Meeting essential needs of Older People in Georgia

WJR works with the local communities in Tbilisi and Rustavi to provide chronic welfare relief to around 2,000 of their most vulnerable older Jews.

The effects of the 2008 war with Russia were accompanied by the global economic crisis that caused a major upheaval of social and economic conditions in Georgia. Many middle class people suddenly became part of a ‘new poor’. The elderly, already struggling to survive on small pensions, found food, heating, clothing and medical costs simply too high.

WJR meets these very basic needs of older members of the Tbilisi and Rustavi Jewish communities and assistance comes in the forms of:

• Food support is in the form of parcels, meals or food cards dependingupon each individual situation
• Home care is provided to those most in need, namely homebound individuals living alone
• Winter relief provides vital goods during the extreme winter months such as blankets, coal and warm clothing