The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) – Georgia, with financial assistance from the Polish Aid commenced a project targeting children and adults with disabilities. The project titled “Providing better infrastructure and access to social services for people with disabilities in Georgia” which began in August 2021 was implemented to support national NGO partners – Biliki, Child & Environment and Child, Family, Society managing Centers for children and adults with disabilities.

The project aimed at renovating and establishing 3 new day-care Centres for people with disabilities as well as facilitate short-term professional training for the staff in three cities of Georgia, In Gori, Chiatura and Marneuli. The core objectives of the project were to improving access to education and social services for children and adults with disabilities

All the three project sites underwent major infrastructure makeover, including renovation of floors, walls, ceilings, and installation of water, electric and heating systems, functional kitchen and washrooms, including wheelchair access to all the 3 Centres. The Centres were also provided with required furniture, equipment and material for speech therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy.

Society “Biliki”s operational area covers the Shida Kartli region (Gori).

Many disabled children do not receive the necessary rehabilitation. To respond to this problem, the NGO Biliki asked us for help in establishing a ‘Children’s Rehabilitation Center’ in Gori. It has both a building made available to them in 2018 by local authorities to support children with disabilities, as well as ensuring local authorities to pay for the rehabilitation of children when such a center was established. In the building where the Early Intervention Center in Gori was established as part of the Polish Development Aid 2019. It is currently operating successfully, taking care of as many as 80 beneficiaries. There was a free space that could be allocated for this purpose. That space was in bad conditions so it required renovation and reconstruction works to be suitable for running the Rehabilitation Center. The following work has been done:

1) Installed of 7 internal doors and replacement of 12 windows; 2) Heating system; 3) Electric system; 4) Created (renovation) of 5 functional rooms; Rehabilitation room, exercise room, changing room, waiting room, shower room.

The organization “Child and Environment” (C&E) operates in Chiatura, where it has been running a day care center for children since 2002 to support children in Georgia who are in a difficult social and economic situation. According to the data of the Social Welfare Agency of the Chiatura Commune (2019), the number of disabled people in the commune is 1625 people, of which 77 are children aged 6-18 (beneficiaries of this project).

During the project ADRA Georgia with the help of Polish Aid renovated the building for day care center for people with disabilities and trained teachers.

The free space required renovation and reconstruction work in order to been suitable for running a center for children with physical and intellectual disabilities. The following work has been done: 1) Renovated the floor, the ceiling and walls; 3) A wheelchair ramp; 4) Both the main entrance door and the inner door as well as the windows have replaced; 5) Electric cables, 40 switches and electrical sockets and 58 lighting points; 6) Heating system.  Despite the renovation, there was also online Zoom training for teachers. Now in the center, children with disabilities will have classes run by special education teachers, a speech therapist, an occupational therapist, a psychologist and a music teacher.

The NGO ”Child, Family, Society” operates In Kizilajlo, the organization runs an early intervention program at a government kindergarten for 15 disabled children aged 0-6, as well as a day care center for 20 disabled children aged 7-18.

According to data from the Social Service Agency, in 2019 there were 1,121 people with disabilities registered in the Marneuli district, including 792 adults. “Child, Family, Society” (CFS) currently runs a day care center for children with disabilities in Kizilajlo (the capital of the district). To solve this problem, CFS planned to open and operate a day care center for adults with disabilities in the Marneuli district.

During the project ADRA Georgia with the help of Polish Aid renovated the building for a day care center for people with disabilities and trained teachers. The following work has been done: 1) A sensory room; 2) Two rooms for activities; 3) A meeting room; 4) Psychologist’s office; 5) Speech therapist’s office; 6) Kitchen; 7) Dining room; 8) Toilet space; 9) Renovated of 2 corridors. The building also required construction of an external ramp for wheelchairs. Project provided support for teachers of special education, psychologists, physiotherapists, speech therapists and occupational therapists.

To ensure sustainability and efficiency of the new Centres, specialized online training of the staff was offered by MAC Georgia during the months of October and November concluded at the 3 Centres. The training covered important topics, such as “Independent living Skills and Functional Rehabilitation” and “Behavior Management” for children with disabilities.

On successful completion of the infrastructure work the Centres were officially handed over to the respective partner NGOs. We owe the success of this project to all stakeholders, especially the Polish Aid for funding this priority project and for the continued support for the people of Georgia.

Project co-financed by the Polish development cooperation programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. The publication expresses exclusively the views of the author and cannot be identified with the official stance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.