Ref:     Report on Distribution of Bally Winter Boots

ARRIVAL OF THE SHOES AND SOME CONNECTED PROBLEMS ARRIVAL OF THE SHOES AND SOME CONNECTED PROBLEMS

The shoes (487 instead of the expected 400 pairs) arrived in Tbilisi with a significant delay - we had hoped to have them in Georgia not later than Christmas, or at least before the New Year (see below), but the shipping company did not deliver them until January 8th, 2003. As I wrote in my previous letters, we faced serious problems with getting humanitarian status for the shoes, since the Ministry of Finance (which awards Humanitarian status to imported goods) had frozen the process since the last Summer - not only for NGOs, but also for governmental structures. The main "explanation" for this action was that the Ministry did not have enough manpower to monitor the distribution of the goods. It also decided to adopt the import tax on even Humanitarian goods(?!) and stopped all the Humanitarian Aid. We managed to deal with this problem with a strong support of one of the members of our association who is currently the head of the International Relations Committee of the Parliament.

The shoes actually arrived in our office after clearing customs on January 9th, but we could not start the distribution process until January 21-st. There were two major reasons for this:

1) Since we could not distribute the shoes before the school holidays (from just before New Year until January 20th), approximately 60-70% of children at the targeted institutions had already been taken "home" for the holidays. As you may know, most of the children who live in shelters and orphanages in Georgia are actually "social orphans;" having one -even both - parents, grandparents or another relative living in Georgia who take the children out of these institutions for all or part of the Summer and Winter holidays. This is not the best time for many of these children, insofar as the way they are fed and/or treated at these "homes" is very often much worse than at the shelters. If we had not waited for the end of the school holidays we would have been in a position to leave a big share of the shoes with administration of an orphanage for later distribution (which we did not want to do), or to come back to each of these institutions several times.

2) As you know, most of the shoes were in big sizes (305 out of 487 pairs were of the sizes 39-45). Although we allocated shoes that were two sizes bigger to the children for whom we did not have the right sizes, we still faced the problem of coming to the youngest children (4-8 years old) living at the institutions with empty hands. Our initial idea was to exchange some of the bigger sizes for other models of smaller sizes did not work - we managed to exchange only 6 pairs of Bally boots (among our acquaintances - since we are not allowed and would not sell any) for 9 new pairs of children's winter boots.

In order to distribute the big sizes, we added two more orphanages and one shelter from remote areas of Georgia and a day-care centre in Tbilisi to the preliminary distribution list. As a compensation for the small children in the institutions chosen who could not receive the shoes, we re-allocated a sum of money out of Genesis' funds, and purchased 139 good, warm second-hand (west-European) winter jackets for them (these jackets cost us much less than buying 139 new pairs of shoes would - which we could not afford). The money needed for buying the jackets was collected among the members of our association and the medical staff of Genesis.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE SHOES

The 487 pairs of winter boots received by Genesis were distributed in the period of January 21st - February 4th of 2003 as follows:

1) 460 Bally winter shoes were received by 460 children/adolescents and individuals in 9 institutions for children who lack parental care (3 orphanages, 5 street children's shelters, and Day-care centre with two groups of children - see below). These institutions have been selected based on our long term relations and trust to them as well as to their relatively worst living and funding conditions in comparison with the other specialised houses we know.

This figure includes 27 teachers from Aspindza orphanage who were included due to the extreme cold of this area in winter (-20 degrees is the norm in for the nights of Winter months)

Out of 460 pairs, 6 pairs of large sized Bally shoes were exchanged for 9 pairs of other winter boots to cover the needs of some small children at the shelters. Three youngest children without any relatives were given priority and received these boots - and jackets (you can see the photo of a sister and brother with no relatives where both wear the jackets, and the girl has the exchanged boots and the boy wears the Bally boots).

The age range of individuals living at the shelters/orphanages varied from age 4 up to age 17. The most of the children were in 4-13 age group. There were a few 18-20 year old adults in the orphanages who have already "graduated" but do not have any place to live. All children received sweets purchased by Genesis for the charity actions.

