This project will ensure that 50,000 people in the isolated and impoverished regions of Ajara and Samegrelo can receive local, affordable health care. This will be achieved by extending and strengthening a community-based health care scheme which Oxfam has successfully initiated in Georgia and other eastern European countries. Members pay a small monthly fee (around US$1) in exchange for treatment by local health workers. The poorest families are exempt from payment.

Oxfam has been working on healthcare in these communities since 2001. The project will build on that work alongside local partners ‘The Welfare Foundation’, ‘Grassroots Support Centre’ and ‘Step-Forward’. We will ensure that health workers and communities have the skills and knowledge to run health schemes independently and to lobby the government for fair and adequate health care for everyone.

Project aims

The aim of the project is to improve the health of people in Georgia. It will:

• Implement community-based health care schemes
• Improve health awareness and practice among the wider communities
• Help people to know and demand their patient rights and state health benefits
• Influence the government to fulfil its commitment to provide basic health services nationwide

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