Nino and Gogita from Tbilisi

Making aliyah for our family – my husband Gogita and I and our two sons – Tevdore and Saba – is important for several reasons.  One of the main reasons is my Jewish roots; another is to overcome our poverty here and finally to give our children a better future. 

We have struggled a lot in Georgia. We live in one of the villages in the poor region of Dmanisi, South Georgia. Our main livelihood is income from small agriculture. Mostly we seed corn and potatoes. But in the last two years hail and bad weather destroyed our crops…you know, expenses on seeds were higher than income. We had a negative balance. There was no other opportunity to earn enough money for my family in this region. And our situation was getting worse and worse. So, one day we decided to move to Israel. I know from my friends and family members that I could be more fruitful there. And give my children a different life there.

We have relatives in Israel and when I look at their lives there, it’s completely different from ours here. I don’t want my children to struggle here in poverty. They can receive better education there and become richer and live better lives there.
If we were just two of us, I could say that it was easy process, but with children it’s more challenging.  It is very sad to say goodbye to the lovely people around our family. It’s sad to leave our place of birth, full of childhood memories, but our poverty here makes this path look easier than it is… We should start from nothing in Israel and that makes my feelings tight…

Ezra was one of our guides in this process. There are lots of documents that should be changed or fixed before leaving country. If it was not for Ezra’s help we couldn’t handle that in a complete way. Ezra consulted us and covered our expenses. They were always on time for our needs and communication was efficient. We received help during flight time and the support and attention towards us was very good. We were very encouraged

You are such a great blessing in this process…you encourage us and make calm. Thanks to all who gave resources for this work. Thanks to sponsors for financial support. The finances decide a huge part of the Aliyah process…I can say the practical part of the process. Blessings to you all.