EU, FAO and Georgia join forces to support livelihoods of displaced persons

Tamaz and Nanuli Beruashvili have built their life from scratch three times now.

The couple are from Tskhinvali in Georgia, where they married, made a home and began a life together full of hope. In 1992, they had to flee during the civil war. They left behind their house in Tskhinvali and resettled in the nearby village of Eredvi.

During the Russian-Georgian war of 2008, the family had to evacuate for a second time, fleeing their burning village and abandoning their home once more.

Today Tamaz, 68, and Nanuli, 62, are living in the Karaleti settlement for internally displaced persons (IDPs) next to Gori. Much like Georgia’s other 263,598 IDPs, they struggle daily to satisfy their basic needs, make a home, and earn a decent livelihood.

Following the conflict in 2008, with funding and support from the European Union FAO has been promoting socio-economic empowerment of IDPs through co-funding of economic opportunities. Through the EU-FAO cooperation alone, the European Union has invested more than 5,000,000 Euros in IDP livelihoods in Georgia.

More than 3,500 IDP households received assistance to start or expand agricultural production: establishing irrigation systems, buying livestock and machinery, starting orchards, and building farms and fishponds.

The final phase of the EU-FAO programme was launched in 2016. Under the name, “Equal Access of IDPs to Economic Opportunities,” the project targets the most vulnerable groups of IDPs: single parents with minors, households with members with disabilities, and youth- and elderly-led households.

A total of 550 applications have been received, and some 200 have already been approved for support. Investments in mechanization, orchards and vineyards, beehives and livestock are just a few of the initiatives on offer.

Working in cooperation with UN Women, the project offers cost-shared investment support for individual and group economic activities. It funds up to 2,500 GEL per household for investments in agriculture, food production and income generation.

Applications for the grants will be accepted for another four months – from IDPs in the vulnerable categories. The next phase will be launched in the near future with a Call for the Applications.

Tamaz and Nanuli Beruashvili now live together with their children and grandchildren in one of the 177 IDP communities in Georgia. The national government gave the family a dwelling with a small plot of land nearby. Caring for a son with a severe physical disability has made life challenging for them.

But they are not giving up. In autumn 2016 they applied for co-funding to buy a small roto-cultivator. It already stands in their backyard and Tamaz is proud to display its features. He hopes to grow more vegetables this year to improve the family’s food supply, and sell any surplus for extra income.

“We used to farm in Eredvi village and here in Karaleti we are trying to start cultivating the land again,” said Tamaz. “It is hard to do it without equipment. Now we’ve got this machine from the European Union and I’m looking forward to the approaching spring season. As soon as the land is dry, I’ll be riding my new tractor to plough my land. Now I won’t have to bother my neighbours asking them to help me. Now we can do it ourselves. This is wonderful!”

Forty-seven year-old Irma Gherkenashvili, the Beruashvilis’ neighbour and an IPD herself, comes from the Tskhinvali region, too. She applied for a vineyard pavilion that she and her family plan to set up their back yard.

“All the materials were just delivered,” said Gherkenashvili, who is severely disabled. “We’ll start building the pavilion in three days. I can already see the grapes thriving in my yard.”

“We have already planted the vines, last year, and we have great plans for this vineyard,” she added. “We will make wine, we will have grape juice, and we will have grapes in autumn.”

The EU-FAO initiative is being implemented through the IDP Livelihoods Agency of the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees in Georgia.

9 March 2017, Tbilisi, Georgia