Energy Brigades in Ude, Georgia

From Akhaltsikhe it is an about 20 km drive over extremely bad "roads" to Ude. This mountain village of around 2.000 people has a school, which was neglected heavily during soviet times. The last years there was no money for any repairs. The fuel for the central heating system became too expensive. A hailstorm broke all the remaining windows on the south-side of the building. The 500 pupils follow their classes in class-rooms with broken windows, or even completely without. Only source of heat is a small wood-stove in the front of the room.

The Georgian Energy Brigades started to repair the windows and insulate them with a group of volunteers from the village - mainly teachers.

almost all window glasses on the west side of the Ude school had been broken during a hail storm. GEB replaced them by thicker ones

some window frames from corridors had been used for heating in wooden stoves. a teacher-carpenter ensured that at least the outer frames were complete

our working group: volunteers - teachers on winter holidays that are caused by the lack of fuel to heat up the classes and international coordinators Jan Haverkamp and Petr Holub

strenghtening the frame with iron corners

making new parts of the window frame

regional GEB coordinator Ilya Beridze explains about the silicone insulation strips

cutting grooves for the silicone insulation strips