Highlights 2019

Dear Donor,
Thanks again for your donation last year! We would like to share some highlights from the after-school care project in 2019.

In both school years, up to the summer holidays and in the current school year, 10 children between the ages of 6 and 14 took part in the after-school program. Three children in the past school year and two in the current one attended the program for the first time.
When we visited the village during the summer vacation, several of the children came to see us and we sat together, talked and played a bit. The time together showed us that the children love coming to the after-school care center, that they like the teachers very much and that they get on with the teachers and the other children really well.

The new children in particular have shown an improvement in their school work during the course of the year because of the afternoon program, which includes help with homework. Both parents and school teachers are agreed on this and so the project is receiving more praise and recognition from the local community. That is no small achievement in Georgia, which is strongly Orthodox. Other religious communities are often viewed with skepticism or disapproval and because the daycare is organized by the local Baptist church, some villagers were initially critical of the project. In December a local woman even turned up unannounced with cake and drinks to thank the educators for their (primarily voluntary) commitment and to surprise the children.

During our visit, we also noticed that some elementary things are still needed. For example, the children only have a very limited range of puzzles and games, which have become boring because they are so familiar. The educators always try to find ways to be creative with very few resources but we would be pleased to receive additional donations for new games and puzzles. 

During the visit, Marika Tskhadadze, the head of the day-care center, showed us a number of places on the ceilings and walls that showed water damage. We agreed to have the damage assessed as soon as possible because a leaky roof can damage the entire building. The cost estimate - €2,400 - surprised us initially but it turned out not to be unrealistically high because the roof had to be redone. As you may have seen, we advertised this need on Betterplace and prioritized it. Since then we have transferred the donations received to Georgia and the workmen have completed the repairs. It turned out that the work was done just in time to prevent further serious damage to the building. Here are some pictures:



The roof was financed with new donations, a contribution from the Georgian Baptists who own the building, and also partly from funds that had been earmarked for the rest of the school year for food, drinks, electricity, gas, etc. We now still need a few donations in 2020 so the program can continue until the end of the school year.

We are very happy and grateful that the donor group has grown this year through WirGestalten e.V. and Betterplace and that more people are helping support the after-school project. 

We are going into the new year full of hope and wish you a happy and successful new year!

Sheenagh Matthews & Markus Bleck