No one knows who was the first to say: Do a good deed, put it on the stone and as you move past, the reward will be before you. This saying is, indeed, as old as man, for one of the Commandments God gave us when He created man in his likeness is: Love thy neighbor. Perhaps charity too,  an indispensable part of modern civilization,  originates from time immemorial.

The history of antiquity has preserved plenty of examples of the generous support the wealthy provided to the men of art and philosophy, for their majority strive for spiritual food, but remain poor and destitute. It was back in the ancient epoch that the stereotypical thinking that the wreath of oak leaves was the greatest reward, honour, food and clothing at the same time, was consigned to oblivion.

Alexander the Great, who even during the most distant and difficult campaigns kept poets at his side, deemed charity as a necessary obligation of the nobles of his Empire. According to the legend, the Emperor himself did not distribute his gifts to the poets at random and was extremely demanding. He even made the following “deal” with one of them: for each good strophe, the Emperor would reward him with gold and would slap his face for each bad one. The legend has it that as a result of this arrangement, the poet ended up with a swollen face, instead of a swollen purse. But this is probably not the main thing. Much more important is the evidence that already then the powerful and the wealthy began to assume the guardianship of arts. This became common in the Roman Empire. In Rome, nobody was surprised that Vergilius' property, which the poet had obtained as a result of charity, exceeded a million sesterce, whereas Horace, the author of “The Science of Poetics”, immortalized not only his own name but also the name of Maecenas - his Roman patron. This name has thereafter become the symbol of guardianship of poetry and arts.

One encounters many interesting and sometimes even curious facts in the history of charity. It might be the King of England, Jacob the First, who gave the most original donation ever known.

At the end of the 16th century, a ragged traveler named John Stow appeared in England. He toured around the whole country on foot and no one knew that this man was collecting material to write the history of England - the main purpose of his life. Having worked hard for half a century, he wrote two separate books “The History of England” and “The History of London and Westminster”. To reward the work of this extraordinary man, King Jacob the First granted him an unprecedented favour and issued a certificate to John Stow where by considering that John Stow had been collecting information over 45 years to write “The History of England”, and had worked for 8 years on the chronicles of London and Westminster, in exchange for this great labour, the king graciously allowed him, in the course of one year, to demand for his own use the alms from His Majesty's subjects”.

In England of that time, the death sentence was the punishment for begging. The King made an exception to his own order only because, on the one hand, he wanted to give the historian a chance to relax from his hard work and, on the other hand, to give his countrymen an opportunity to express their gratitude to this outstanding man. John Stow managed to collect only seven shillings in a fortnight and gave up begging. Later, funded by generous contributions, the grateful English people built a statue in his honour and to this day every week they replace the goose-feather in the hand, as a tribute to the great service that the historian has rendered to his country.

With the civilization's development, charity has become one of the central characteristic features of an advanced society. Presently, there are countless different charity funds and organizations in the world. They work in the social, educational, scientific and cultural areas and many have spread beyond the borders of their countries long ago. Today, no one would be surprised to learn that the American Rockfeller Fund is sponsoring education of a Japanese or South Korean young student. Or that the Bill Gates Fund is spending millions of dollars on the development of an African school.

Charity has a long history in Georgia too. The names Zubalashvili and Sarajishvili are well known to our people for their contribution to the promotion of Georgian literature and art.  It is thanks to these men that at the beginning of the last century, the pulse of European culture could be strongly felt in Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Batumi and Telavi, and dozens of young Georgians were getting educated in the best European universities. It was these young people who upon return to Georgia became the driving force of the cultural life. Perhaps it is due to them that Georgia managed to avoid drowning in the swamp of provincialism and isolation.

The modern day Georgia resembles the earlier described period in many ways. Social, cultural and educational problems are as acute in the country today as they were in those distant days and the need for the Sarajishvilis and Zubalashvilis of our times is as strong as ever.

Of course, charity in today's Georgia is not something unknown.  Besides international aid organizations, many charity funds and associations have emerged in the country over the last decade. Even with the scarce resources available to them, they still manage to successfully carry out their work in various areas. Different commercial companies and firms deserve a special credit as they spend considerable amounts of money on charity.

However, in most cases such information is unofficial and incomplete as there is a tendency to conceal funds spent on charitable purposes. The underlying reasons of this trend are complex and we are not going to discuss them here. Yet, one thing still needs to be stated: in a country where a considerable part of income is not being disclosed (and it is no secret to anybody), we will not be able to receive a full account of the funds used for charity purposes. Under the current legislation, the money used for charity is taxed similarly as profit is. A business having contributed a certain amount to charity should, accordingly, have paid a certain sum to the budget. In many instances, this is not the case. Therefore, one might assume that some people perform a good deed, but at the same time ask the ones they are helping not to reveal the names of their benefactors, thus allowing them to maintain a desirable balance in their settlements with the state.

This way or the other, the tendency of concealing charity in Georgia is a fact, but it is only a tendency.

Fortunately, there are companies that have nothing to hide or conceal and have a clear conscience before both the state and the public.

Magti GSM is the first company which has publicly disclosed a full list and report of its charity-related activities. Last year MagtiCom spent GEL 1,727,145 to support Georgian literature, arts, the development of sports, health care of our citizens and education. The contribution the company paid to the budget amounted to GEL 20 million.

Last year, Georgian readers received many wonderful gifts from MagtiCom -  Chabua Amirejibi's seven-volume collected works; the newspaper “Ganakhlebuli Iveria” (Iveria renewed); the exhibition at the Modern Art gallery and Dimitri Shevardnadze's album of paintings; jointly with Neostudio and the Georgian Telefilm company, the documentary “We Are the First Europeans” was made; MagtiCom was the general sponsor and organizer of the Caucasian International Festival of Advertisement (CIFA); MagtiCom also financed the award ceremonies for Georgia's best football player of the century and the best sportsmen of the year 2001, the broadcast rights for the 2001 Wimbledon tennis championship and the 2002 World Cup championship in football; the performances at the Sukhumi and Marjanishvili Theatres and many others.

In addition,  MagtiCom funded medical treatment and education of young people; provided aid to the orphan refugee children from Abkhazia and the list goes on.
We have mentioned only a part of the noble and useful undertakings that were made possible with the support and funding of the company. As it was stated earlier, MagtiCom is the first company in Georgia that has made its charity work fully open and transparent. May many thousands of others follow!