2) After the distribution of the shoes for the children of the targeted institutions was accomplished, we had 30 pairs of winter shoes left behind. Based on: a) the principle that selecting any new orphanage would cost us additional some of money to purchase the gifts for smaller children with small size feet, which Genesis could not afford any more; b) considering the fact that many of the Genesis members and staff contributed to the purchase of the winter jackets, c) knowing the type of work healthcare professionals of Genesis three clinics carry out - working in remote areas to support orphanages and the impoverished population in general - the remaining 27 pairs were given to the healthcare staff of the Genesis Association working in three out-patient clinics in Tbilisi, Ortabatumi (in Ajara, west Georgia) and Tamariani (in Lagodekhi, East Georgia).

We have signatures of all the children/individuals who received the shoes and were old enough to sign. For all the recipients who received the shoes, including those who cannot read and write yet (and some of them put just crosses along their names instead of the signatures), we created the distribution/reception lists which have been signed by both the representatives of the children's institutions and the Genesis Association.

LIST OF THE INSTITUTIONS WHICH RECEIVED THE SWISS DONATION AND THE GENESIS ASSOCIATION'S SUPPORT

The ORPHANAGES:
(run by the Ministry of Education)

1. Aspindza Orphanage in South Georgia This orphanage was added to our network 3 months ago. All 90 children and 27 teachers were given Bally shoes.

2. Orphanage No. 1, Dighomi district, Tbilisi - (total number of children 116) 101 children were given shoes; the rest, winter jackets

3. Lagodekhi Orphanage in East Georgia - (total number of children 91) 38 older children were given shoes; the rest, winter jackets. This orphanage was added to our list recently.

The Street Children's REHABILITATION SHELTERS:
(the first three shelters are partly run by the Municipality)

1. Momavlis Sakhli (House of Future), Tbilisi - (total number of children, 61) 43 children received boots; the rest, jackets from Genesis.

2. Satnoeba (Tenderness), Tbilisi - (total number of children - 60) 27 children received boots; the rest, jackets.

3. Lampioni (The Lamp), Tbilisi - (total number of children - 42) 28 children received boots; the rest, jackets.

4. Beghurebi (Sparrows), Tbilisi - (total number of children - 46) 40 children were given the shoes; the rest, jackets.

5. Jejili - in Chiatura region, West Georgia, also added to the distribution list recently 46 children received the shoes

(the last two shelters are run by "Child and Environment")

The Day-care CENTRE for two groups of children:

1. Tsisartkhela (Rainbow) - Child and Environment supports/feeds children who support their families by working in markets All 7 children presented to us received the shoes

2. Mobile Centre - Child and Environment feeds children who sleep in the open (refuse to go to shelters)

All 13 children received shoes.

As I mentioned before this winter was (still is!) one of the worst and the longest in decades - with heavy snow and frost which started from the second half of January and continue until today. When we arrived to one of our new orphanages in Lagodekhi (East Georgia) were temperatures dropped to -15C at night, we could not find/meet 6 children from the distribution list provided to us by the administration of the orphanage. Our investigations showed that these children could not return to the orphanages from the surrounding villages after the "holidays", since their guardians could not provide them with outdoor shoes of any type. In these cases, we were obliged to leave the shoes behind for the children and we know the children received them.

For the attention of those donors who contributed to this kind Humanitarian Aid and who may not know us - The Genesis Association provides regular, free-of-charge healthcare support to 8 out of the 9 institutions mentioned in this report, plus 2 more orphanages in Bodbe and Akhalgori of East and South Georgia (the institutions which received the Bally shoes one year ago when members of the Lions Club Spiez and Basel organised the Humanitarian Aid for them), with a total number of up to 700 children who lack parental care. Where possible, Genesis assists these children in finding some solutions to their other problems - living conditions, education, crafts promotion, etc.

We strongly need any new contacts and friends
who can help us in supporting these children
on a longer term basis!