Furthermore, Caritas Poland shipped on Friday 22 August an aircraft loaded with relief material: 1600 blankets, 600 sleeping bags, 4 respirator machines, 400 kg of first aid kits and medical equipment.

In addition to this, Caritas Poland has driven a successful fundraising campaign “In Solidarity With Georgia”. Altogether, Caritas donators and the Polish people donated more than 230,000 euro. Out of this sum, 100,000 euro were donated by the Barbara Pasiecka Johnson Foundation, specialised in delivering care to autistic people.

This money will help local Caritas organisations in Georgia and North Ossetia to continue to deliver relief services to thousands of internal displaced, and to those who are returning to their ravaged villages and looted homes.

The conflict has made more than 150,000 people homeless and in daily need of food and drink water. Many of them are injured and need medicines and other medical equipment. The Caritas network in the region works at full capacity to cope with the needs of thousands of them.

The Caritas medical teams are helping some 6,500 people, while the Caritas trauma counsellors are providing psychological care for more than 1000 children traumatised by the horrors of war.

The Russian army is still present in Georgia despite international pressure on President Medvedev to withdraw its troop. The buffert areas on the borders between the breakaway regions and Georgia created by the Russians has rapidly become a no-law land dominated by criminal gangs of looters. This situation stops many internally displaced people coming from these areas to return to their homes as they feel safer in the camps.

The conflict is now entering a new phase of tension since the official recognition from Russia of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as sovereign nations. This move has been widely condemned as being in breach of International Law by the international community.