Tomriko Tutderidze Tomriko Tutberidze, shown here with the college headmistress and her sponsor, Cecil Fike, is a Spring, 2007, graduate of the college in Samtredia, studying Economics. She started out in Nursing, but like many college kids, changed her major and did straight "A" work. She has so impressed her sponsor and our on-site volunteers that we have granted her funding for a 10 month course in the english language. Tomriko is a true orphan, and although she has never known any other home but the Etseri Orphanage in Samtredia, she currently has a flat of her own provided by the regional government.

Theona Tchopadze Theona is also a Spring 2007 grad of the college, studying Nursing. Teona is what is known as a "social orphan;" due to economic conditions caused by the civil war her family could not afford to sustain her, so she was sent to the Etseri orphanage. Due to recent changes in the state-supported healthcare system in Georgia, Theona's prospects for employment in a major hospital or clinic are not good. She has returned to her village, high in the southern mountains, and now lives with her grandmother, her only relative. As the village has no other trained healthcare people, we think Theona will become a significant resource there.

Nino Goksadze Nino was abandoned by her parents while an infant, and severely injured in a house fire in a foster home as a toddler. She was not expected to live, but she indeed survived; the foster parents realized they could not care for her, so she was sent to the Etseri Orphanage. Upon leaving the orphanage at 17, Nino returned to the village of Bagdadi, and through the kindness of an older woman who was herself an Internally Displaced Person (IDP), was given a place to live while she attended nursing school in the local hospital on a Georgia to Georgia scholarship. In addition to keeping an "A" grade average, Nino became a community activist. She volunteered at a village center for senior citizens, andsingle-handedly collected over fifty large boxes of food, clothing and shoes for the children at the Etseri orphanage. Since graduating Nino has married, and lives with her husband and his family on a small farm a mile outside the village.