“Charity is a gift that comes back as a prayer – a poor man’s prayer will illuminate your path through the darkest times.” Father Anthimoz.

Charitable fund “Aversi” implements numerous projects that help large families, socially vulnerable and disabled people, old people and homeless children. The fund has been supplying the organizations of blind people with medications for years. In the beginning of October “Aversi” handed necessary medications to the Abkhazian Blind and Deaf-and-Dumb Union "Hera and to the “Georgian Association for the Protection of the Blind“.  We talked to the head of the charitable fund “Aversi”, Ketevan Nemsadze:

-“As you know, the poor man’s faith is hard, but it’s doubly hard for those people, who can’t see, talk, hear and who feel rejected from the society. Many people with such problems live in Georgia and they meet in different organizations. Some of this people contact our charitable fund by themselves, some by the help of such organizations, and these people ask for medical services and necessary medications. For example, such organizations are: Abkhazian Blind and Deaf-and-Dumb Union "Hera”, Georgian Union of the Blind, Sachkhere branch of the Georgian Union of the Deaf, Georgian Association for the Protection of the Blind… We treat such organizations with special attention and always try to support them. Founder of “Aersi”, Mr. Paata Kurtanidze reads all the incoming letters very carefully and never leaves a one without attention.

October was a busy month and our fund helped a lot of people.” We visited those organizations of the blind, to whom our charitable fund “Aversi” had handed necessary medications free of charge. “Hera” and the Georgian Association for the Protection of the Blind in Avlabari, are located in the same building at Gurdjaani Str. This is an emergency building and is included at the balance of the Ministry of Economics. The organizations didn’t get the ownership of the building. The building is in a terrible condition and the owners do not have an opportunity of repairing it and also they don’t have a legal right for this action. We talked to the representatives of both sides about the problems of the blind people and about the importance of the charitable event of the fund “Aversi”.

Khvicha Gunia is one of the founders of the Abkhazian Blind and Deaf-and-Dumb Union "Hera“ and he’s also the vice chairman of the organization. The organization was formed on July 17, 2000, and its mission is to find and unite in the organization refugees from Abkhazia and Samachablo, who have disabilities, are blind, deaf, partly sighted or hearing-impaired. Up to 800 beneficiaries throughout Georgia united in the organization. As Mr. Khvicha noted, “Hera” is the only organization, where little children are also registered. They also couldn’t refuse to the local residents and provided various services for them, as well as for the refugees. Today, the organization has two other branches in Georgia – in Samegrelo and Imereti. Central branch provides assistance to the Kakheti region.

-About 100 totally blind people are united in our organization. We try to pay proper attention to the war veterans and disabled people. Our main staff is also composed with disabled people and war veterans.  

The organization has grown over time and started developing new projects. Professional training course was planned for the disabled people. They passed through trainings in conflictology, small business and legal issues. The blind people mastered different professions, 7 totally blind people passed massage courses, received a certificate and started to work… Some of them took accounting courses and helped their families in running small businesses and this way they got a source of income.

We founded another interesting project – we thought that blind and deaf people should have equal access to the public information and literature, in order to be involved in social life – to read and hear modern literature. Hungarian donor organization donated a recording studio to us. The studio started operating in 2006 – recording audio books of art, medicine and professional literature.

At the beginning we were donating our production to the regional libraries and schools of blind people, but now we are presented at the market and now we have a realization of the intellectual product of the audio-studio “Hera”.

We have an impressive archive. After the realization of the audio books, we make more jobs for the blind people. We took part in various tenders and produced professional audio books for the students. The main voice belongs to Nugzar Khurashvili. A descriptor comes along with the audio book and it includes illustrations, audio description and explanation. The material is also provided in Russian and English languages. Thanks to us the first internet library of the audio books was opened in Georgia. We created video comics for the deaf and hearing impaired people – the text is shown by subtitles and by body language.

Our union is also trying to find donors and with their support help the disabled, the socially vulnerable people, blind and deaf people. Charity fund “Aversi” was the first charitable organization that we contacted. We’ve been cooperating since 2004. We signed an agreement according to which “Aversi” constantly provides us with medicines. We hand this medications to children, socially vulnerable and older people. We are grateful for such partnership. There are very few organizations who unselfishly provide such help and support from such organizations is very important for the disabled population.

The society of the blind has been functioning since 1926 and its reserve fund contained two hundred million belongings. The organization helped a lot of blind people, but in the 90’s its finances completely dissipated. Georgian Association for the Protection of the Blind was formed in 2006 in order to protect the rights of the members of this group. With the efforts of this organization, in 2001 the government admitted the part of the belongings of this organization as the domestic debt. In order to return the enterprises and lands in the ownership of the organization, the society opened a case in the prosecutor’s office and also filed a lawsuit, but nothing of consolation came out from this case- says the founder Valeri Izmanov.

-The aim of our organization is not only protecting the rights of the blind people, but also their material support. We help those people who need our support to the extent possible.

Our organization also gets help from the regions, some ask for a walking stick, some – for fixing the roof. We try to help everyone with our resources, but there is a large amount of such people, so we can’t reach all of them… We contact the donor organizations and together we make a lot of kind changes. Charity fund “Aversi” handed us medications which we will give to the people in need, to the most vulnerable blind people. I want to express a huge gratitude towards this organization. They really spread a lot of kindness in this world.

The charity fund “Aversi” is definitely helping a lot of people and the blind, deaf, socially vulnerable and deaf-and-dumb people are constantly using its support.

“Aversi” wishes you health and peace of mind.