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HUMANITARIAN AID
SAE Medical Team Comes to the Rescue of Sick Children in Georgia
TBILISI, 12/3/2004

Responding to an urgent request in Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia, the World Council of Hellenes (SAE), recently dispatched a team of physicians and nurses with emergency medicines from its Primary Health Care Initiative (PHCI) to the Telavi Boarding School, a local orphanage.



A critical situation developed at the school when it was hit by a flu outbreak but had no medicines or medical personnel to aid the children. SAE�s team from the �Hippocrite� center conducted examinations with portable blood analysis, ultrasound and other equipment.



�The children were at first shy, but they did not refuse examination after we set ourselves up in the school�s assembly hall,� said Dr. Petros Khadjidi, a Medical Director of the PHCI program in Georgia. The medical team also included pediatrician Nadejda Khadjidi, gastroenterologist Konstantin Umudumiadis, urologist Igor Alhazov, autorinolaringologist David Vacharadze, dermatologist Marina Michailidi, cardiologist Ekaterina Iordanidis-Davitadze and ophthalmologist Lia Bezarashvili, and conducted examinations for more than five hours. Children with serious illness were taken to SAE�s Medical Center for further treatment. PHCI�s medical mobile unit has been scheduled to make monthly visits to the school for continued care and follow-up treatment.



�Our mission is humanitarian and we cannot forget the needs of the orphans,� said Andrew A. Athens, President of SAE. �In this case we responded to an emergency appeal by the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi. We will do our best to find support within our organization and to partner with other NGOs to provide help to the orphans, some of whom are abandoned children.�



The school, which originally opened in 1961, houses 167 children ages 3 to 16, and the majority are refugees from the on-going civil wars raging in various parts of Georgia.



The school was expected to receive funding from the Georgian Government but has so far been operating without any financial resources. Various NGOs have been providing food and clothing, but building repairs are also needed because of the earthquake last spring. Building interiors are covered with soot and the walls are cracked.





For more information on how you can help the SAE PHCI continue its vital mission of bringing health care to the most needy, please call the SAE office in Chicago at 312-337-0004.




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