Georgia's acting President Nino Burjanadze
made an urgent appeal for western aid last week after announcing that the
state of the economy inherited from the Shevardnadze administration is
"even worse than we thought."
According to Burjanadze, the situation
is so bad that Georgia faces "economic collapse".
In such a climate, World Vision's 3-year Food for Work program, to be implemented in partnership with the UN's World Food Programme, will be even more vital in preventing already vulnerable populations from slipping further into poverty.
As Georgia's infamously harsh winter sets in, life will become increasingly difficult for Georgia's poor. In winter, 41% of Georgians consume less than 2,100 calories per day, though the UN World Food Programme's recommended daily caloric intake is 2,500 calories.
Often, the poor are forced to make tough choices such as whether to heat their homes or buy food. In a country where the average wage is about $15 per month and pensions are $7 per month, the results of having to make such choices are very painful. When temperatures dip below the freezing point and undernourished families can only afford to keep their heaters on for 2 hours a day, children especially are at an increased risk for falling ill.
A vicious cycle is created when families need to pay for doctors' visits, medicine or other unexpected emergencies out of money originally designated for food. The result is that families will eat even less, putting them at a steadily increasing risk of not being able cope with illness, frigid temperatures and other hardships that become exacerbated during winter.
World Vision's Food for Work program is designed to mitigate this vicious cycle by providing families from the 3 most food insecure regions of Georgia with food in return for labor. Taking a community-based approach, the program will engage community groups composed of civil leadership, the elderly, youth and women to propose project ideas and mobilize needed labor. Expected community projects include repairing roads, digging irrigation and drainage trenches, rehabilitating potable water systems and reclaiming arable land.
This community-based approach to labor will help rehabilitate both the agricultural and social infrastructure of Georgia, which at the moment the Georgian government cannot afford to address. Such improved infrastructure will continue to positively affect these communities long after World Vision has ceased providing food for work. For example, better irrigation systems and access to more arable land will enable farmers currently operating at subsistence levels to begin producing more and better food.
The first phase of the Food for Work program (worth approximately $1.7 million) is now underway. The first community projects are expected to commence in January, and families will begin to receive their food rations in early February. Over the next 3 years, 36,000 hungry Georgian families will be fed and citizens from over 200 village communities will benefit from improved agricultural and social infrastructure.