MSF continues to deliver medical care and to distribute basic relief supplies to displaced people in and around Tbilisi. Large numbers of people are trying to return to their homes while others are receiving assistance from other organisations.
The MSF medical team begins the day by visiting a kindergarten in a suburb of Tbilisi, which has been converted into a centre for displaced people. Kindergarten N°9 now houses 70 people compared to 113 before the ceasefire between Russia and Georgia. Some men have already made the journey back to their villages to see if a permanent return is possible.
The director of the kindergarten quickly finds a room so that the MSF team can give consultations - no other medical aid has been provided up until now. Mothers come with their children, and there are also elderly people. Nino, a young pregnant woman, wants to see a doctor. Since she left Mereti, her village in the separatist province of South Ossetia, this young Georgian woman has not been examined. She is eight months pregnant and there is the possibility she could deliver prematurely. These last weeks have been trying. When fighting broke out on 8 August, she fled Ossetia with her three-year-old daughter. For several days, she had no news of her husband until he managed to join her in Tbilisi. Her daughter is still afraid. “She wakes up in the night when she hears the noise of a plane,” explains Nino. “She thinks that the bombings are starting again.”
In general however, the children are at ease in this new environment. There is a playground in the courtyard, there are some toys and all the families receive food and washing detergent. The only things missing are nappies for the babies, and the MSF team will bring these this afternoon.
However, it is a different story 100 metres away from the kindergarten. When the displaced families came to this building, a former cardiology institute, there was no water or electricity and the offices were cluttered with laboratory equipment. “We have done everything ourselves,” explains one man. “We have connected plastic pipes so that there is water in few sinks and toilets and we’ve also connected the electricity.” As for food, supplies remain uncertain. From time to time, the 92 people living there receive bread and some sausages as well as rations supplied by other organisations.
After being informed of this situation, the MSF team begins consultations, mainly for women, children and the elderly. The doctors have brought a supply of drugs with them and give out the necessary medication. But they will have to come back in the afternoon to distribute soap, washing detergent, buckets, toothpaste and some supplies for the babies.