Three Generations of Poverty

The Georgian government has not paid sixty-year old Gelia's monthly $6 pension in four months. In the best of times, this sum is not enough to support an individual's most basic needs. But Gelia must support three: herself, her unemployed daughter and her ten-year old granddaughter.

All three live in a run-down, musty and damp apartment. The walls and ceiling are crumbling. Gelia's daughter and granddaughter sleep on a piece of foam on the floor. Since they have no gas for their stove, they use a two-coil electric heater for their cooking needs, by putting the heater on its side and placing the pan on top of the metal grate. That is, when they can. The water is turned on for only one hour a day, in the evening. In the summer and spring they have the luxury of a few hours of electricity each day. In the winter there may be no electricity at all for days at a time.

Two years ago, when the JDC-supported Hesed in Rustavi, Georgia, first opened its doors, Gelia was included as a client in its welfare program. Among the assistance provided, they were given gas canisters for their stove. "Without Hesed I would have died by now," says Gelia.

This became even more clear when, in May of this year, Gelia was hospitalized for internal bleeding and inflamed kidneys, but was unable to afford the treatment that would nurse her back to health. In Georgia, as in most locations throughout the former Soviet Union, patients must supply their own linens and pay for their own medicines in order to obtain medical assistance.

However, fortune was on Gelia's side: Hesed's emergency S.O.S. fund responded quickly and subsidized her hospital bill, including the cost of x-rays and other procedures, and sent her medicine and food during and after her hospital stay.

With thanks to JDC and the support of the Jewish community, the S.O.S. fund saved Gelia's life. And, despite the family's desperate condition, this has restored hope to three generations of one family.