Georgia: TEMI
Expansion of the bakery to grind own grains to flour
The TEMI community grows its own grain organically and uses it to bake the bread for 65 people who live in the community. Bread is one of the most popular foods in Georgian cuisine - a lot of it is eaten at all meals. This is why it is important to the non-profit organization that the children and those in care eat bread from healthy flour. Every two to three days they bake about 25 kg of flour into bread. In the last years, most of the public mills in the area have been closed. There are only a few large mills left that are more than 50 km away from Gremi, where the community can no longer clean and grind a few hundred kilos of grain. That is why TEMI decided to purchase its own grain cleaner and mill.
For this the community wants to add a small second room (3x6=18sqm) to the bakery for the grain cleaner and the mill, where the grain can be cleaned bag by bag, ground and stored dry. It will be a very simple room with two doors (a connecting door to the bakery, an entrance gate) and two windows. The floor and the lower wall area will be tiled about two meters high, the rest will be plastered. The TEMI community will build the room itself, for plastering the interior an expert from the outside will join to help. The whole project including the material and the working time for plastering costs about 3,000 euros.
„We are also happy about a partial amount for this project, if not all the donations come together through the WOW-Day. Thank you for your commitment and support! "
About the project:
TEMI is a social community in the north-eastern Georgian village of Gremi. Today there are about 65 people between the ages of 6 and 75 living at TEMI. Many of them are orphans, some with disabilities others in need of protection due to social or psychological problems. Together with some carers, they form a large family and care for each other. Everybody learns about household, gardening, construction and agricultural work, as far as possible. Handicraft and musical areas such as theatre, singing, piano and panda play, reading aloud, painting, handwork, pottery and others are also offered. In addition, there are various sports activities, language classes in English and German as well as computer lessons, in which interested people from the village can participate.
The community also practices organic winegrowing and produces wine according to traditional methods. They also operate a carpentry workshop equipped with modern machinery. TEMI grows an old wheat variety, the grain is cleaned, ground into flour and baked in its own bakery bread for the community. In addition, in November 2015, an on-site restaurant with bicycle rental was opened.
The aim of the organization is the realization of new social impulses through the formation of a community in which people with intellectual disabilities and young people from the orphanage, who no longer have social support after school, live and work together with caregivers for people in need from broken family relationships. Especially in Georgia, where the social network is organized by family structures, this is a completely new approach.
In 1992, the association bought a brick house and made habitable through a lot of contribution of personal work. They started by giving a new home to a group of young people with disabilities who have lived in an orphanage. During the civil war in Georgia (spring 1993 - spring 1995), however, all had to leave the house and the five orphans were temporarily accommodated privately. There were raids and many things got stolen or destroyed. In the spring of 1995, they could use the house once again and caregivers and volunteers gradually renovated and expanded the house since.
In the year 2000, TEMI has been recognized as a private non-profit organization. Under the leadership of Nika Kvashali, many people and employees, all from Georgia, live and work in the community with very modest salaries. They organize all everything necessary such as money, food, renovations and extensions, provide for helpers, work in school, in the garden, in the kitchen, in the care and in the accounting. The support of Susanna Reinhart, a Swiss woman with Waldorf teacher and theatre training, who, in addition to her transports to Georgia and her continuous support in the community, organises active donations for TEMI, helps to keep the association alive.
Current challenges:
The enormous extent of rural migration in Georgia - 30 to 50% of the population live in the capital of Tbilisi - makes TEMI’s work difficult because there is hardly any infrastructure for socially disadvantaged and disabled people in rural areas. But despite all obstacles, TEMI takes care of these people who, if they do not have a family, have to live on the street. Whenever possible, all those seeking help are welcomed and the community grows steadily.
Since 2005, TEMI has taken in many severely disabled and autistic adolescents from public school homes. As a result, TEMI has been receiving state support for these 24 people for several years, currently 15 lari, which is about six euros per day and person. With the help of donations and the sparse revenues from the sale of its own products, TEMI can also create a living space for many other people in need.
