Date, location: Gori, Georgia, 13 and 30 Sept 08
Production: Jessica Barry, Jan Powell
Camera: Vatsadze Giorgi
Sound: English, Italian, Georgian
Copyright: ICRC – Access All
length: 4' 20"
Please credit ICRC where possible

For broadcast tapes and information on footage: Jan Powell, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva,

TV news footage transmitted 30 Sept 2008
Eurovision ENS at 16.30 GMT

They rely on food from a soup kitchen set up by the Italian Red Cross. The kitchen has just served its 200,000 meal which includes pasta, sausages, eggs, beans and rice.

The soup kitchen was set up in Tbilisi in mid-August catering for thousands of people displaced in the recent emergency. When the fighting stopped, families began moving back to Gori to be nearer their villages. However, the situation remains volatile and many people still do not have access to their homes. While they wait, many people are stuck in the vast tented camp on the outskirts of the town. Others are living in collective centres in Gori itself.

Today, 15 Italian Red Cross staff produce 3,500 meals twice daily, helped by a Georgian cook who makes sure that the food appeals to Georgian tastes. They are joined by up to 25 Georgian Red Cross volunteers, who help prepare and give out the meals.

At lunch time in the camp, one person from each tent comes to the kitchen to fetch food for the whole family. They come back at dinner time for their second meal. Packed food is also given out to displaced people in 26 collective centres in Gori. 1,000 meals are sent daily to Tbilisi.

Though the food is extremely welcome, winter is approaching and the nights are getting colder. For the people stuck in the camp, the first priority is to get back home: "There is enough food, but it is not the most important matter, because we want to go back home.” says Mariana Tushishvili, from South Ossetia, who left her village in early August, at the start of the war.

SHOTLIST
00:00 Displaced person's camp, Gori, Georgia, wide and close-up
00:07 In the camp. People sitting in front of their tents - various
00:27 Italian Red Cross compound with soup kitchen (SK) tent – interior, various
00:38 Italian Red Cross workers and Georgian Red Cross volunteers preparing food – various
01:24 ITW Giuseppe Bolzoni, Italian Red Cross, English
“We are preparing pasta, rice with vegetables and we include meat to make
a balanced meal for the people”
01:35 Italian version clip 1
02:04 Italian version clip 2
02.42 W/S of crowd waiting to collect their meals outside the Soup Kitchen compound
02:45 C/U of people waiting
02:55 Meals are given out to crowd by Georgian Red Cross volunteers
03:26 In the camp. Lady in pink jumper (Mariana Tushishvili displaced person from South Ossetia ) walks through shot carrying bread in a bag
03:34 People taking food back to tents - various
03:41 Mariana unpacks food
03:50 ITW Mariana Tushishvili displaced person from South Ossetia, Georgian

“Different kinds of pasta are given to us, and beans which are a common food in Georgia. And here we have got some fruit. There is enough food, but it is not the most important matter, because we want to go back home.”