• By 1999, 30 children with the most severe health conditions had been removed from Kaspi and placed in the Guramishvili Pediatric Hospital in Tbilisi, where specialists hired by First Step Georgia provided the children with medical and psychological care.  
  • At the beginning of 2000, First Step Georgia had arranged for, funded and provided medical treatment for those children who still resided at Kaspi Orphanage. They were supplied with necessary medicines, medical examinations and counseling. 
  • Also in 2000, First Step Georgia launched a food supply program for Kaspi children to ensure they had the meals and nutrition they so desperately needed. The terrible states of health of many of the children had been caused by malnutrition, and the food program significantly and quickly improved the health of many.
  • Between 2000 and 2003 FSG worked with the Georgian government and the families of many children who were still at Kaspi, to see which children could be returned to their families, given proper support.  This included securing small amounts of financial assistance from the government to help the families, and having FSG provide training and support services to the families to help them manage. 
  • In 2004 we introduced a new model of small group homes for the care and shelter children from Kaspi who were unable to return to their own families.  This model of small group homes directly challenged the old large scale institutional model.  This model also demonstrated that children with disabilities merit quality of life as much as all children do. This was a new notion in post-Soviet Georgia. 
  • Also in 2004, First Step Georgia established “integrated classes” in two Tbilisi public schools and allowed these children with disabilities to demonstrate that they could function in wider, more main stream culture. 
  • In 2005 First Step Georgia launched the Day Care Center for children with disabilities - a simple yet radical way to show that there were alternatives for care and that showed that children with moderate and severe disabilities could function outside of  "specialized institutions”.

  • From 2007 through funding and support of Irish Aid Fund, First Step Georgia launched a comprehensive multi- component program that included:

                    - Home Based Care

                    - Empowering Parents Project

                    - Raising Awareness / Advocacy

                    - Semi independent living

                    - Supported employment

 

  • In 2007 FSG launched a project to build a modern residential home in Kojori to take in other children from the Kaspi orphanage who had now grown into adults.  With the support of UNICEF, First Step Georgia trained specialists and caregivers for the new facility.  Funds from Irish Aid Fund allowed FSG to renovate and equip the home to meet the needs of those with disabilities.
  • In 2008 a terrible chapter in history closed and together with the government, FSG shut the doors at Kaspi orphanage for good
  • In 2011 FSG had emerged as a key partner for the government in state child care reform.  FSG provided advice, input and the models for alternative care and family support services for children with disabilities as the government continued to seek alternatives for large state supported facilities.
  • First Step Georgia launched the Early Intervention program to identify and provide services to children from birth to the age of 6 for intensive, targeted therapy while they are still in the high development mode of early years.
  • 2012 First Step Georgia opened a Day Care Center and Early Intervention program in Kutaisi.