AFG: Projects: Children: Sick
Children's Tuberculosis Hospital
Personal Observations from the Executive Director: In 1995 Dr. Tengis Gvasalia, the director of the Children’s Tuberculosis Hospital and the chief pediatrician for tuberculosis and meningitis in the entire country of Georgia, brought me to see his hospital. I was horrified to see innocent children dying needlessly in the arms of their parents because there was no money to purchase medicines necessary to save them. The heartbreak was more intense because tuberculosis is a disease that has been long eradicated in the U.S. and can be controlled by proper medical treatment.
Dr. Gvasalia is frustrated because he is able to save them but cannot because the medical social safety net has collapsed and the parents, because so many are unemployed, can’t afford the available medicines. Dr. Gvasalia stays in his 40 bed hospital all day and evening. “My life is my job. Without children I could not live. These children are my life.”
AFG Accomplishments: AFG and the French Embassy in Tbilisi are the two long time supporters of the Children’s Tuberculosis Hospital. AFG’s assistance to the children at the hospital began in 1995. We have:
- Purchased medicine for children whose parents could not afford them
- Purchased food for the children and paid staff salaries
- Renovated the kitchen, examination rooms, classroom, out patient clinic, roofing, floors and heating equipment
- Purchased medical equipment including the first pediatric flexible bronchoscope for better diagnosis and treatment of the young patients
- Shipped donated computer from United Nations, medical supplies from Cape Cod Hospital and arts supplies and toys
- Invited the director of Counterpart International in Georgia to meet with Dr. Gvasalia which lead to Counterpart donating medical equipment
Current Needs: Although steps are being taken by the new Georgian Government to improve the medical safety net, the tuberculosis epidemic continues to be severe—double the infection rate of Russia. Family contact is the major source of infection among children, the younger the patient the more urgent the therapy. The Children’s Tuberculosis Hospital needs funds to:
- Purchase a generator to provide electric heat during the frequent power outages
- Purchase medicine for children whose families cannot afford medicine
- Renovate patient rooms and purchase bedding and other hospital linens
- Purchase more examination and treatment equipment
- Provide emergency food supplies