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Counterpart International’s Community and Humanitarian Assistance Program (CHAP) expanded into the Caucasus region in 1995, with a regional office located Tbilisi, Georgia and field offices in Baku, Azerbaijan and Yerevan, Armenia. The CHAP in Georgia has the capacity to provide a complete range of humanitarian aid commodities and maintains an impressive distribution network that consists of locally based NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations). From conducting needs assessments to monitoring end-use, the CHAP Georgian staff is well equipped to acquire, stage, transport and distribute critical human needs to vulnerable individuals and groups.

The CHAP and its local partnership network work directly with dynamic CHAP commodity acquisition offices in Europe and the United States of America. This allows the CHAP in Georgia to request and receive specific humanitarian aid commodities that answer specific needs. Once the requested commodities have been received, the CHAP staff in Georgia mobilizes its resources to ensure that the commodities are assigned and distributed timely, accurately and transparently.

Currently, the CHAP in Georgia focuses on meeting the needs of pensioners/aged, orphans and homeless children, large families and IDPs (internally displaced people). Since 1995, the CHAP in Georgia has distributed humanitarian aid commodities with a value of about $83,000,000.

In 2002 CHAP in Georgia provided assistance to Sachkhere School, which was devastated during a major earthquake in 1989. This initiative complimented the projects funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the regional Department of Education, which have rebuilt and restored school building.

Other significant projects started in 2002 were Assistance to Strategic Policlinics for IDPs that is being completed successfully and Georgia Food for Education Initiative – assistance with food to target educational institutions of Eastern and Western Georgia.

In 2002 Counterpart International started a new program in Georgia - Global Food for Education  Initiative under which was planned rendering Food Assistance to over 150 target Secondary and  Boarding School Children in the regions of Kakheti and Samegrelo. 

This program provided rehabilitation of kitchen facilities at the schools and provision of daily meals to the school children. For this purpose, total of 92 twenty-feet containers of  soy fortified bulgur wheat (55 containers), non-fat dry milk (31 containers) and vegetable oil (6 containers) have been received, cleared from Customs and evenly distributed to the head  warehouses in the Eastern and the Western Georgia. 

During the first stage of the program implementation site visits to target schools have been  conducted, which resulted in thorough needs assessment. Situation in the two drought-suffered  regions of Georgia - Kakheti and Samegrelo clearly showed that improved nutrition and school  infrastructure would be of great impact for the proper development of the new generation.  By improving the nutrition for over 40,000 students studying in the secondary and boarding  schools in Kakheti and Samegrelo regions Counterpart International promoted the improvement  of attendance and academic performance of children from 6 to 16 years of age.

GFEI staff has finished the second stage of the program - distribution of food has been completed successfully in Kakheti and Samegrelo Regions till spring 2003. The spot-checks conducted  after distributions at all the target schools of both regions revealed positive results of  this project. This assistance was a timely provided support to children from vulnerable families  who greatly appreciated for such nice gift to them in this difficult time. With the help of this aid they could overcome their hard conditions during the coldest winter months in Georgia. Project has been completed at the end of May 2003.

Counterpart Skill Trades and Re-employment Training (START) program is a one-year pilot project funded by Georgian Self Reliance Fund. The program is intended to increase the employability of IDP families in Samegrelo by providing on the job apprenticeships and employment support and training in skill trade areas in order to improve their income generation capacity while contributing to the overall economic development of the community and the business sector. START program has been launched in June 2002. >>>

Please click here for the list of Prohibited and Restricted commodities for importation as humanitarian aid in Caucasus Region.

For more information about Counterpart International, please visit its web site at www.counterpart.org.

Our Office in Tbilisi:

15 Razmadze Street

Tel: [995] (32) 48-2943

Fax: [995] (32) 22-2943

e-mail: chap@counterpart.ge