A spokesman for the Christian charity World Vision spoke to the Hamilton Rotary Club about family issues in the former Soviet Union.

Michael McIntyre,World Vision's national director for Eastern Europe and Russia, said that the charity was working with women in Georgia and surrounding countries on removing them from mental institutions.

He said: "Many women in the institutions were put there because their family could not afford to take care of them, but what is happening is that they are being sold to groups as sex slaves.

"We are setting up groups were this will not happen any more and one woman has set up a home where the women who have been institutionalised can come."

The way that World Vision is doing this and helping people to set up sustainable businesses is giving them a relatively small loan.

"From this the people are able to help themselves," said Mr. McIntyre.

"We are also in the process of training social workers to deal with the socio-economic issues."

There are more than 4,000 orphans in these areas and there is no foster care or orphanage system to deal with the growing tide of parent-less children.

"Many of the parents are dying from AIDS and almost 400 of the children either have HIV or are also carrying the virus," he added.

The aim of World Vision was to change these figures.