Arts to help sick children in Georgia

Ott 24, 2010 Attualità, World Wide

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Georgia

We visited Georgia some months ago to establish some partnership between Venice IUAV and Georgian Technical University, Faculty of Design and Architecture http://www.gtu.ge/.

We had the pleasure to spend some time with Professor Gocha Mikiashvili, Head of the Faculty, a person dedicated to improve relations with European Universities to help young students of the faculty meet European cultures and opportunities.

We spent some very interesting days with university professors driving us around to see splendid Unesco’s sites and I personally had the pleasure to see senior professors discussing with young Venice university professors of Glass Urban Planning Practice www.studioglass.it about town regeneration, and protection and refurbishing of works of art damaged during the dark years of Russian ruling.

In that occasion we also came to know about a Foundation to help Georgian children suffering from Leukemia.

Manana Chubanidze and her husband, Professor Gocha Mikiashvili , lost their daughter to the disease and have founded the International Assistance Fund for Children Suffering from Leukemia.

The Hematology-Oncology Center at the Children’s Republican Hospital in Tbilisi is the only treatment center for children with acute leukemia and lymphoma in Georgia. These children have recovery rates much lower than in the developed world, which is directly related to the economic conditions in Georgia and to the high cost of leukemia treatment.

Leukemia is still deadly in Georgia, largely because the state cannot provide the needed radiation therapy which more than a dozen children require every year. There are currently 30 children at the hospital receiving treatment. Annually, approximately 50-60 new cases are diagnosed.

The disease is very expensive to fight, and few families in Georgia can afford the medication and treatments necessary to fight the cancer. While a state medical program covers some costs, the families are responsible for expensive diagnostic tests, medicine and food. Since many families are traveling to Tbilisi from the regions outside of the capital, living costs are an extra burden.

AFG organization http://afgeorgia.org/living-with-leukemia.htmlf first learned of the situation for leukemia patients in Georgia in 2001. Executive Director Marusya Chavchavadze saw the unnecessary hardship for patients and their families during a visit with two parents — Manana Chubanidze and her husband Gocha Mikiashvili.

To combat their grief, Manana and Gocha had decided to help other families suffering with the same situation. While the children with leukemia underwent treatment – sometimes up to 12 months – the parents had to sleep in their children’s hospital rooms. They were also expected to feed their children which was difficult because they had no access to a proper kitchen. Education and entertainment for the young patients was minimal. Many of the children missed a year of schooling. There was an acute shortage of medical equipment – infusion and perfusion pumps – to accurately administer chemotherapy .

Manana and Gocha had founded the International Assistance Fund for Children Suffering from Leukemia and they asked Marusya for help from AFG. Within three years, AFG fundraising was able to meet many of the needs of the children and families.

In 2004, AFG provided funds for teachers to come to the hospital to tutor the children in school subjects – a major step toward creating a sense of normalcy in their lives during the year-long treatment at the hospital. Prior to AFG’s assistance, children went without any schooling during their care in Tbilisi. The facility lacked a proper kitchen, and did not provide any education or entertainment for the young patients. AFG decided to help by providing funding for medical needs, including equipment, and financing art rehabilitation and education costs. Additional long term goals developed after Ms Chavchavadze’s trip included plans to build a more functional kitchen.

Manana Chubanidze and her husband Gocha Mikiashvili would now love to get in touch with people involved in the Arts in order to organize volunteer activities in the Hospital to bring some sunshine to the little patients’ days and perhaps some international attention.

All sorts of activities are welcome: exhibitions, ballet, music, theatrical plays, visual arts…..

Doriana Pavan

• Arts, Georgia, sick children