PACED coordinators Ksenia Pominova and Felix Pinto Bakeriso visited the Firefly World children's hospice in Georgia a few months ago. As part of the international PACED project (support for palliative care education in the Caucasus, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Baltic countries), one of our tasks is to get acquainted with leaders in the field of palliative care and support them. We observed the hospice's operations, talked to staff, and had a conversation with Irakli Vetsko, the hospice's director.
Irakli Vetsko is the Executive Director of the first children's hospice in Tbilisi, Georgia – Hospice Firefly World. He is an entrepreneur and a professional in international development with experience in the Caucasus, Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, and the USA. His expertise includes organizational development, finance, administration, internal control systems of organizations, conflict resolution, peacebuilding, and education.
Irakli: Every case stays in memory... because every case is very special. Once a family came, representatives of one of the ethnic minorities in Georgia brought their child. They didn't speak Georgian, Russian, or English. We couldn't find a common language literally for a long time. After a while, I realized the family didn't understand where they were. They came to us from another hospital, and they were directed correctly. After two hours of communication, I understood that they thought we would perform some procedure here, and the child would walk out of there on their own two legs and continue their life at home. It took a lot of time and help from a translator to explain all this. In my practice, this was the most challenging case. People who had a 100% hope for recovery had to be explained in another language what hospice means.
Here you can find more information about the Firefly World children's hospice in Georgia.
If you want to contact Irakli Vetsko please email to i.vetsko@childrenshospice.org.ge