Environment Minister, UN official host special needs kids at Prometheus Cave

Two prominent officials – one a Georgian Minister and another from the United Nations working in Georgia – spend a day at a famous tourist attraction hosting youth with Down’s syndrome. 

Yesterday Georgia’s Minister of Environment Gigla Agulashvili and head of the UN in Georgia Niels Scott accompanied a group of Georgian children with Down’s syndrome at Prometheus Caves in Kutaisi – a place regarded as one of the country’s most impressive touristic sites.

The aim of the exercise was to raise awareness of the abilities of people with Down’s syndrome, eradicate the stigma attached to the illness and encourage people with the genetic abnormality to be more active in public life.

The youth were unable to hide their emotions when they viewed the cave’s halls, filled with stalactites and stalagmites, frozen waterfalls and stone curtains. 

The two officials, who brought their own children to the excursion, offered gifts to the youth at the end of the day.

Niels Scott with children. Photo by the Ministry of Environment. 

The event was organised thanks to support from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) with Georgian companies Smart, Barambo, Zedazeni and the Eco vision TV program. 

Down’s syndrome, also known as trisomy 21, is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21. It is typically associated with physical growth delays, characteristic facial features and mild to moderate intellectual disability. The average IQ of a young adult with Down’s syndrome is 50, equivalent to the mental age of an eight or nine-year-old child, but this can vary widely. 

Prometheus Caves were discovered in 1984 and was almost immediately developed as a show cave. It is the biggest cave in Georgia although only one tenth is open for tourists.