Making Bibles available free of charge to people is a long-standing priority for the UBS Representation in Georgia. Last year its efforts focused on children from families who have become internally displaced as a result of conflict. Distributing Scriptures in the country’s largest settlement for internally displaced people was both challenging and moving.
Rows of homes in Tserovani
Tserovani is a strange place. It is located only half an hour’s drive from Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, yet it is seems to be almost on another planet. Around 2,500 identical small houses stretch as far as the eye can see across the plain. The living conditions for the people here, forced from their homes in South Ossetia during the 2008 Russian-Georgian war, are basic. The houses have the facilities they need for daily living, but Tserovani lacks many of the other features of life in a normal settlement of this size. There are no buildings where people can get together for social events, for example. The only buildings of any size are the school and the kindergarten.
Nowhere to hold the distribution
It is this lack of a developed infrastructure that presented a particular challenge for the UBS Representation when it came to distributing Scriptures in Tserovani. Where would the distribution take place? With no community buildings, the school and kindergarten were the only suitable venues. However, there was a major problem: Georgian law prohibits the distribution of any kind of religious literature in places where children are educated.
During the first part of the year, the staff of the UBS Representation had a number of meetings with the authorities to try to find a way forward. Every time the response was the same: the project is a good idea in principle, but if you are going to distribute Bibles you must have permission from the Patriarchate (the office of the Georgian Orthodox Church). The staff knew from experience that this would not be easy, since some parts of the Patriarchate are strongly opposed to collaborating with an interconfessional organisation.
An ideal solution
Kindergarten children with their new books
In the end a solution was found. It would be possible to act through the kindergarten, it was decided, since it could be seen as not solely an educational institution. And taking this route proved more successful than the UBS Representation staff could ever have imagined, since the kindergarten workers were extremely welcoming and enthusiastic. Finally distributing children’s Scriptures there was a very moving experience, says Executive Director Avtandil Guruli.
“It’s impossible to describe the distribution without stirring up strong emotions,” he says. “The children were so pleased to receive such attractive books. And the impact of our visit will go far beyond the short time we spent there. The children, their parents and local officials now know that there are people, both in our country and abroad, who care for them. It’s very important for them to know that they are not alone in their troubles and pain.”
A bishop’s support
Later, it became clear that the impact of the visit had spread even further than Mr Guruli had realised. News of the UBS Representation’s work among war-affected children reached one of the Georgian Orthodox Church’s leading bishops.
“He recently visited our office and thanked us for this “beautiful work”,” says Mr Guruli. “He also offered to support similar work in the future. So perhaps in the future things will run more smoothly.”