Our Duty To Live, Vanadzor, Lori Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Tufenkian Foundation 2006

Today saw a visit to the Tufenkian Foundation’s Our Duty To Live project in Vanadzor. I previously posted some photos from the Our Duty To Live Center in Yerevan here and here. Anyway, with a sizeable number of families living below the national poverty level, projects like this are crucial to address the social, psychological, nutritional and educational needs of children from vulnerable families in Armenia.

In Vanadzor, the situation is made worse by the devastating effect of the 1988 Armenian Earthquake which still lingers. There are still over 300 families living in domiks – temporary metal containers — even today. I did something on this with a local journalist based in Vanadzor in 2004.

Eighteen-month-old Mariam, the youngest of Lena Shestakova’s nine children, was born with heart trouble. She lives with her family in a domik, or metal trailer. Doctors say she needs surgery, but only after her exhausted body has had time to regain strength. Her parents don’t have enough money to take Mariam for a medical examination. Her father, Styopa Khachatryan, says that the last time they went to the hospital, doctors asked for 20,000 drams (about $39) to treat the girl. Families like this, however, are entitled to free health care. “The poverty index of their family is higher than 38, which means that all the members of the family are entitled to medical services, including surgery, free of charge,” explains the deputy head of the department of health and social security of the Lori Marzpet’s (governor’s) Office, Valery Jaghinyan.

But Mariam’s family has had trouble claiming this entitlement. The only thing they can afford is the medicine for the injections that their neighbor, a nurse, gives the child six times a day, twice by candlelight. The family lives in the dark - their electricity meter was taken away more than a year ago, because they owed 8,000 drams debt. Their ailing daughter was recently bitten by a rat. Luckily, she wasn’t seriously injured.

Our Duty To Live, Vanadzor, Lori Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Tufenkian Foundation 2006

Part of the problem faced by those families living in temporary and inadequate accomodation is that they often lack the necessary documents to claim social benefits. Almost everything still requires registration at a permanent place of residence. Add to that a lack of investment in the regions of Armenia, and you can understand why poverty in urban centers such as Vanadzor can be crippling.

That’s not to say that the situation in Yerevan can be better for other socially vulnerable families, but for sure, the situation in the regions can be more widespread because economic activity is limited to say the least. Therefore, it’s good to see centers such as Our Duty To Live open up branches in locations outside Yerevan. Vanadzor, for example, is Armenia’s third largest city.

Some photos are posted below, but while visiting the center, I thought I might as well conduct a short interview with Karine Grigorian, the Programme Manager responsible for Our Duty To Live at the Tufenkian Foundation.

ONNIK KRIKORIAN: What is the connection between the Tufenkian Foundation and Our Duty To Live?

Karine Grigorian: Our Duty To Live is one of the projects of the Tufenkian Foundation, and the whole project is financed by us. The project started in Yerevan in 2001, the first regional branch was opened in Medzamor in 2002, and in Vanadzor in 2003.

OK: And now the plan is for Our Duty To Live to become a separate NGO?

KG: We will soon become an NGO in order to engage in existing and additional activities funded by the Tufenkian Foundation and other organizations. That should happen by the end of this year. Incidentally, this is the largest of the Centers.

OK: We were talking earlier about the domiks that still exist in Vanadzor. How would you describe the social situation of the families that you’re dealing with here?

KG: The beneficiaries of the programme are especially socially under-privileged families or orphans.

OK: I always get confused when I hear the term “orphan” in Armenia because it is also used to refer to children from single parent families. When you use the term, are you referring to that or those children without both parents?

KG: Both.

OK: I’m guessing that most if not all of the children attend boarding schools rather than normal ones even if only on a daily basis. The idea is that when the boarding schools are closed, there will be Community Care Centers established in order to cater for those children from vulnerable families in Armenia. Do you think that Our Duty To Live can be one of those organizations that can take on that role?

KG: We have children who attend our Center who are enrolled in boarding schools. When those schools are closed, these children will stay within the framework of our project and we will continue to work with them. However, as we have limited financial means, we work only with 60 families in Vanadzor but there are hundreds of others who need us or other organizations to work with them. Therefore, we can see that there will be a need for us to work with these children when the boarding schools are closed.

OK: How to you find these families?

KG: We receive a list from the government, from schools, the Mayor’s Office, and then our social workers visit the families in their homes. We also visit shops and ask which families have debts. If someone can’t pay for bread, it’s likely that their families could be enrolled in our programme.

OK: How many children and families do the three centers cater for?

KG: Last year we worked with 180 families and 437 children. This year we have 60 families in Vanadzor, 45 families in Yerevan, and 32 in Medzamor. That’s 100 children here, 80 children in Yerevan, and about 50 in Medzamor.

OK: How would you describe the activities of Our Duty To Live?

KG: We work not only with children, but their families as well because we think that the problems with such children come not from them, but because of the environment the family is living in. Our work must be done simultaneously with the children and their families by social workers, psychologists, teachers and priests. We try to fill the holes in their education and attitudes towards it, and to strengthen their feelings and values.

The most important thing is mutual understanding between parent and child.

OK: Are their cases of abuse in some families, and what can you do if there is?

KG: We have the problem in all three centers. For example, in Yerevan there was one case where both the child and their mother was abused by the father. We had to send the child to another organization, SOS Kinderdorf. There was no option but to separate the child from the parents. In most cases, however, social workers, psychologist and a priest will have meetings with the parents in order to provide social, psychological and therapeutic assistance.

During these meeting, parents are given the opportunity to learn how to help themselves. We also arrange group meetings, and sometimes invite doctors and lawyers to talk to the parents. We think that the child must live in the family, and we want to resolve any problems there so that the children are not separated from their parents. I think this project is therefore very important for our beneficiaries because there are a large number of people who are forgotten.

Nobody cares about them, and because of this there is the danger that one day they will become beggars or thieves. We hope to work with these children to prevent them from taking this path in life, and to help them realize their full potential. There are many children born in the domiks in Vanadzor and they might become successful in life if they are supported and provided with the right opportunities.

Without that, they do not have the right environment to pursue proper education. The children receive food here and there are children that have never eaten meat in their homes. They even first taste Armenian dishes here, and there are families that can only afford to eat bread. If children are hungry they cannot learn anything.

Yet, the child is not to blame for being born in a domik. At the center, they are psychologically changed. We teach them that even if they’re not rich they can be part of society. We had children in the center that could not read or write, for example, or who had never seen Lake Sevan or Mount Ararat.

They do not know Armenian history or language well enough, or their own religion, but this project changes that. They get all those things from the Center. It is like a second home. The parents themselves can not change their problems on their own. We need to help them, and especially to help them help themselves and to know their rights.

Anyway, more of the photo work I’ve done for the Tufenkian Foundation can be found here. The work should be completed this work and will eventually find its way onto their new web site.

Our Duty To Live, Vanadzor, Lori Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Tufenkian Foundation 2006