Can you help us give young people the way into a new profession and eventually to a new life? Any donation, large or small, will help it happen. Mkurnali needs £3,500 to repair the old garage and £600 to teach Pavel to become a professional trainer for 10 apprentices.
Over the years, Mkurnali has provided support to more than 400 young people, guiding them through the arrest and court process. Those who undergo rehabilitation at Mkurnali and benefit from the warmth and dedication of its staff go on to establish a home and a family, find jobs, and integrate into society at large. Remarkably, reoffending hardly occurs among these young people.
However, Mkurnali faces additional challenges, which we discussed with Father George, the founder of Mkurnali, during our trip to Tbilisi with a group of our UK supporters last May. One of these challenges is that ex-offenders and the former homeless find it enormously difficult to get employed.
In Georgia, nepotism is a well-known fact almost nobody denies. Employment is often found not through prevailing in fair, orderly selection processes, but through personal connections. It is evident in almost every Georgian firm and institution. In recent years public awareness and open discussion has happened at a high level (for example in the public sector or political debate) but the public and media are much less attentive. Father George told us that even cleaning jobs cannot be found without personal connections!
This makes Mkurnali’s social enterprises vital for their residents, providing them with new skills and the prospect of eventually opening their own businesses. Among these initiatives is a bicycle and motorbike repair workshop, which can provide training in trades and entrepreneurship for 10 young people.
Apparently, interest in cycling is rising in Georgia, especially in mountain biking, which is widely enjoyed by tourists in Georgia’s hilly and mountainous landscapes. As for the motorbikes, those who have experienced the traffic in Georgia know that motorbikes are very popular in the streets of Tbilisi and they are also widely used for deliveries.
Since our meeting with Father George, we’ve taken the first steps to help Mkurnali.
Thanks to the legacy of the late George Guest, St Gregory’s Foundation has assisted in purchasing a garage which can be transformed to use as the workshop. The garage covers a total area of 38.97 square metres and internally, remains unrenovated; it lacks plastering and a concrete floor.
Repair works and equipping the garage are planned for the coming summer and we are raising funds to help Mkurnali turn the old garage into a working income-generating enterprise. Also part of the plan is to provide training for Pavel, one of Mkurnali’s residents, who previously worked in Mkurnali’s car repair workshop. This training can be organised at one of the repair workshops in Tbilisi under the supervision of an experienced foreman. This training is scheduled for summer 2025. The income generated from the workshop will also be used for further investments in repairs and to increase the number of apprentices.
We also look to acquire used bicycles from the UK and Europe to be donated to Mkurnali – do you know anyone who may be able to help us?
