FROM THE FIELD
Merlin is helping over 24,000 displaced people in Georgia by distributing blankets, jerry cans and cooking pots. Ten teams started the distributions in 135 centres including schools and nursery schools in and around Tbilisi on Monday. Merlin is distributing these items in conjunction with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the Danish Refugee Council, as well as many Georgian volunteers. Merlin staff also travelled to Gori and met Nukri Jokhadze, the head of the hospital there. He explained that the main health needs were drugs for chronic diseases, as these diseases have been aggravated by the recent conflict. The drugs needed will be supplied by the Ministry of Health (MofH). Working closely with the MofH is extremely important for Merlin, as we want to make sure our work fits into existing health policies and practice. Merlin has proposed to intervene in areas between Gori and Tsinkinvali and in South Ossetia, where health needs are great. The MofH is fully supportive of this, and we are now in the process of working out the feasibility of an emergency programme.[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
