The Mkurnali/ Calvary Youth Connection

I am still so in awe of this news I hardly know how to begin. The Calvary United Methodist Church of Nashville, TN runs a youth group that recently took the initiative to raise money for the Mkurnali Association youth in Tbilisi, via GYR. The Calvary UMC has been a gracious donor to GYR in the past, and the church has a deep-ingrained practice of public service and charity. Despite knowing this, I was still completely astounded to learn that the teenage youth group, on their own volition, raised $745 for the Mkurnali youth in Georgia.

The Calvary youth learned of Mkurnali when GYR friend Anne Brown gave a presentation to the congregation. The group, lead by Jennifer Oaks, made bracelets that they later sold at an Alternative Gift Fair function. The Calvary youth has demonstrated exceptional leadership, and it is truly lovely that they have made this effort to reach out to their peers in Tbilisi. The GYR board, Mkurnali director, and especially, especially the Mkurnali kids are all touched by the generosity and goodwill of the Calvary youth.

Many thanks to the Calvary United Methodist Church for its continuing support! Thanks to Anne Brown for helping us make this connection! But most of all, thanks to the Calvary youth, it is a real honor to be involved in your efforts!

Visiting Tbilisi in January

It has been some time since I have been able to visit Georgia, but the wedding of a GYR board member Thea Jokhadze provided the perfect opportunity to visit this month. GYR does not pay travel expenses for its volunteer board, and because I am in graduate school, it has not easy to visit often.

Much has changed in the two and a half years since I last visited Tbilisi, especially at the Mkurnali Association. After a nap post-4 AM arrival, Nino Chubabria arrived to take me to see the new shelter building in the Saburtelo neighborhood of the city.

The new building is fantastic! The previous building was really just an office with workshop space, where some 20 street youth had made their homes by moving temporary beds out onto the floors at night. The new building is an actual house with a yard, with dedicated sleeping, living, eating, and workshop spaces. It provides a normal home environment for twenty kids, who are visibly more relaxed in the new facility. The building has allowed Nino to get official shelter status with the government, so that she can now take teens into the shelter as an alternative to serving prison sentences.
In addition to the improvement of having a new building, Nino has acquired additional help. Nana now does the cooking for the organization (which we were lucky enough to sample!), with food partially supplied by the Georgian Orthodox Church. Nino also has help from other friends who take turns supervising and staying at the shelter at night with the kids. And as always, Dato still helps run Berkli, the computer services teaching workshop and business that supplies the organization with part of its cash flow.

The most surprising thing for me was to realize that most of the kids I knew two years ago have moved on. Many have married, are having their own kids, or have moved away from Tbilisi. I only recognized Pavel at the shelter, who is still teaching in the enamel jewelry workshop, now with his little brother Nicolas, who has turned 17 and left the orphanage.

On this trip, I was able to spend some time with Father George, who took me to Saint Nino’s tomb on her namesake feast day.

Because I had to return to my graduate school classes, my visit to Georgia lasted only a short six days. I was unhappy to leave so quickly, but grateful for the opportunity to remember what an inspiration the Mkurnali Association has been for me personally: including the kids, the organization’s dedicated core of volunteers, and its hard-working director, Nino Chubabria.

Working With Refugees

Nino Chubabria reports that every day she and the Mkurnali Association kids are going to a different refugee camp to work all day. The conditions at the moment are very bad: people are sleeping on bare dirty floors in schools and other government buildings. Most of these buildings have no water or sanitation facilities, and no place to cook. As of yet the government is not distrubuting aid, but aid is trickling in from international organizations like the Red Cross.

Nino and the kids have brought food to refugees, but the most critical item needed at the moment is baby formula. Many young refugee mothers have lost their ability to lactate due to stress and trauma. Nino is helping to supply baby food and diapers to refugee camps with the funds Georgian Youth Rescue raises.

In addition to bringing food, the kids spend all day every day cleaning and setting up spaces for the refugees. Here the Mkurnali kids have really stood out, with their experience on the streets, they have been able to help refugees create makeshift shelters and beds out of whatever spare materials can be found around the sites. We are exceptionally proud of our clever kids and the critical humanitarian relief work they are doing.

Mkurnali Kids Volunteer to Help War Refugees

One of the most heartening aspects of the Mkurnali Association, our partner organization, has always been the commitment the organization's youth make to doing social work. Kids who grow up with the organization tend to stay close the cause of helping other street kids. Several have stayed on to work as teachers in vocational training workshops, manage the office, or do social work for other organizations.

Starting today, several the Mkurnali Association kids will be serving as volunteers, helping to transform various sites into war refugee camps. Great job you guys!