Norwegian Refugee Council goes on building houses in Abkhazia

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) plans to carry out a project "Minor Hothouse Farms" aimed to help people in Eastern Abkhazia who suffered in 1992-1993 Georgian-Abkhazian war, and to go on building and repairing apartment houses for refugees. Ana Povrzenic, regional manager of the NRC, told about it on February 1 when she met Sergey Shamba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia, in Sukhumi.

According to Ms Povrzenic, with financial support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the NRC continues its project of building new and repair old houses for residents of the Tkuarchal, Ochamchira and Gali Districts. In 2010, 85 houses will be repaired.

Aiming to create new jobs for local youth, the NRC wants to open, at the joiner's workshop, a profile school for training young men to the trades most demanded in the republic. Teachers and specialists of the Abkhazian State University will be invited into the project.

The NRC also plans to repair three comprehensive schools, having coordinated this work with the Ministry of Education of Abkhazia. In 2009, the NRC repaired three secondary schools located in the villages of Bargyab of the Gali District, and of Baslakhu and Gup of the Ochamchira District, and made a partial repair in Sukhumi School No. 10.

The NRC continues rendering advisory services to locals on legal issues in the city of Gali; its activists are glad to note that the authorities of Abkhazia are always ready to hold dialogue with humanitarian organizations.