“If I die today, my grandson will die tomorrow, or maybe he will be buried alive with me, because nobody wants him but me! Nobody wants him… his mother left him, and his father left him. They left their sick child and found happiness elsewhere” – says Malardo and hides her eyes. She is ashamed for Soso’s mother and the father. Who needs a sick man? And they are still young, they can give birth to new and healthy children!

This hug with her mom could be the last for the beautiful 16-year-old Maggie. How terrifying! Her loving mother has already died once – her heart stopped! And only a miracle brought her back to life! Now her heart is kept beating by a pacemaker! But for how long? Meet Zhanna, friends: she is 44 years old. Not long ago, the heart of this still young woman suddenly stopped! It stopped completely, and death approached.  The ambulance brought her, almost dead, to the hospital. Her only 16-year-old daughter wept bitterly over the loss of her mother. And then the Lord worked a miracle – a true miracle, and the doctors who witnessed it kept crossing themselves for a long time afterward!  The doctors performed emergency surgery and implanted a pacemaker. Zhanna urgently needs repeat heart surgery; otherwise, her chances of survival are less than one percent. However, cursed poverty prevents the unfortunate mother from getting this urgent surgery. Medications temporarily sustain the desperate woman, but meager social allowance does not even allow her to buy the medications! According to the documents, the value of a Georgian woman’s life has been set at $8,300—money the unfortunate woman has never even seen.

Just look at these poor brothers. There is so much sadness in their kind eyes… At first, they were shy when they saw a stranger—the Fund’s correspondent. But then, perhaps, their little hearts sensed that this “strange lady” had come to tell their story to all of Georgia.

And so, every day in the Merabishvili family begins and ends the same way. For “lunch,” there is only bread and tea. And sometimes… juice. That happens when their father’s “” daily income is high and reaches 15 GEL. That’s about five dollars. Imagine, my friends, a man who carries heavy sacks all day just to earn five dollars—enough to bring home bread for his children, half a kilo of pasta, and, on rare occasions, some juice or a cheap candy to make them smile.

Instead of porridge, this poor father gives his hungry child tea. At 40 years old, this young man is broken inside. He has already undergone two surgeries on his leg due to blood clots. He still needs medicine and medical care, but this heroic father cannot afford to spend a single lari on himself. Every last coin goes toward diapers for two-year-old David.

Saba is just four years old. He suffers from a severe retinal disease—retinopathy—that could lead to complete blindness in just a few days. Right now, he can only see objects very close to him. Everything else is like a blur, shrouded in fog.  His vision is deteriorating rapidly, and nothing seems to stop it. The day Saba was born should have been the happiest day of his mother’s life. Instead, she heard the devastating words in the delivery room: “Your son isn’t breathing.” Saba’s life began with resuscitation, doctors, and a tough battle for survival. He miraculously pulled through, but it was later revealed that he had a congenital eye defect—retinal detachment – that caused him to lose his vision.

It was unbearable for his parents to watch their only son suffer. The child grew up and gradually lost the ability to move
Time passed, seasons changed, but nothing changed for little Luka. His world was as small as the distance from the bed to the window. And then September 1 came – the day when Luka’s peers opened the school door for the first time, but Luka was still bedridden due to an insidious illness and could not even move. A boy with great intellectual abilities, with tears in his eyes, asked his parents what he had done wrong, why he wasn’t like other children. This question pierced the hearts of his parents like a knife. That’s how the years went by. Our little boy grew up. It’s been 4 years now, and the father has been heroically caring for his bedridden, paralyzed son. After his wife’s passing, he learned to cook and bathe his only son with his own hands. Today, Luka is already 35 years old. He’s at an age where he could be enjoying life with a wife and children.

Friends, Tato was urgently transported by mobile resuscitation vehicle to Turkey while he was in a coma, on a ventilator. And then, a miracle happened! God is great—the Turkish doctors brought him back from the brink of death! But the battle for his life continues even now. The money for his treatment has run out! His poor parents sold everything of value they owned. They’ve poured all their strength, every last resource, into their son. Now, when there’s finally a chance to save him, they’re completely powerless to help their child. Their only hope lies with compassionate people who won’t let this little boy die in a foreign land. Tato urgently needs surgery, but before that, he requires an extensive rehabilitation program. Every day for this 7-year-old is a living hell. Because of a severe infection ravaging his body, Tato has a constant fever of 39.5–40°C (103–104°F), which even the strongest antibiotics can’t bring down. The boy is literally burning up from his illness!