National Preventive Mechanism According to one of the male beneficiaries of the Senaki institution for Persons with Disabilities, he constantly feels embarrassed in the institution, especially when he has to ask the staff for help in observing personal hygiene. The embarrassment is caused by the fact that a female care-giver helps him in washing. As the beneficiary explained, he wanted to be helped by a male caregiver, though he knew that this was not possible, because no male care-givers were employed in the institution. For this reason, he constantly had to bear the aforementioned feeling of embarrassment. As a beneficiary of the Tbilisi Public School No. 200 (with a boarding house service) explained, she had an attraction to one of the boys in the institution and wanted to have a relationship with him, but she was afraid to say this openly, because the school administration and staff had told them they were supposed to treat each other like a brother and sister and could not have a romantic relationship with each other. According to a beneficiary of the Martkopi Boarding House, he “cut his hands” while he was in the Dzevri Boarding House, due to interference with his private life: “The cleaning person, D.B., asked me whether I had had good sex with I. whom I met secretly back then and who was not yet my wife.” The Case of N.B. The Dusheti Boarding House for Persons with Disabilities houses Mrs. N.B. together with her husband. As Mrs. N. explained, her underage child lives in St. Barbare Residential Institution in Zestaponi. The mother wants her child to live with her or, alternatively, to have him/her transferred to the Tbilisi Infant House, because, due to the long distance from Dusheti to Zestaponi, she cannot visit her child frequently. As representatives of the agencies declared in conversations with us, they had encountered serious problems with the head of St. Barbare Residential Institution, a clergyman, who had refused to transfer the child to representatives of the state agencies. In response to the mother’s lawful demand about the child’s transfer, he declared that the mother “has done nothing for the child till now” and, accordingly, he was not going to transfer the child. On July 19, 2012, the Office of Public Defender of Georgia, on his own initiative, sent a letter131 to the Social Service Agency, requesting information about the underage child and the exercise of the disabled woman’s right to private and family life. According to the reply letter of the Agency132, work has got under way for the transfer of N.B.’s underage child to a state childcare institution, though, at this stage, the Agency has not been able to cooperate with St. Barbare Boarding House of Zestaponi. Despite the fact that the aforementioned problem has already existed for many months, representatives of the state agency have been unable to protect the disabled person’s right to private and family life. The Case of M.A. The Martkopi Boarding House for Persons with Disabilities houses Ms. M.A. who has an infant child. Several days after the child’s birth, s/he was transferred to St. Barbare Residential Institution for Orphans and Children Devoid of Care in Zestaponi. While M.A. was living in the Kutaisi Boarding House for Elderly Persons, she visited her child once a month, as soon as she got the financial means (in the form of a pension) to do so. After she moved to the Martkopi Boarding House for Persons with Disabilities, her contact with her child almost ceased. She only manages to visit her child once in several months with the help of the head of the institution. At the time of the monitoring, M.A. pointed out that it had already been almost half a year since she last saw her child. Accordingly, in this case, too, the beneficiary’s family life is, in fact, restricted. 131 Letter No. 2883/08-2/1247-12, July 19, 2012 132 Letter No. 04/46107, August 1, 2012 www.ombudsman.ge NPM Report