EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell attended the follow-up meeting at the Patriarchate with the participation of the Minister of Health, healthcare workers, UNICEF and World Vision about the situation at the Ninotsminda Boarding School.

“We have all seen the progress that has been made over the last couple of days with regards to the de-institutionalization of most of the children in Ninotsminda. At the same time monitoring of the situation continues about the children that stay there. We see now the level of openness, transparency around the situation, which is a necessary and good thing. We were discussing what the further steps would be now to make sure that the focus on the wellbeing of the children is kept up.

We also had the opportunity to discuss the wider issues of de-institutionalization, the commonality of interests for moving forward. I felt this from all sides. There will be different actions taken to advance the discussions and the narrative when it comes to how to use the current momentum to make some real steps forward concerning this crucial issue,” the Ambassador said.

EU Ambassador welcomed the Georgian parliament’s intent to set up a working group about the childcare code. “The role of the parliament in this process can be very helpful. From the EU side, we are already engaged,” Carl Hartzell claimed.