Emergency service gets Japanese ambulances

On 10 March the handover ceremony of the Project for Procurement of Used Ambulances for the Centre for Disaster Medicine was held at the O. Gudushauri National Medical Centre. This programme was implemented within the framework of the Grassroots and Human Security Grant Assistance Programme of the Government of Japan. The ceremony was attended by H.E. Masayoshi Kamohara, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Georgia, representatives of Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs and members of related organisations.

The grant contract for the abovementioned project was concluded on 18 September 2009 between the Embassy of Japan and the O. Gudushauri National Medical Centre. The aim of the project was to improve the quality of the emergency medical service provided by the Centre of Disaster Medicine by procuring five used ambulances from Japan. It is expected that these Japanese ambulances will provide emergency services to the residents of Tbilisi and the eastern part of Georgia. Project cost is 80,735 USD.

Grassroots and Human Security Grant Assistance Programme grants are provided to relatively small-scale projects undertaken by municipalities, medical institutions, academic institutes and NGOs which aim to directly improve the living standards of Georgian people suffering from hardship. Such projects might be implemented in the fields of public health, medicine, elementary and secondary education, social protection and environment, poverty reduction and increase of incomes. This grant programme began in 1998. So far 94 projects, worth 6,987,354 USD, have been implemented under this programme in Georgia. The total amount of Japan’s Official Development Assistance to Georgia is 337.6 million USD, covering a wide range of areas such as improvement of the economic infrastructure, agricultural sector, social sector and cultural field and human resource development.