In pictures | Tbilisi’s lemon vendors — the hardships of selling lemons to survive

•1 min read

▲Small kiosks also sell lemons along with other goods. ‘These ones have been hanging here for two weeks’, the owner said. (Tamuna Chkareuli / OC Media)

Selling lemons in the streets at ₾1 ($0.38) for a bag of 5, Tbilisi’s lemon vendors — almost exclusively elderly women — struggle to scrape out a living.

Tina Giguashvili, 69, stands with her hands up, a bag of lemons hanging from each finger. Since December, she’s been selling lemons every other day near the Okriba bus station in Tbilisi. For women like her, the fragrant, West Georgian citrus is not only a healthy fruit but a means of survival.

Tina Giguashvili stands at the passage entrance, hoping to be noticed. (Tamuna Chkareuli / OC Media)

Vendors frequently set up small stands at the metro entrances at the ends of the metro lines. (Tamuna Chkareuli / OC Media)

Tamuna Chkareuli •

30 articles•0 Followers

Tamuna is a freelance journalist and a professional photographer. With a keen interest in social issues, she focuses on labour rights and disability and gender-related problems.

Several 'domiki' in Gyumri. Photo: Armine Avetisyan/OC Media.

Armenia

Elderly ‘domik’ resident freezes to death in Armenia

OC Media

••2 min read

A 70-year-old woman living in a makeshift ‘domik’ home in Gyumri froze to death. It is the first such death in the city in five years. The woman, whose name has not been made public, was reportedly found unconscious in her home. She was then taken to hospital, where she was pronounced dead. She lived alone. ‘This is the first such case in the province in five years’, Vahan Tumasyan, the head of the Shirak Centre, an anti-poverty NGO working in Gyumri, told OC Media. Shirak is the only

Education

Georgia offers older school teachers redundancy in education shake-up

Shota Kincha

••5 min read

Elderly teachers have been offered a generous retirement package as part of new reforms announced by Georgia’s Education Ministry. But some critics fear a ‘purge’ of older teachers. Out with the old and in with the new. In an effort to modernise Georgia’s education system, the Ministry of Education has embarked upon a controversial new scheme to phase out elderly and under-qualified ‘practising’ teachers throughout the country’s education system. In May, the education ministry announce

Elderly People

Georgia’s new pension scheme challenged in constitutional court

OC Media

••5 min read

Tbilisi-based rights group the Georgian Democracy Initiative (GDI) have challenged country’s new pension system in the Constitutional Court. The group argues that the new private saving scheme contradicts Articles 11 (right to equality) and 19 (right to property) of the Georgian Constitution. The new, cumulative pension scheme stipulates a 6% investment of a person’s income into a personal pension account, with 2% contributed each by employees, employers, and the state. The scheme is m

Elderly People

Opinion | Georgia’s pension reforms do nothing for most Georgians

Volodymyr Soboliev

••7 min read

Despite the good intentions of the government, Georgia’s pension reforms are doomed to failure. In July, Georgia’s parliament approved a long-overdue new pension law. But these reforms will not fulfil their main purpose — to significantly increase pensions for citizens retiring in the coming years. In a country where incomes are low and unequally distributed and informal labour is rampant a saving pension scheme such as this will change nothing for the most Georgians. Back-door reforms