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Georgians Gain Jobs, Loans, One Year After Conflict
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Tbilisi, Georgia, October 2009-Hundreds of individuals uprooted by armed conflict in Georgia continue to be helped by joint European Union and United Nations Development Programme projects. A year after conflict between Russia and Georgia, the projects, in cooperation with the Georgian government, help provide job training, financial help and infrastructure improvements. Video: Georgia One Year After Photo Album: Georgia One Year After
The projects, one centering on infrastructure rehabilitation and one centering on microfinance, aim to ease those burdens and improve the quality of life in Shida Kartli, and in the Mtskheta-Mtaineti region, east of South Ossestia, and in the Samegrelo region, bordering Abkhazia. Since January 2009, more than 10,000 people have benefitted from school and municipal building rehabilitation, and repairs to water pipes and drainage systems. The rehabilitation projects also provide vital jobs skills, helping individuals move out of poverty and improve their long-term employment prospects. As part of that vocational training, short courses in masonry, painting, plumbing, and other construction trades have been held at the University of Gori. By September 2010, nearly 1,000 people will have taken part in the job training. For displaced individuals looking to return to farming—a key source of income in the region—or to start small businesses, financial help has also been made available. Micro-loans have helped individuals buy land or orchards, purchase equipment and buy livestock. Micro-loans have also been granted to those in the trade and service sectors. The University of Gori has also provided individuals with training in business and financial management. In nine months, the microfinance programme has distributed 346 loans valued at 284,920 (USD), with 60 percent of the funds going to women. Such efforts build on EU-UNDP activities put in place in the months following the August 2008 conflict. Those activities included restoring essential services such as water supplies, providing shelter and providing farmers with seed to sow winter wheat crops. “We fixed water supply systems; we helped people sow 650 hectares of winter wheat, created new orchards, and rebuilt schools,” Bo Asplund, UNDP Georgia Resident Representative and Resident Coordinator, said. Despite the gains from these efforts, there is more work to be done. Demands for basic services, including sewage systems, roads and schools, have increased due to the extra people now living in the region. Additionally, an estimated 40 million GEL is still needed to complete infrastructure rehabilitation projects. There is also the hope that the programmes will be replicated elsewhere in Georgia. For now, those who have been helped remain optimistic despite the setbacks from the conflict. “I know my home back there was destroyed,” said farmer Zeinab Khubaev. “Here we have a roof over our heads and an agriculture plot for farming. We do receive a lot of help. But I still hope to go back to my real home one day.”
Photographer: Antonio di Vico |
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The five-day war in August 2008 left thousands displaced. Villages were burned, houses destroyed and farm land lost. Initially, roughly 150,000 people fled the fighting. Now, at the onset of winter, some 30,000 are still displaced. The flood of people into the Shida Kartli region, bordering separatist Ossetia, has added extra burdens to an area that struggled economically even before the conflict.
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