Kalistine is having a hard time getting used to her new surroundings. An 82-year-old native of Georgia, she has been in Tbilisi for several days, taking refuge in an abandoned building that used to house the former Finance Ministry. There, she has re-joined four of her family members, sharing a room that, in another era, was an office.
The MSF emergency team readies a room to recieve patients in Tbilisi. August 2008.
Photo by Michel Allard / MSF
After ten days of intense fighting in South Ossetia, only Kalistine and three other elderly women remained in their village, Kourta, her daughters having fled by car and foot over the preceding days. Knowing that waliking was not an option, Kalistine was lucky enough to find a bus heading for Gori. “For three days I hid in a corn field,” she said. “Then one day I was sitting by the side of the road and I saw a bus coming.” So she reconciled herself to leaving.
Nearly 550 people are now living in the former Georgian Finance Ministry. It took several days for aid to arrive. An MSF team arrived on August 14. “There was dust everywhere, but someone found us a room to see patients in,” said MSF’s Dr. Nana Chiochvili. “The first two days were really tough, but things are settling down now.” Feelings of national solidarity have moved nearby clinics to send medical personnel and medicines.
The first group of patients MSF treated included lightly injured cases. “They had been hit by shrapnel, or had injured their feet, or had fallen as they fled, but the needs are different now”, said Dr. Chiochvili. “We are mainly seeing patients with chronic illnesses (hypertension, diabetes, epilepsy, etc.) who need to keep up their treatments; also patients are suffering from insomnia, exhaustion, getting headaches or have started to shake uncontrollably…”
Fighting between the Russian and Georgian forces lasted only a few days, but the patients here are overwhelmed with fear. A team of MSF psychologists is expected to be ready to go to work very shortly.
MSF teams are still seeing patients at the former Finance Ministry building and at a number of other shelters for displaced persons in Tbilisi. They treated a total of 497 patients in Tbilisi over the period of August 14 to 22. To meet the material needs of displaced people, MSF teams have distributed 582 hygiene kits, which include items such as soap, washing detergent, toothpaste, and drinking cups. For very young children the teams have also supplied mothers with 113 kits with pillows and talcum powder.