TALK TIME:WHEN DENIS CORBOY told his wife he'd been appointed EU ambassador to Georgia, she thought he had to be mistaken. There is no EU delegation in Atlanta, she replied, writes Eoin Butler.
Arriving in Tbilisi, the capital of the former Soviet republic, Jane Corboy was appalled by the horrendous living conditions endured by disabled orphans in the country's notorious Kaspi Institution. Now her charity, The Next Step, provides residential, medical and educational services for profoundly disabled children in Georgia and this month, the Wexford woman was named the Community Foundation of Ireland's International Philanthropist of the Year.
What were conditions like in Tbilisi when you arrived in 1995?My husband and I were put up in a very unsavoury hotel. Handguns were permitted, but machine guns had to be handed in at reception. The civil war had just ended - there was no heating, little electricity and serious food shortages. The average wage was $10 (€7.60) a month, but no one was getting paid. I started learning Russian and trying to figure out what I could do to help.
Where did you hear about the Kaspi Institution?An American lady working for one of the UN agencies tipped me off that there were serious problems at a state-run orphanage for children with physical and intellectual disabilities. The previous winter, 24 kids had died of malnutrition. They needed all the help they could get. Visiting the institute was a life-changing experience. Seeing the children in those stinking rooms, rocking backwards and forwards in the freezing cold with their legs tied together - it was just horrendous.
Had conditions always been bad, or was this a crisis precipitated by the collapse of the Soviet Union?I don't know. There certainly was no history of treating disabled children particularly humanely. There was a huge stigma around disability in the former Soviet Union. Having a sibling with a disability severely impinged upon a child's marriage prospects. In maternity hospitals, if a child was born with a disability, the family would often conspire with the doctor to tell the anaesthetised mother her child had been stillborn. It would then be whisked away to one of these institutions. People genuinely believed the state knew best.
Was it a daunting decision getting involved?To be honest, I didn't sleep at all the night after my first visit to Kaspi. My husband tried to talk to me, but I was shell shocked. Eventually, Denis came home from work one day and said, "Right, what are you going to do?" I said I didn't know. He said, "Write letters Jane! Start a committee!" I said I wouldn't even know where to begin. "You told me they were hungry, didn't you?" he said. "Let's get them some food!" In the end, he probably got more than he ever bargained for because it soon took over our entire lives.
Where did the funding come from initially?From ourselves. We also solicited donations from diplomats and other ex-pats in Georgia. I used to go to the orphanage every Tuesday with bread, eggs and milk. I had to hang around to make sure the care-givers didn't keep the food for themselves. They were victims too, of course. Their salaries hadn't been paid in months. Their children were hungry. I realise that in retrospect. But at the time I had such animosity towards them. We started writing proposals to donors around the world. Irish Aid agreed to fund renovation work. An Italian NGO came in to retrain the staff.
Was there much bureaucratic resistance?Of course. New procedures would be followed only as long as we were on the premises. As soon as we'd leave, staff would revert to their old ways. We donated cows and hens to the orphanage, but they immediately disappeared.
An American diplomat raised the issue with the Georgian government and we got a meeting with the minister for social welfare. He said: "You say this place is so bad? Let's go there right now!" Of course, it was a total set-up. The animals were back on the farm, the building was cleaned and the children all had new clothes on. The minister turned to me and said: "See Mrs Corboy, I knew you were exaggerating!" I said: "Minister, you and I will talk later . . . ".
You've since managed to set up your own residential care facilities and reunite disabled children with their families. How did the recent war impact on your work?Some of the military installations bombed were near our sites. Also the ministry of refugees decided to requisition Kaspi for internally displaced families. There are about 50,000 people, including 150 children with disabilities, still left homeless. We're currently assessing their needs and, with support from our donors, hope to be able to implement programmes for them in the New Year.
In a perverse way, has the war at least raised the country's profile for fundraising purposes?No. It was a terrible, terrible thing to happen. The Russian army may have behaved as men in uniform are meant to. But the armed militia they brought in behind them have left a trail of rape, pillage and murder in their wake. So I'm sorry, but I couldn't possibly see any good side to it. Sure, you don't have to explain where Georgia is anymore. But frankly speaking, I'd much prefer we still had to do that.
Donations can be made to The Next Step at Bank of Ireland, Baggot Street, Dublin 2. A/C 47985660, Sort Code 901490 www.nextstepchildren.org