Georgia: Since 1990, the day-care center of the “Association for People in need of Special Care” in Tbilisi, offers a worm and friendly environment for people with special needs. Remedial educators help the people with disabilities cope with their lives, by giving them the opportunity to work in various workshops and live together in a social context that recognizes their skills and qualities. In addition to an extensive range of therapies, training courses for aspiring remedial educators and a self-help and counseling group for parents exist since 2001.

The day-care center strives to raise awareness that the development of adult people with special needs, living a life of dignity that allows them to socially integrate and participate in the common life, is perceived by the Georgian society.

Among other things, a social therapy building, a paper workshop and the publishers “Acmko” (present) are located on the Campus and the association offers continuing education courses in social therapy and anthropology.

The eight Workshops located in the social therapy building offer a variety of possibilities such as knitting, a carpentry, a mini publishing-bindery, a candle workshop, a creative and paper workshop, a kitchen and a garden. Therefore the people with special need have many opportunities to discover their own abilities. A given task, appreciation, recognition and affection and friends are the components that allow for the people with disabilities to develop with astonishing results.

Today, this initiative is considered a model institution for working with disabled people. This is despite the fact that in the late 1980s, the facility had to publically fight for their right to even open and only found hearing by the health minister through an acquaintance with an influential family of a girl with Down syndrome. However, government support and the proceeds from the sale of products are not sufficient to cover the costs.