The Megobari Project

We are bringing this blog up-to-date very soon!

2011-07-28T13:07:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! We shall be adding new projects to this blog very soon. Please stay in touch and visit the Megobari Foundation site at the Megobari Foundation's site.

Shaumiani Clothes Distribution

2009-02-11T23:51:00.000-08:00

The Megobari Project visited partner CHCA's Child Friendly Space at the IDP village of Shaumiani, Georgia. The day was full of games, English classes, play-dough and great activities coordination.

Thanks to Kelly Casperson of Colorado, US for her donation of 11 boxes of warm clothes that were given to the 25 refugee youth.

For more photos, please see http://picasaweb.google.com/joholtan/ShaumianiSChildFriendlySpaceCHCA#

To make a donation, please write megobariproject@gmail.com

NEED Magazine

2009-01-31T22:48:00.001-08:00

The Megobari Project featured on NEED Magazine's blog. Check it out at www.needmagazine.com/blog.

CHCA's Child-Friendly Spaces

2009-01-16T04:17:00.000-08:00

Charity Humanitarian Center "Abkhazeti" operates 15 Child-Friendly Spaces in the following areas:

Eight villages of the “adjacent area” (the former buffer zone) - Tirdznisi, Sagholasheni,Tedotsminda, Otarasheni, Arashenda, Kelktseuli, Dzlevijvari, Breti
Two IDP settlements in Koda and Shaumiani (Kvemo Kartli region).
Five IDP collective centres in Tbilisi

CHCA's reach has covered 638 internally displaced and war-affected children and youth. Child Friendly Spaces offer direct services through psychological, educational and recreational activities.

GREF sends ten students back to school

2009-01-15T00:59:00.000-08:00

December 9, 2008

GREF awarded the first ten scholarships for the Spring 2009 semester. Despite experiencing terrible loss and trauma, each winner showed inspiring perseverance and dedication to their education.

One very motivated winner, Nino Beruashvili, is from the village Eredvi and is a graduate student in the Georgian Language and Literature Department. The Russian airstrikes destroyed her family's home, her parents lost their jobs, and she could no longer afford to attend classes. Upon receiving her scholarship, she said, "I can't express my feelings by words. After the war this is the first time when I feel like I'm not alone and that there are people who support me to gain my goals."

Project Borjomi

2009-01-14T03:32:00.000-08:00

Project Borjomi was initiated by Gill and Bob Eddins, former Peace Corps volunteers who were English teachers in Borjomi, a former Soviet spa town in the south of Georgia not far from the Armenian border. They are partnering with various local organizations to faciliate Project Borjomi.

Borjomi, a town of approximately 13,000 people, is home to over 2,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) from Abkhazia. These IDPs, who were displaced from a subtropical climate with warm beaches and palm trees, are now living in dilapidated concrete, soviet sanatoria in the mountains where temperatures in the winter reach as low as -12% F. Their living conditions are often appalling and most have little money for food or clothing, let alone school books for their children, which can cost a family over $100 per child per year. Hence it is often the case that IDP children are less successful in school and frequently present behavior problems. There are presently no Georgian NGOs helping the IDPs in Borjomi.

Gill and Bob recently conducted a camp for IDP children. One of the children’s assignments was to interview their parents about their homes and lives in Abkhazia. Gill and Bob have written a grant application endorsed by a Georgian NGO which will provide funds for the publishing of the interviews. They hope through the book to highlight the plight of these refugees who appear to have been forgotten.

A second project which grew out of the IDP camp was a Women’s Knitting Workshop. Knitting was a very popular activity, both with the children and their mothers. Gill and Bob hope to start a workshop which will use both Georgian and western knitting and felting techniques to provide reasonably priced souvenirs for the growing Georgian tourist industry. They also plan to sell the items produced to returned Peace Corps volunteers in the States. A local school has agreed to provide the venue for the project.

Gill and Bob have been collecting warm children’s clothing and children’s books from friends and thrift stores in England. They have a contact that can fly the clothing to Tbilisi Georgia free of charge.

