo Feature4-5-2009 South Ossetia: winter clothes bring warmth and colour to children’s day Since the conflict of August 2008, the ICRC has built up its presence in Georgia and South Ossetia in order to help people still suffering the consequences of the conflict. Sometimes, it’s as simple as delivering warm clothes to a school. (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Feature Includes Photo 15-10-2008 Georgia: you can't put hope in a boxKakha Khasaia's career with the Red Cross spans 16 years during which he has done practically every job, from guard to head of office. Jessica Barry caught up with him at his base in Zugdidi. (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Feature Includes Photo 7-10-2008 Georgia: 200,000 meals cooked in under three weeks.Thousands of displaced people in Gori cannot meet their basic needs. Even preparing meals has become a challenge to them. The Italian Red Cross offers them a lifeline. (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Feature Includes Photo 1-10-2008 Georgia: the elderly hard-hit by conflictWhen conflict in Georgia drove thousands of people from their homes, those too old and weak to flee stayed behind, often isolated. Zoé Brabant, a member of the ICRC mobile health team that went into Gori to assist them, shares her experience. (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Feature 26-9-2008 Georgia: portraits from TbilisiThe elderly are amongst the greatest casualties of the recent war in Georgia and South Ossetia, particularly because of the manner in which it has changed their lives irrevocably. The ICRC’s Jessica Barry has been talking to some of them. (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Feature Includes Photo 24-9-2008 Georgia: portrait from ZugdidiMany people who fled conflict in Abkhazia in 1992-3 remain displaced in Western Georgia and are now being joined by families made homeless by the recent fighting. A visiting ICRC team, including Jessica Barry, has been checking on their wellbeing. (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Feature Includes Photo 10-9-2008 Georgia: ICRC mobile clinic helps villagers with chronic diseases For people cut off from health services in remote villages affected by the conflict in Georgia and South Ossetia, the mobile clinic run by the Norwegian Red Cross and ICRC is a lifeline in more ways than one. (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Feature 25-8-2008 Georgia: out in the villages life continues, but nothing is the sameMost able-bodied people having fled to safety, the elderly and infirm in isolated villages are left to fend for themselves. The ICRC is bringing them relief and helping those who have lost contact with family members restore it. (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Feature Includes Photo 21-8-2008 Georgia: for the ones left behind - so near and yet so farFor the elderly, the sick and the frail who were unable to leave home when other family members fled the fighting in and around South Ossetia, each passing day of separation increases their vulnerability. Jessica Barry has been talking to some of the displaced in Tbilisi about the loved ones they left behind. (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Feature Includes Photo 17-8-2008 Georgia: uncertainty about the future haunts the displacedSince the start of the conflict in South Ossetia on 8th August, tens of thousands of people have fled from towns and villages all across Georgia. Many of them have made for the capital, Tbilisi, where they have found shelter in makeshift collective centres in schools, kindergartens and abandoned buildings. Now they wait for help from others, a situation they could never have imagined only a fortnight ago. (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Feature Includes Photo Interview28-8-2008 Georgia: getting medical care to isolated people in and around GoriThe ICRC is actively working throughout Georgia to meet the needs of tens of thousands of people displaced or isolated by the armed conflict. Most recently, a mobile health clinic was set up and sent out to remote villages around the Georgian town of Gori and treated over 80 primarily elderly patients. Interview with an ICRC surgeon, Marco Baldan, who has just returned from Georgia. (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Interview Includes Photo 15-8-2008 Georgia/Russian Federation: civilians in need in conflict affected areasThe humanitarian situation of thousands of civilians affected by the conflict in Georgia remains extremely serious. As far as the security situation allows, the ICRC is responding to the crisis by providing medical supplies and emergency assistance items, as well as providing water and improving living conditions in shelters for the displaced. The head of the ICRC's Eastern Europe department, Pascale Meige Wagner, explains. (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Interview Includes Photo 14-8-2008 Georgia/Russian Federation: assistance through rapid deployment makes the differenceAs Georgia continues to reel from the violence of the past week, the ICRC's emergency response is in full swing. So far, almost 100 tonnes of relief supplies have been flown to the affected region. The organization has also sent over 40 additional staff to Georgia and the Russian Federation to support efforts in helping people who were forced to flee their homes. The ICRC's rapid deployment adviser, Samuel Bon, describes the role of the Rapid Deployment Unit, and how it is helping to bring assistance to thousands of people in Georgia and North Ossetia. (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Interview Includes Photo 12-8-2008 Georgia/Russian Federation: ICRC delivers assistance to civilians in conflict affected areasThe ICRC is flying 15 tonnes of medicine and medical supplies to Georgia on Tuesday to help treat those injured in the armed conflict involving Georgian, South Ossetian and Russian troops. Large numbers of civilians have been hurt in the conflict and thousands have been forced to flee their homes. Sangeeta Koenig, the ICRC's deputy head of operations for Eastern Europe, talks about the organization's response to the crisis. (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Interview Includes Photo Operational update24-3-2009 Russian Federation: ICRC activities from July to December 2008The ICRC conducts wide-ranging activities in the Russian Federation, focusing on restoring family links, income-generating projects for indigent communities in the northern Caucasus, providing sanitation aid and mine-risk education, promoting humanitarian law and supporting Russian Red Cross programmes. (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Russia) Operational update Photo Collection26-8-2008 Georgia/Russian Federation conflict: a selection of photos - 2 The following selection of photographs can be downloaded at high resolution. (Info resources\Photos\Eastern Europe and Central Asia) Photo Collection Includes Photo 19-8-2008 Georgia/Russian Federation conflict: a selection of photos - 1 The following selection of photographs can be downloaded at high resolution. (Info resources\Photos\Eastern Europe and Central Asia) Photo Collection Includes Photo Press article23-12-2008 Helping in Georgia The recent conflict in Georgia triggered a swift and steady humanitarian response from the Movement. These brief accounts from ICRC Tbilisi and Tskhinvali staff illustrate the early stages of assistance to the victims of the conflict. Article published in the Red Cross Red Crescent Magazine, No 3, 2008 (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Press article 30-4-2007 Georgia : A tale of three womenSince Georgia gained independence in 1991, thousands of families have been uprooted and torn apart by the tensions caused by the secessionist aspirations of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The stories of three women poignantly attest to the suffering these people have endured - Article published in the Red Cross Red Crescent Magazine, No 1, 2007 (The ICRC worldwide\Eastern Europe and Central Asia\Georgia) Press article Report23-6-2009 "Our world. Views from the field." opinion survey, part 1: the impact of armed conflictTo raise awareness of the impact of armed conflict or other situations of armed violence on
civilians, the ICRC has launched a vast research programme. This research focused on some of the most troubled places in the world – the Solferinos of today – which are either experiencing situations of armed conflict or armed violence or suffering their aftermath: Afghanistan, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Georgia, Haiti, Lebanon, Liberia and the Philippines. All reports in PDF. (Focus\Social research on war) Report Video Collection21-8-2008 Georgia: ICRC gets help to people caught up in conflictIn the first days of the emergency, hundreds of tonnes of food, blankets and sanitary supplies were flown into the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. During his 3 day visit to Georgia and the Russian Federation, ICRC President Jacob Kellenberger saw the difficult conditions for himself, and met some of the thousands of people displaced by fighting and in urgent need of assistance. (Info resources\Video) Video Collection Includes Video |
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