Georgian Teacher Buys Internet for his Students Living in Village by Selling Flowers
In order to assist students, who lost access to the Internet in the pandemic period, Lado Apkhazava, the civil education teacher of Chibati public school, Lanchkhuti District, decided to grow violets, sell them and buy internet megabytes for his students so that they could attend online lessons.
There are several families in the village that cannot buy even a monthly unlimited internet package for their children, Lado Apkhazava noted. “Parents have to choose to either buy food products or megabytes for online lessons. Some of them have chosen food products because they have several children and lack enough computer hardware for all children.
Therefore, in this heavy situation, I contacted several organizations in spring, amid the first wave of the pandemic, and thanks to these organizations, I helped several children. I used to send telephone numbers to these organizations and they used to replenish the balance of these children. In this way, I assisted 482 children in our municipality. And now it was awkward to disturb these people again and I decided to find another solution. Our primary education textbook starts with AI IA (It is a Violet).
Therefore, I have decided to grow violets. I found violet leaves, brought soil from Batumi, bought pots, and started this undertaking. It took a week to plant leaves in the pot. Three weeks later, small seedlings of violet grew up. My students also planted violates and now we have 516 pots of violets”, Lado teacher noted who has sold violets in Batumi and Tbilisi. Collectible violets were very beautiful. We sold them at flower stores in Tbilisi and Batumi, he said. Amid the pandemic, he managed to buy internet megabytes for 512 students. Furthermore, he managed to switch 10 families with many children into the global network and they will use free internet for a year.
“As for the remaining money, together with students, we went to store, bought food products to transmitted them to orphan children”, the Teacher said. “I do not know whether the Education Ministry is obliged to provide free internet for all students….Part of parents lost job places amid the restrictions and this is a serious problem. Therefore, the Government should recognize this problem to find a due solution, but in Georgia, we frequently prefer to hide problems. After this campaign was spotlighted in social networks, kind people paid internet fees for these children. Our compatriots in foreign countries also support our children”, Lado Teacher noted.