By Laura Sheahen, CRS for Caritas
No Way Back Home: Displaced Georgians Fear for the Future
“I bought that new house last October, borrowing money from friends to do it. It could be destroyed when I go back, or everything in it could be gone,” says Georgy, a man from the bombed Georgian city of Gori. “What will happen now? I can’t be a refugee twice.”
Sitting in a church rectory in the capital city of Tbilisi, Georgy has tears in his eyes as he talks about getting his wife and two young children out of his town during last week’s bombing. His plight reflects that of many people who escaped Gori; several had already been pushed out of parts of Ossetia, farther to the north, years ago–and had started life over. Now, twice-displaced people are wondering if they can ever go back to Gori–and what will be left of their homes and possessions after a week of turmoil.
Georgy and his family stayed one night at a Catholic retreat house, and are now with his wife’s relatives near Tbilisi. He is more fortunate that the thousands of abruptly-homeless people from bombed areas who now are in makeshift shelters in the capital, often sleeping on the floor in crumbling old buildings.
Because it already had a soup kitchen and bakery, Caritas Georgia was able to swing into action early this week and now is feeding 300 people three meals a day at one shelter alone. Caritas is also bringing bread, tomatoes, large pots of stew, and more to other shelters in the city. In several shelters, residents desperate for clothes pick through donated clothing dropped off by Caritas.
Father Witold Szulczynski, the director of Caritas Georgia, has become a hero to some shelter residents. “Padre Witold” and other Caritas workers have kept their ears to the ground, following leads to find pockets of displaced people living in non-official shelters. “He came and found us,” says a woman named Lena. One such shelter now receives a Caritas dropoff of hot food.
At this shelter, a man from a village near the disputed city of Tskhinvali mourns his home and farm. “I lived in that house my whole life–50 years. I had nine cows, an apple orchard…it was so good,” he says. With continuing tensions between Russia and Georgia, he fears he will never go back. “What can I do now?”