A summary of Project Borjomi activities:
* Teaching English two or three days a week in Borjomi schools
* Providing new blackboards and chairs for classrooms
* Helping a local NGO to create a web site
* Working with the local television station to create English programming
* Providing school books and warm clothing for IDP children
* Partnering with an NGO in a nearby town to provide free business training for IDP women
* Small business creation for IDP women
* Low interest micro-financing for small business

Ways you can help
$10 goes a long way:
* It can buy a set of school books for one subject (text, work, and test books)
* It can buy 4 warm winter jackets
* It can buy 4 balls of angora wool for the women’s workshop
* It can pay for a delivery from Tbilisi to Borjomi

$20 can go even further:
* It can buy a new chair for the English classroom
* It can provide a complete set of clothing for a newborn
* It can pay for the translation of knitting patterns
* It can pay for the installation of two blackboards

Please send checks to the Megobari Foundation referencing Project Borjomi. Details for mailing checks is included on the right panel of The Megobari Project's blog. If you would like your money to go to a particular project, please mark your check appropriately.

Gill and Bob can be reached by email at gillandbob@earthlink.net. They also have blog describing their life in Georgia: gillandbobingeorgia@blogspot.com.

Donations via Pay Pal

2008-12-17T00:03:00.000-08:00

This holiday season, give back to Georgia!

A mere $10 will send students affected by the conflict back to school, provide services for underprivileged youth, and support microloans for IDP women.

To make a difference, please email megobariproject@gmail.com for donation information.

Megobari Project members say "thank you"

2008-12-01T00:02:00.000-08:00

Megobari Project members met in Tbilisi the day after Thanksgiving last week to discuss Project activities. Everyone expressed their gratitude for the work being done, both in Georgia and back home.

Gori Regional Educational Fund to Award Ten Scholarships

2008-11-27T01:39:00.000-08:00

The Gori Regional Educational Fund is pleased to announce that on December 9th, 2008, it will recognize 10 student winners with GREF scholarships. These 10 students will receive tuition scholarships for the Spring 2009 semester at Gori University and will represent a broad cross-section of the GU student body, including Master's and Bachelor's students from all three faculties. During the application process in November, 139 students submitted applications and 20 semi-finalists were invited back for interviews with GREF volunteer staff. The 10 finalists were chosen by a 3-member selection committee. The December 9th event will coincide with the opening of a new training center at GU, sponsored by the United States Embassy.

The Gori Regional Education Fund has also forged a partnership with the Bank of Georgia and will be one of the featured charity organizations eligible to receive donations on the Bank of Georgia website, where donors can contribute even less than 1 Georgian lari ($.64) using their Bank of Georgia card. GREF has planned other fundraising initiatives stateside, including presentations to churches and Rotary Clubs in RPCV home states. The organization's leadership is very grateful to the local Georgian volunteer staff, including students from the University of Georgia, who have helped to lead this effort and have volunteered their time so tremendously.

For more information, please visit the GREF website at www.gorifund.org

Thanksgiving Thank You!

2008-11-26T22:08:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, The Megobari Project expresses the deepest of gratitude to Trinity Lutheran Church (Moorhead, MN), Calvary Lutheran Church (Perham, MN), Edgewood United Methodist Church, St. Lawrence Catholic Church (Perham, MN), and Eve Christoffersen (a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Georgia).

The day before Thanksgiving, The Megobari Project travelled to four collective centers in Kutaisi with eight boxes of hats, scarves, mittens and quilts in tow. The Kutaisi team organized warm weather gear into sets for age groups.

Upon hearing that the items were handmade and from America, people were dearly touched. Many of the items had notes of love attached to them and upon translation, children blushed and mothers could hardly compose themselves.

At these four shelters, we distributed six quilts (for families with children under 5) and over 55 hat, scarves and mitten sets. One refugee had just arrived from Tschinvali with his family and newborn baby the day before. We gave every member of his family a warm winter set and a quilt.

Thank you from all of us here at The Megobari Project. People have been hard at work organizing donations to send. Jen McFann, another Peace Corps Volunteer, has been busy raising money to send boxes of blankets to Georgia. To donate - check out her website at http://jeningeorgia.blog spot.com/.

For more photos of th e donation drive (will frequently be updated) - please see picasa web.google.com/joholtan/TheMegobariProjectDonationDrive#

The Megobari Project: An Introduction

2008-09-01T03:17:00.000-07:00

Who we are? We are a group of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who are bringing their experiences in Georgia back home to raise funds for Georgians affected by the recent conflict with Russia. Throughout our time as Peace Corps volunteers, we developed strong relationships with the Georgian people and the country. We want to give back.

