Care for 20 homeless people in Tbilisi, Georgia

Project Report | Mar 12, 2026
Sewer damage threatens our work - can you help?

By Sarah Gale and Nino Chubabria | Project Support and Project Director

Digging up the road

You might not want to read this if you're eating your dinner, but we will spare you most of the gory details.

Late in January a sewage pipe serving not only our shelter but three other houses failed. Unfortunately, to say the least, when this happened the waste water gushed out into our yard. What happened next was quite a saga. It took two companies and one failed fix to discover that the problem was actually not on our property. It took three weeks more to finally fix the issue. First we had to persuade the company responsible to come out, then it took them several teams to locate the problem. Finally, they only hired an excavator for two hours, so our volunteers worked through the night with shovels to dig up the street so a new pipe could be installed. After all this, we still had to complete work within our yard to reconnect us to the main drains.

This drama has taken its toll. While we were appealing to the authorities for help, one of the children living at our shelter had to be hospitalised because of an infection. The leak also caused damage to our property. A kitchen wall partially collapsed and still needs reinforcement. The steps to our property also washed away and urgently need to be fixed. Unfortunately, we are responsible for the damage to our property, even though it wasn't our fault. It will cost £4,100 to make the essential repairs. Can you help?

We are just 5 days away from GlobalGiving's Little by Little Campaign, when donations up to $50 (£37) will be matched at 50% until funds run out. This would be a great time to respond to our appeal and make your donation go further. A £20 donation from the UK made with Gift Aid could be worth £35 to us! We are very grateful for any contribution. Little by Little runs from 2pm (UK time) on Tuesday 17th to 2am on Saturday 21st March. However matching funds are likely to run out, so it's great if you can donate on 17th.

After that you may wish to hear some more positive news:

Rachel, the head British volunteer, continues her classes at Mkurnali twice a week, tutoring children in English, and everyone has truly fallen in love with her. A visiting boy, the son of a former tenant, also comes to the classes. Christina, our gymnastics champion, studies whenever she can. She recently injured her leg in a competition but still managed to take first place at the International Mango Competition in Portugal.

We are also reaching out to local donors. One local donor recently gave equipment and paint for car repairs, helping young people continue their work as car mechanics and gain skills to become self-employed.

Our steps

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Nov 12, 2025
Bike brings new hope for vulnerable family

By Sarah Gale and Nino Chubabria | Project Leader and Project Director

Today is Giving Tuesday - a fantastic celebration of generosity. To help us get in the mood GlobalGiving are boosting all donations made to our project until December 3, 2025, at 12:00:00 EST (5pm tomorrow in the UK). Every donation will help us win a share of their incedible $500,000 incentive pot.

As you know, we help families of former street children who are living independently, but still in very vulnerable circumstances. This year we have started helping two new families, thanks to kind donors.

The first family has five children, two of whom have disabilities. This bike will allow their 20-year-old son to work as a courier, and he already has a job. His medical condition means that he cannot do heavy work or drive, so before he was given this bike he was struggling to find work.

The second family also has five children. The father had two children with his first wife. When the marriage fell apart the social services decided that neither parents' living conditions were suitable for raising the children - basically they were too poor. The children were placed in foster care although unfortunately, the foster environment was not able to properly cater for the older child's health needs.

The father decided to go abroad to work in order to save enough money to be able to regain custody of his children. While he was abroad, he met a young woman supported him, and they eventually got married. Together, they saved enough money to buy a small plot of land in the outskirts of Tbilisi at a time when land there was still very cheap.

The father built a small house himself and they regained full custody of his children. The couple went on to have three more children together. The couple work tirelessly to provide a normal life for their family and to help their child with disabilities to recover. We are pleased to be able to help with the child's medical expenses.

We are very grateful to any contribution that you can make so that we can continue to help young people who have experienced life on the streets in our city, Tbilisi. Remember, if you donate today, your donation will be boosted.

Links:

Terms and Conditions for the Giving Tuesday campaign

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Sep 23, 2025
Using the summer to make progress in Tbilisi

By Sarah Gale and Nino Chubabria | Project Leader and Project Director

In our last report we told you of some of the extra tutoring we have offered to children of our residents. This summer, we have continued the educational theme by helping a group of four children of former residents. Having battled homelessness and many other disadvantages, their parents are unable to help them with their school work and they have fallen seriously behind. In year seven, they did not recognise all the letters of the alphabet. Each day, our teacher has been offering catch-up lessons, and now they are reading! Their maths has also made great progress. Alongside school work, they have also been able to learn new sports and have had outings. Of course, not all of the children were interested in studying from the start, and not everyone came right away. But once they saw how much fun the others were having — and realised that being here isn’t only about school — some have already expressed a desire to join the programme.

This is not the only way we have been helping our fomer residents. While delivering food parcels to families living in villages around Tbilisi, we often noticed that their yards were very unkempt. So during the summer we visited a different beneficiary family each Saturday with the children. Together we helped clean and organize their yards and surroundings. The children really enjoy these 'Saturday cleanings. They are excited, enthusiastic, and—most importantly—they are gradually learning how important it is to live in a clean and orderly environment. After every clean-up, we have a small picnic, which the children absolutely love and look forward to.

Lastly we love being able to report on our young resident, Christina's amazing successes. This year, she won first place in the World Cup gymnastics competition and took first place in every tournament she participated in! Thank you to everyone who donated so she was able to join the national team.

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