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IOCC began its operations in Georgia in 1994 at the invitation of ILIA II, Patriarch-Catholicos of Georgia. Today, IOCC's operations focus on providing longer term development opportunities for farming families and small businesses.
In response to the August 2008 conflict in South Ossetia, IOCC provided assistance to those affected by the conflict including the tens of thousands who were displaced from their villages. IOCC distributed food, hygiene supplies and bedding to approximately 15,000 individuals who took refuge in and around Tbilisi.
For sixteen months following the conflict, IOCC Georgia was the World Food Programme's partner for distribution of basic food commodities to the displaced, as well as to conflict-affected villages. Nearly 30,000 vulnerable individuals received monthly rations of food through the program. IOCC also partnered with the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization to provide animal feed and spring seeds to farmers whose livelihoods had been disrupted by the conflict.
With funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), IOCC and the Georgian Orthodox Church implemented a drug abuse prevention campaign targeting Georgian youth between the ages of 11 – 21. The program's main delivery vehicles were the clergy, teachers and youth leaders of the Georgian Orthodox Church, and a television and radio campaign that featured well-known Georgian athletes. An estimated 500,00 Georgian youth and parents were exposed to mass-media prevention and education messages, and awareness-raising campaigns incorporating faith-based messages on the dangers of drug abuse and effective prevention strategies. In mid-2010, IOCC will begin a follow-on project, training priests and youth leaders across Georgia on drug abuse and HIV/AIDS prevention.
Programs Implemented Prior to 2008
Through grants by USDA and Hellenic Aid of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IOCC repaired broken windows, doors and leaking roofs, renovated bathrooms, and provided shipments of books in 30 public schools in western Georgia between 2002 and 2005. Georgia has also benefitted from IOCC's Gifts-in-Kind program with more than 13,000 new books distributed to educational institutions throughout the country.
In 2001, IOCC began a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded Food for Education Program in Tbilisi and in portions of southern and western Georgia. The program involved providing nutritious snacks to thousands of impoverished Georgian public school students. The snacks were used as a vehicle to teach lessons on nutrition, civics, hygiene and the environment. The project also involved building the capacity of teachers, parents and school administrators, while providing school supplies and much needed infrastructure repairs. IOCC has also provided wheelchairs to handicapped persons, and computer training for young people in Tbilisi.
In the late 1990s, IOCC was a leader in providing microcredit financing to farmers and other entrepreneurs. Between 1999 and 2008, IOCC disbursed more than 1,750 low-interest microcredit loans to small business owners in southern and western Georgia.
In 1994, when IOCC began operations in Georgia, more than a quarter of a million people were displaced due to separatist fighting. Winters were an especially difficult time as people had to do without the free heat for their homes and work places that had once been provided by the central government. IOCC Georgia, in association with LAZARUS, the humanitarian aid agency of the Georgian Orthodox Church, and Church World Service (CWS), launched an emergency program in 1995 to provide tens of thousands of blankets and food parcels to the most vulnerable families.
Georgia stories from the archives
For more information about this country email relief@iocc.org.
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