Assistance to Georgian babies from Japan and Lithuania

On August 31 an Opening Ceremony was held in Tbilisi concerning the Project for Improvement of Surgery Equipment for Retinopathy of Premature Infants for the Iashvili Central Pediatric Hospital of Georgia. The support was part of the “Grassroots and Human Security Grant Assistance Programme” of the Government of Japan and the ceremony was attended by H.E. Masayoshi Kamohara, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Georgia, H.E. Jonas Paslauskas, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Lithuania, as well as representatives of local authorities and members of related organizations.

The Grant Contract was concluded on December 21, 2010 between the Embassy of Japan and the Iashvili Central Pediatric Hospital of Georgia and was supported also by the Embassy of Lithuania in Georgia in order to improve the pediatric field of Georgia. Under this project, Japan provided surgery equipment for retinopathy of premature infants, while technical assistance for using the equipment is being provided by Republic of Lithuania. It is expected that at least 100 children will directly benefit from the $85,680 project.

The “Grant Assistance for Grassroots and Human Security Projects” (GGP) provides assistance to relatively small projects implemented by municipalities, medical institutions, as well as NGOs, and aims at improving the living standards of the Georgian people. It applies to projects in the field of public health, education, social protection, environment and poverty reduction. Since 1998, 106 GGP projects have been implemented in Georgia totaling 8,631,344 USD. The size of Japan’s Official Development Assistance to Georgia has reached over 362 million USD, covering a wide spectrum of areas such as improvement of economic infrastructure, agricultural and social sectors, culture and human resource development.