Social Service Response to the Needs of the Ukrainian Refugees

In response to the full-scale invasion that marked a critical escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war, Georgia promptly opened its doors to Ukrainian refugees in 2022. The article presents the situation in Georgia after the arrival of Ukrainian refugees and focuses on some of the daily life issues they had to deal with. It draws attention to the paradoxical situation that Georgia also allowed the Russian citizens who fled their country to escape the conscription, or due to other reasons related to the military invasion in Ukraine, to enter the country. Many Russians came to the host country of Georgia, even though two of its regions are still occupied by the Russian military — the first since 1993 and the second since 2008.

The article describes the response of the Georgian government and civil society organizations to the needs of Ukrainian families and children in the social and educational system. It presents the specifics of social work for Ukrainian refugees living in Georgia, focusing on the Georgian government’s efforts to fulfill children's inalienable right to education — by opening the Ukrainian education sector in three Georgian state schools. In these schools, Ukrainian children can learn in the Ukrainian language in accordance with Ukrainian curricula. It examines the impact of this initiative and seeks to identify the specifics of the further support needed by social workers in the country. The article attempts to assess the potential of social work to meet the needs of war victims. It asks whether the war in 2008, when Russian troops invaded Georgian territory, has stimulated social work curricula to equip social workers with sufficient theoretical and practical knowledge to work with war victims and support their self-reliance.