The fields that line the main road leading from Tbilisi to Gori have been burnt to a crisp. Blackened buildings and the occasional gaping hole in the road are stark reminders of bombs dropped during this conflict that led to a mass influx of displaced people into the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

Countless houses are scarred with shattered windows. Bullet holes frame doors to what a few weeks ago were people’s homes. In Gori’s town square, crowds of people gather, waiting to be told by local authorities whether their homes are safe enough to return to. They’ve just made the journey from Tbilisi where they had been seeking shelter for the past weeks, many of them receiving assistance from aid agencies like Oxfam and their local partner NGOs.

I am on my way to villages a few kilometres to the north of Gori to assess the needs of people who have managed to come home and to deliver the first humanitarian assistance since the conflict started. Until now, these villages were out of bounds to their citizens and organisations like Oxfam. Russian troop withdrawals further north have opened up the area.

Tsisana arrived to Kheltubani just a few hours before we did. She had not seen the health post where she normally works until now, having fled her hometown to Tbilisi like thousands of others when fighting broke out. The disjointed nature of the story she recounts of her journey to Tbilisi has sadly become all too familiar.

“We hid in the forests for days. I have three children. My eldest son is six. They still have the scratches and bruises from falling and hiding in bushes. I do not want to tell you what we saw. We stayed at home for the first few days, but I was petrified. My brother-in-law is a soldier and although he is serving in Iraq at the moment, we still have his uniform in our house. What if it was found? In the end we burnt it and ran.”

A look of shock at what she has discovered on her return remains on her face for our entire conversation. She continues:

“Everything has either been destroyed or taken,” says Tsisana as she opens what is now an empty medicine cabinet. “Fortunately, this village was not too badly hit, although three people died and three houses were destroyed. Many of our belongings have been looted. There is another nurse who works here, but she cannot face coming in. Her son was killed.”

Although only 20 per cent of the 3,000 people that this health post normally caters to have returned, there is already a demand for her services. A lady bursts in to the room where we are sitting, with alarming desperation in her eyes. She looks at Tsisana and pleads: “Please do not let me die. I am diabetic. I have not had my medicine for days. I am going to die, I am going to die. Please do something.”

Unfortunately, for the moment there is nothing Tsisana can do. The health post has been stripped of everything by looters. Tsisana reassures the woman that she can get help in neighbouring Gori, where medicines have now been delivered.

Tsisana looks away, clearly lost in thought and then mumbles while shaking her head: “I studied in Russia, you know. This is how I learnt my profession. I worked in Russian hospitals for five years. I cannot believe that this has happened.”

She then looks out of the window to the scorched fields that lie before us and says: “Most of the villagers rely on apple and peach orchards to make their living, but they have almost all been destroyed. What is left cannot be sold: we used Gori market to sell our produce, and it is now closed. I do not know how we will cope here.”

Oxfam International and its partner NGOs are assisting displaced people in Georgia who fled areas of conflict. Oxfam would be prepared to help any civilians affected by the conflict, whether they are in Georgia, South Ossetia or North Ossetia, if granted safe access to assess the situation and if assistance were needed. Russia has said it is managing relief operations in South and North Ossetia.

More from the Oxfam Press Office at http://www.oxfam.org.uk/news