The Order’s Embassy and Polish Association provide medicines, food and equipment

Plans for the humanitarian mission of Order of Malta’s embassy to Tbilisi are being finalized. By the end of this week Prof. Marcello Celestini, Minister Counsellor of our diplomatic mission in Georgia, will have provided for the financing of medicines, food and other essential items, thanks to donations made by the Order’s Grand Magistry, Grand Priories and National Associations.

Over recent weeks, houses, schools, hospitals, roads and entire villages have been destroyed in Georgia, generating a massive exodus of over 100,000 refugees, forced to leave their houses to escape the violence of the war, and creating a serious humanitarian crisis.

The Order of Malta has been active in Georgia since 14 August, when the Polish Association’s medical and humanitarian aid mission arrived in Tbilisi. Thanks to a special flight offered by the office of the President of Poland, our Association has been able to provide volunteers, food and medicines, baby food, defibrillators, glucometers, respirometers and surgical sets. For two weeks, the Order’s team of eight doctors worked in six refugee camps around the city of Gori and then set up a clinic in a school close to the Order of Malta’s embassy in Tbilisi. They carry out medical examinations and distribute basic necessities.

In cooperation with the Polish Airforce, many injured children have been evacuated from the mountain regions to be treated in Polish hospitals.

Further shipments of food and medicines are scheduled for 9 and 16 September.