NON-BENEFIT FOUNDATION: We. Help. Georgia. - in the Coronacrisis. By Rainer Kaufmann

Necessity is the mother of invention, we said to ourselves and did not accept the total closure of our restaurant in Tbilissi, which has been working since more than 20 years. For that would have meant dismissing almost two dozens of - mostly long-standing and loyal - employees into Georgian unemployment. Everyone who knows the country knows what that means. No one can say today whether after the crisis we would then have been able to build up a new workforce immediately.

That is why we established a non-profit foundation:

We.
Help.
Georgia.

The current starting point: Some social institutions such as the soup kitchen of the Protestant Lutheran Church in Georgia (ELKG) or the Michael-School for the Disabled, which is supported by the Solingen Association for the Promotion of Disability Aid in Georgia, had to shut down. This means that dozens of families or children in need are without a daily hot meal they have received so far.

We mainly asked our regular guests of our Tbilissi hotel and restaurant in Germany for support and within a few days we found a fine number of sponsors who would support us for the next three months with an amount of € 75 per month. There were also three noble individual donations from our partners. This means that we can now provide around 50 meals a day for three months and also deliver them in Tbilisi.

For this overwhelming result we would like to thank everyone in the name of those who benefit, those who have safe jobs now and those who continue to be provided with a good meal every day.

The commitment of our guests and partners is an important sign of mutual appreciation for all of us, which we will never forget. We have therefore decided to continue to run this foundation for the time after the restrictions caused by the Corona crisis, with the kind support of mister Martin Gramm, a long-time guest from Eppelheim/Germany. There he is a member of the city council as well as of the parish council of the Protestant parish.

Our companies - ERKA-Reisen GMbH, ERKA-Travel-Tbilissi and Hotel Kartli with Rainers European Restaurant - will provide this foundation with basic funding and develop a targeted program to care for needy families and children (keyword: street children), as soon as we are back in anormal working mode. We will, of course, inform the public about this program, as we will also report regularly on our three-month campaign.

If you want to support our social commitment now and in the future, we look forward to every single contribution. In Germany, the Protestant parish of Eppelheim, which has supported the ELKG in Tbilisi for years, has agreed to accept the donations for us and to issue a corresponding donation receipt if requested. Their bank account is:

IBAN: DE17 6725 0020 0001 5113 51, BIC: SOLADES1HDB (Sparkasse Heidelberg), keyword: Help for Georgia.

In Georgia we have the following bank details:

JSC TBC Bank, Tbilisi / Georgia, IBAN: GE75TB7454336180100004, recipient: Vekhmarebitsakartvelos

If you have any questions, please contact us at the following email address: rainer@georgian-aid.com With kind and grateful regards

Rainer Kaufmann Gabi Kaufmann Natia Kodiashvili Salome Gugunishvili
ERKA-Reisen GmbH - Hotel Kartli - Rainers European Restaurant - ERKA-Travel/Tbilissi