Care for 20 homeless people in Tbilisi, Georgia

One evening about ten days ago our shelter for homeless teenagers received a telephone call from the prison authorities to tell them that 12 youngsters were going to be discharged over the next few days.  As usual, no provision had been made as to where they might go from the prison gates, and as usual Mkurnali agreed to accept them.   They were let out in stages  - first one, then two, and finally eight all at once  -  around midnight.   A small group of resident teenagers accompanied a member of Mkurnali's staff to greet the young people as they emerged,  while the others made the house ready for the arrival of their new companions and prepared some celebratory food.  Mkurnali's numbers were thus doubled without warning literally overnight!  

We made space for the new arrivals in our attic and are working hard now to find them work.  We have already found a job for one boy who was released in January. but it is a difficult task.  We have also set up a football team to help the boys fill their free time.

Meanwhile, we have also sheltered two single fathers, both of them former prisoners. While one of them  was in prison his “wife” handed their child to an orphanage.  After being released this young man got his son out of the Orphanage and now both of them live with us.  The other young man was contacted by his child’s grandfather and
told him that the baby’s mother has gotten married and that he doesn’t have enough money to care about the baby. The grandfather threatened to take the child to an orphanage. Of course we took the baby and now the child lives with his father at out shelter.

So we are now full to bursting with 27 teenagers and five babies and toddlers to look after.  Fortunately, if you donate tomorrow, Wednesday 13th March after 9am EDT or 1pm GMT your donation will also stretch further because the wonderful people at Global Giving are adding 30% to donations while funds last.   Please note that this offer is only active if you donate via Globalgiving.org (http://goto.gg/10666), not the UK site.