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Truce in Georgia comes as a relief to several Keralites

KOCHI: The ceasefire declared by Russia in Georgia on Tuesday came as a relief to Malayali parents whose children study in that country and people who have spouses working there.

The military action which started on August 8 when Russian troops moved into South Ossetia gave sleepless nights back home to families of students studying in medical colleges in Georgia and technical personnel working on the country’s infrastructure projects.

Georgia, a former Soviet republic, emerged as a destination for students from Kerala and other parts of India recently. As in the Soviet times when Indian students seeking inexpensive education used to flock to medical colleges in the republics in the union, the medical and nursing colleges in Georgia have been receiving the students from the country in the past two years.

According to a rough estimate, 150 students from Kerala are doing medical and nursing courses in the Tbilisi State Medical University and the GBT International Medical College in the capital city of Tbilisi. Pradeep Pillai, who runs the Bangalore-based Pinnacle Learning Resources, told The Hindu that his agency had sent 45 Malayali students to study nursing. Fr. Elias of Eden’s, a Thrissur-based agency, said 42 nurses had joined the GBT college through his agency to do one-year programmes that would help them find jobs in the United States and Europe.On the first two days of the conflict, telecommunication channels were dead which added to the worries of relatives back home.

Jessan Mathew told The Hindu that his wife, who left for the GBT college in March to study German as well as soft skills that would equip her to find a nurse’s job in Germany, called on Tuesday morning. She told him that none of the students had been affected.Georgia is an easy launching pad for health-care professionals from Kerala, especially nurses, to emigrate to the U.S., Australia and European Union countries. Scores of nurses, both men and women, have taken the Georgian route to the West.

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