As a result of warfare in August 2008 in Georgia, Inga Beruashvili left her house with her husband and 3 children and started a new life far away from her home, in the Koda IDP settlement of the Tetritskaro Municipality. The government allocated a piece of land for the family near the house, and that was when Inga came up with a business idea to start raspberry production.

Achievement of the mentioned goal was very risky for Inga, as finding even small financial resources for a struggling family was very difficult. Despite this, Inga was confident in her future business success. Thus, with the support of her family, she managed to find financial resources for the development of her business plan and shortly started its implementation. Notably, the income from her small enterprise was the only source of income for Inga’s family over years.

The breaking point for Inga was the participation in the EU-funded ENPARD Programme, implemented by the Association Rural Development for Future Georgia (RDFG), that enables her to expand her production. With the grant of 18 959 Gel obtained within the project, Inga will be provided with a boring-well and drip systems, anti-hail structures will be installed on the plot, as well as a building and storage facility will be constructed. Inga distributes her raspberries and jams both locally and in various supermarkets in the region.

Recently Inga heard about the RDFG and Tetritskaro Local Action Group (LAG) joint donation campaign and decided to contribute to help vulnerable families and school students in Tetritskaro, who do not have access to the e-learning materials and internet due to the lack of equipment:

“This is a period when we should unite and with joint effort overcome the crisis caused by the spread of the COVID-19. As my modest contribution to the charity activity, I would like to donate 10 jars of raspberry jams to be sold out to help people in need. Shortly, we will sell raspberries for the same purpose, as well. I would be very thankful to those people who buy these jams and transfer the money directly to the charity fund. There are many struggling families in the municipality, waiting for others to give a helping hand”.

Association Rural Development for Future Georgia (RDFG) and Tetritskaro Local Action Group (LAG) in the framework of the joint donation initiative, at the first stage accumulated 6 911.53 of Georgian Gel. With this money, RDFG has procured 7 personal computers that will enable 16 school students from the Tetritskaro municipality (including ethnic minorities) to get back to the school remote activities.

Notably, ENPARD Tetritskaro beneficiaries (and not only) who could not donate money to the charity fund, thought out another way to contribute to this activity and decided to sell out their own production, like Inga did. Ia arsenishvili, EU-funded beneficiary, sold out her 3 paintings; Medea Chkadua, a young entrepreneur (not an ENPARD beneficiary) living in the Marneuli Municipality, donated her extremely beautiful hand-made earrings to contribute to the mentioned charity campaign.

You can still contribute to improving the lives of those people who struggle to cope with the COVID-19 crisis on their own!

To overcome the crisis caused by the spread of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), the money you donate will help people who are left without basic income and have limited access to food; also, the school students who do not have access to the school e-learning equipment due to the lack of computers or internet accessibility, and thus, are falling behind the school curriculum activities.

To donate, please, follow the link: http://rdfg.ge/donate/

Author
Nina Kopaleishvili – Communications Officer, RDFG; nkopaleishvili@rdfg.ge