The Megobari Project is working under The Megobari Foundation. Based in the US, The Megobari Foundation is currently a nonprofit corporation working on achieving its 501(c)3 status. All donations made to the Foundation will be retroactively tax deductible.

What we are doing? In response, Returned Peace Corps Georgia Volunteers are initiating a fundraising campaign – The Megobari Project – throughout the United States, Israel and the United Kingdom. Partner Georgian organizations have been chosen as recipients of these funds – Charity Humanitarian Center “Abkhazeti” (CHCA), Abkhazintercont (AIC), The Gori Regional Education Fund, and the Information Education Center Kartli XXI. These organizations serve different communities in Georgia.

Donations can also be made to a small fund program, which will go to sponsoring small projects as identified by Returned Peace Corps Volunteers currently in country.

Why are we doing this? Since August 8, 2008, Russia has launched attacks on Georgia, damaging both military and civilian areas throughout the country. In Tbilisi alone, 278 more collective centers have opened to house 28,000 internally-displaced persons (IDPs). Overall, Georgia has seen an increase of over 130,000 IDPs on the already 220,000 from previous conflicts.

Where will donated money go? Donations to The Megobari Project partners will be used to purchase various materials for each project. Much of the funds will go to collective centers where living conditions are less than ideal. Read about each Project Parnter for more information.

How can you make a donation? Please make checks to: The Megobari Foundation. All checks can be sent to:PNC Bankm 1900 Greentree Rd., Cherry Hill, NJ 08003. We are currently working to support online donations. More to come later!

Microloans for IDP Women in Shida Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti Regions

2008-08-31T03:41:00.000-07:00

Funds raised through the Megobari Project will finance microloans for IDP women in Shida Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti. Loan payments will be used to issue addition projects in the future.

Through a 20-hour business training in Khashuri, this project will provide low income IDPs, specifically women, in the Shida Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti regions with the capacity to increase family income and standard of living through improved business activity by building human and financial capital.

Training topics include:

Money, cost, budgeting and household saving
Basic market-based economics and basic accounting
Defining the mission and business goals of your business
Basic marketing
Pricing and distribution
SWOT Analysis and Risk Management
Production plan of operation and production process
Management
Sales and Promotion
Business Planning Financials

Throughout the course, participants will write a business plan for their own business. Week 11 of the project, participants will make business plan presentations to a panel of actual micro finance lenders working in Georgia. This panel will choose the best plans to receive financing.

The Gori Regional Education Fund: Scholarships for those effected by conflict

2008-08-28T03:08:00.000-07:00

Mission: To support families in the Republic of Georgia affected by the August2008 South Ossetia conflict by providing scholarships to students inthe Gori Region

About GREF:The Gori Regional Education Fund (GREF) is a registered NGO in theRepublic of Georgia and a partnership between the University ofGeorgia, Gori University, and former Peace Corps Volunteers. The Fundwas established in August 2008 as a result of Russian military actionin Gori and its surrounding villages.

GREF raises money to providescholarships for students from Gori University, recruits and selectsparticipating beneficiary students, and manages the transfer of funds from GREF to Gori University. The Fund collaborates heavily with student volunteers from the University of Georgia, who contribute their time and energy to help those affected by this crisis.

GREF Scholarships: Scholarships are awarded to students of Gori University unable to paytuition due to the effects of recent Russian military action in the Gori region. Participating students must complete an application andare selected by GREF based on academic performance and need.

Scholarships are awarded each semester and cover the cost of tuition(the cost for one student, each semester, is 750 Georgian Lari orapproximately $535). Tuition funds are transferred directly to the University from the Fund on behalf of each participating student.

Charity Humanitarian Center “Abkhazeti” Information: Child Friendly Spaces

2008-08-28T03:05:00.000-07:00

www.chca.ge.com

Funds to CHCA will fund resources for Child Friendly Spaces. These spaces provide IDP childen and youth with activities and resources to take a break from the reality of collective center life.

Charity Humanitarian Center “Abkhazeti”, established in 1995, is the Georgian, non-Governmental, non-profit organization, striving to increase the role of individuals and communities in building civil society and strengthening democracy, to improve the social and economic conditions of internally displaced and other vulnerable populations through building capacity and increasing self-reliance. The activities of the organization are carried out transparently, and are based on the principles of professionalism, equality, long-term partnership and sustainable development.