Boy making kite at Playbus activity in Tbilisi Georgia…
Only sadness and despair were in common for the two brothers when they came holding hands to SOS Children's Village Tbilisi. Today, a decade later, they are alike in their happiness and joy. And in the love they share towards one person...
- Lisa
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Boy making kite at Playbus activity in Tbilisi Georgia
Only sadness and despair were in common for the two brothers when they came holding hands to SOS Children's Village Tbilisi. Today, a decade later, they are alike in their happiness and joy. And in the love they share towards one person...
Different, Yet Same
Giorgi was seven and David two when the boys first stepped into SOS Children's Village Tbilisi. Both were urgently hospitalized due to David's severe malnourishment and Giorgi's appendix inflammation. They pulled out and grew up totally different, yet so the same.
It seemed like the troubles would never end for the two brothers. Both never met their father and their mother abandoned them after David was born. Their old ill grandpa couldn't care for the younglings and entrusted them to the care of SOS Children's Villages Georgia.
"They were scared, especially David," explains SOS mother Tamar. "They came from a distant rural area and never saw a big city. The hospital, the doctors, the treatments seemed too much for them." Luckily, after a couple of months, they got well and returned to the peacefulness of the village in suburban Tbilisi.
Poetry vs prose
The adaptation process took time. "David became very attached to me," says Tamar. "But also very jealous of the other children. He wouldn't allow anyone to sit in my lap except for him. Giorgi was a different story. He was independent and took upon himself the task of keeping the order in our family."
Giorgi found peace in his new home and was determined to keep it. He mediated the quarrels between the other children and made sure no one used bad language. He would often ask from his SOS mother to implement punishments. "He is hurt when someone was angry or behaved bad and got away with, in his opinion, a mild sentence of being grounded for a week," says Tamar.
So, the former teacher of Georgian language decided to put her training to use. Whenever some child behaved badly or wronged someone, he or she was supposed to learn three short poems by heart under Giorgi's supervision. The outcome was that Giorgi fell in love with poetry. "He'd spend hours reading Georgian poets," says Tamar.
David was the complete opposite. "When he was little, he preferred stories and only if they were read to him," smiles Tamar. "He insisted that the punishment must also include stories. When I agreed, he began interrupting everyone who sat at the piano to practice. As youngest, he was quite mischievous."
The explorer and the scientist
The boys maintained a close bond even when Giorgi moved to the SOS Youth Facility. "Not a day passes by without him calling just to hear our voices. He is a positive role model for all my children. David looks up to his brother and is very proud of his academic achievements" smiles Tamar.
Giorgi's interests take him down the mysterious lanes of exploration. Whenever the SOS family goes on vacation or weekends away, Giorgi is the one who leads the forest expeditions. His adventurous spirit once urged him to build a small boat and explore the white-water of a mountain river. "Well, it sort of looked like a boat," laughs Giorgi. "I was ready to go downstream on it. Luckily mom stopped me. I was only 13 then."
This Tom Sawyer of Tbilisi also plays football and water-polo in the local clubs and enjoys reading about Egypt. "The pharaohs, the pyramids, the Sphinx, I'd love to see all that one day," Giorgi daydreams. "I dream of making an important archaeological discovery one day."
For David, Tamar's motherly love is the greatest discovery. He would often ask his SOS mother how did he come to this world. "'Tell me how you gave birth to me' he said once," explains Tamar. "I was confused and stumbled that I wasn't the one who gave birth to him but love him endlessly nonetheless. 'Oh, I know, I just wish you did' he said," Tamar's eyes glitter.
During the day David hugs his SOS mother countless times and at least once tells her he loves her very much. This affection made David set his career course already. "When I grow up I will become a scientist and I will invent pills which will give my [SOS] mother eternal life," says the cheery 12-year-old.
Physically the boys could pass as friends, never brothers. A careful eye, however, could notice a resemblance in the boys' deep dark eyes which glisten as they unravel their most important similarity, their common plan: "Our [SOS] mother will come live with us when we grow up and she retires!" When Tamar asked why, they exclaimed: "Because we only have you in this world, mom!"
