IDP camp in Gori, Georgia
© Brigitte Breuillac / MSF
In Gori and Tbilisi, MSF teams continue to provide medical and psychological care to displaced persons, distribute essential non-food items and provide medication.
Whilst the situation in Georgia seems to have stabilised, the future of those people displaced by the war remains uncertain. According to the Georgian authorities, nearly 60,000 people are still displaced within the country, forced to live in public buildings or tented camps. MSF, who has been treating tuberculosis patients in Georgia for several years, has been able to offer assistance to the civilian population from the beginning of the conflict in early August.
The town of Gori currently harbours some 7,000 displaced people. Since early September, MSF has been providing these people with medical care across thirty temporary camps. Three medical teams visit these sites and, if necessary, refer the patients to a central clinic. In one month, they have carried out 1,200 medical consultations.
In addition, a team of psychologists has been paying regular visits to the displaced. Nearly 600 people have taken part in group sessions organised by MSF teams, and approximately one hundred people have received one-on-one sessions.
Despite considerable international effort to support Georgia and the massive presence of aid workers on the ground, certain essential non-food items have still not reached the displaced. In Gori, as winter approached, many people had still not received blankets; consequently the MSF teams distributed nearly 2000. In addition, medical supplies have been given to the district clinic in Mejereskhivi.
In Tbilisi, MSF teams have been assisting the displaced since early August and continue to provide medical care in 9 camps harbouring some 4,000 people. In September, 1,200 medical consultations were carried out and 140 people received psychological support.
MSF has been treating patients suffering from multi-resistant tuberculosis in Georgia for several years. The two regular programmes, one of which is situated in the autonomous region of Abkhazia, continue to run normally.