Through funding by the US government, IOCC provided winter supplies to 2,000 individuals in 20 distribution centers. Families received blankets, bedding, stoves, kitchen utensils, warm clothes and fuel for heating to get them through the winter. IOCC Georgia is also the World Food Program’s partner for distribution of basic food commodities in the Shida Kartli conflict-affected villages, where approximately 7,500 vulnerable individuals will be receiving monthly rations of food.
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 was inspired by Georgia’s growing underground drug abuse crisis and attendant increase in reported HIV/AIDS cases. 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.
IOCC has launched a Beef Demonstration Farm, located on lands belonging to the Georgian Orthodox Church in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of Georgia. The purpose of the farm is to help Georgian farmers learn best practices in cattle farming, from animal care to pasture management to the most sanitary methods for delivering meat to market. The program is a collaboration between IOCC and faculty from the University of Maryland and the University of West Virginia. IOCC’s aim is to provide Georgian communities with sustainable agricultural systems that are profitable, good for the environment and good for communities.
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.
IOCC has provided microcredit financing to farmers and other entrepreneurs. Since 1999, IOCC has 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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