Dear Tamar,

Thank you for speaking with my colleagues and I yesterday. Your insights into the current situation regarding COVID-19 response and areas for possible future cooperation such as in Alkhalkalaki, Racha, Oni, and Ambrolauri, were very helpful. I wanted to provide you with an outline of our remote ambulance capabilities that could be used by local authorities or hospitals.

•       HALO possesses five off-road 4 x 4 vehicles in Georgia that can be repurposed and appropriately outfitted to provide pre-hospital transportation from remote or hard to access communities. In line with WHO and HALO Global guidance, these vehicles will be equipped with the necessary protective partitions to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 transmission and our drivers will be equipped with the necessary personal protective equipment to ensure their own health and safety.

•       With a limited fleet we are keen to ensure such assistance goes to areas that need it most and if more areas are identified than we have vehicles to cover, we may be able to source additional ambulances from our programmes in Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

We look forward to hearing from you about specific areas, communities, or hospitals that could best utilise such a service and I would be grateful if you could introduce us by email to the relevant local authority, Hospital Director or other relevant contact so that we can quickly follow up with them directly.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best,

Michael

Dear Michael

Thanks a lot! How about 4 p.m. Monday May 4^th.

Best

Tamar

Dear Tamar,

Thank you for taking the time to speak with us. Monday afternoon would be perfect. Just let me know a suitable time for you and we will do our best to accommodate.

Best regards,

Michael

Dear Mr. Montafi

Many thanks for your e-mail. We can have the call early next week. Monday or Tuesday P.M. would be fine with me. Please let me know what would work best for you.

პატივისცემით,

თამარ გაბუნია

მინისტრის პირველი მოადგილე

Sincerely,

Tamar Gabunia, MD, MPH

First Deputy Minister

Dear Ms. Tamar Gabunia,

I am the programme officer for the HALO Trust programmes based in Tbilisi and Sukhumi and was recommended by Tamuna Kochoradze, from SMR, to reach out to you regarding ongoing COVID-19 response efforts being undertaken by both the Government of Georgia and international organizations in TAT Georgia. The HALO Trust is currently looking to leverage its expertise in areas such as logistics, construction, and GIS mapping to help aid in humanitarian efforts to address this crisis both globally and here in the South Caucasus at the local and regional level. As we are in the process of conducting a COVID-19 needs assessment in areas throughout Georgia where we have previously worked, especially in remote communities and in areas with high populations of IDPs,  I wanted to better understand what is already being done on the ground and if there are any areas where we could support these efforts, especially with logistics and delivery of supplies.

If you have a free moment to speak over zoom or by phone I would love to hear about the efforts being overseen by your office. I have cc’d my colleague, Programme Manager for Georgia, Levan Rapava, on this email and hope he can join the call as well. Finally, I have included a link at the bottom of this email to a short video message from HALO’s CEO, James Cowan, speaking about our organization’s pivot to a COVID-19 response to give you a picture of our vision and capabilities.

Thank you for your time on this and I appreciate you must be very busy during these unprecedented times.

Best regards,

Michael

Michael Montafi, Programme Officer
www.halotrust.org 
M : +7940 710 4477/+995 593 781 934

Grechka St, Eshersky Tupik 8/35, Achadara, Abkhazia

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