Gori Regional Educational Fund to Award Ten Scholarships

The Gori Regional Educational Fund is pleased to announce that on December 9th, 2008, it will recognize 10 student winners with GREF scholarships. These 10 students will receive tuition scholarships for the Spring 2009 semester at Gori University and will represent a broad cross-section of the GU student body, including Master's and Bachelor's students from all three faculties. During the application process in November, 139 students submitted applications and 20 semi-finalists were invited back for interviews with GREF volunteer staff. The 10 finalists were chosen by a 3-member selection committee. The December 9th event will coincide with the opening of a new training center at GU, sponsored by the United States Embassy.

The Gori Regional Education Fund has also forged a partnership with the Bank of Georgia and will be one of the featured charity organizations eligible to receive donations on the Bank of Georgia website, where donors can contribute even less than 1 Georgian lari ($.64) using their Bank of Georgia card. GREF has planned other fundraising initiatives stateside, including presentations to churches and Rotary Clubs in RPCV home states. The organization's leadership is very grateful to the local Georgian volunteer staff, including students from the University of Georgia, who have helped to lead this effort and have volunteered their time so tremendously.

For more information, please visit the GREF website at www.gorifund.org

Thanksgiving Thank You!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, The Megobari Project expresses the deepest of gratitude to Trinity Lutheran Church (Moorhead, MN), Calvary Lutheran Church (Perham, MN), Edgewood United Methodist Church, St. Lawrence Catholic Church (Perham, MN), and Eve Christoffersen (a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Georgia).

The day before Thanksgiving, The Megobari Project travelled to four collective centers in Kutaisi with eight boxes of hats, scarves, mittens and quilts in tow. The Kutaisi team organized warm weather gear into sets for age groups.

Upon hearing that the items were handmade and from America, people were dearly touched. Many of the items had notes of love attached to them and upon translation, children blushed and mothers could hardly compose themselves.

At these four shelters, we distributed six quilts (for families with children under 5) and over 55 hat, scarves and mitten sets. One refugee had just arrived from Tschinvali with his family and newborn baby the day before. We gave every member of his family a warm winter set and a quilt.

Thank you from all of us here at The Megobari Project. People have been hard at work organizing donations to send. Jen McFann, another Peace Corps Volunteer, has been busy raising money to send boxes of blankets to Georgia. To donate - check out her website at http://jeningeorgia.blogspot.com/.

For more photos of the donation drive (will frequently be updated) - please see picasaweb.google.com/joholtan/TheMegobariProjectDonationDrive#