For privacy reasons, the names of the two boys were changed.
- Mary
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Children from SOS CV Dar Bouazza Morocco
Since early August, 49 children are under SOS mothers' care. They are between three months and six years old. They come from the Agadir or Casablanca orphanages, or even from prison where their mother is incarcerated. They come with their wounds and deficiencies. Here, they start a new life.
"I feel free and independent!"
Khadijda, thirty years old, comes from El Jadida. She remembers as if it were yesterday 17 July she received the keys for the family house where she'd "live" from now on with five children for months - and years - to come. A flat on the ground floor of a small building, door on the right, she tried to take her bearings.
"I was so moved when I received the family house keys! I prepared my room and the rest of the house. Two weeks later, I went to the kindergarten - the orphanage - in the Hassan ?? hospital in Agadir with the director of the village. We had left to bring the first two children of the region, Fadi and Siffedine."
Little by little Khadidja recounts this experience full of emotion. "For me, it was like a mum who had just given birth When I took Fadi in my arms (then an infant of two months), I felt happiness and anxiety at the same time. I laughed and cried. It was incredible! It was like a link that bound us even before I came to pick him up!"
Children settled in this new environment
Noha (two years old), Salma (three and a half years old) and Kawtar (five years) came shortly after. "Nora cried a lot the first days. It was so difficult to calm her. But when she saw Fadi, she smiled, she took him into her arms she forgot and cried less and less"
Kawtar was the child which had the most problems. "She had bed-wetting troubles, big problems of hygiene and an aggressive behaviour. She was a messy eater and did not know the names of fruits "
With patience she changed progressively. "One night, she wanted to sleep in my bed. I accepted at the sole condition that she would not pee in bed. She has stopped since then." She is no longer bedwetting.
"It's chic and well equipped!"
The fourth Moroccan children's village in El Jadida is an urban village. It's composed of four buildings, three for the family flats, and one is an administrative building with offices and a village hall.
Khadidja talks about the flat where she lives today with five children. "I don't miss anything; the house is very well equipped. I have even a shower room in my room! There is less space if I compare it with Ait Ourir (the first village which was built in Morocco in 1985) and that also has a practical side," she says with a cheerful smile.
"The children can stay in the kitchen with me and I can manage the household chores easily. In the middle of the village, there's still a playground to be finished and equipped with playground games and toys. Until then, the children even play outside, watched by mothers or the youth worker of the village!"
Strenghtened ties
The fact that the flats are in buildings simplifies the relation with the other mothers. The children can visit the other children in flats easily and they can play together in various families. "We are all much closer! During Ramadan, we were taking the f'tour all together; the celebrations are the same as in a real family. When someone falls ill, we go to visit him. We also learn to respect our neighbours; we learn to make less noise."
Nadia, another SOS mother, agrees with Khadijda. "At the same time, we feel closer, from doorstep to doorstep, from floor to floor. The positive view is that we constitute a real team: the SOS mothers, family helpers, youth workers and the director. We are a real united team! And, we all help each other."
The neighbourhood is important, there is a lot of mutual aid, and the neighbours take part voluntarily. "We share all things: happiness, activities, aerobic (the volunteers give lessons twice a week), private problems. Children are well adapted."
The key word "integration"
This will of integration results in specific objectives, notably to increase the possibilities of integration of children and future teenagers in an immediate environment.
"The village is in the centre, we can go out easily, without problems. I can go to the super market by foot. In the town, we can go to the sea easily; I just have to inform the administration. I can take the children to a paediatrician. We go on an outing with the aunts, the director, and the youth worker. And we feel safe."
The children and teenagers will benefit from educational and sport infrastructures in the district. "The primary school and the college are in front of the village, they just have to cross the road! It's ideal for them, to go outside, like all the other children of El Jadida."
"Here, I feel free and independent. I feel safe. The other SOS mothers are almost like my sisters and my friends at the same time," ends Khadidja.
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