Children in Gyumri look to the future

Onnik Krikorian / UNICEF Armenia

Sixteen years after the 1988 Earthquake that devastated Armenia 's second largest city, Vartouhi Petrosian lives in one of the several hundred domiks (temporary metal containers) that make up the urban landscape of modern-day Gyumri.

Despite recent construction work financed by the US-Armenian Lincy Foundation, poverty in the northern Shirak region of Armenia still remains severe. Unemployment is two to three times higher than the national average and sixty percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

Like many others living in Gyumri, Vartouhi's family has no electricity or water and lives on a staple diet of potatoes, pasta and bread. She has been particularly hit by the desperate socio-economic situation because she is a single mother.

Fourteen years earlier, however, after surviving the earthquake that killed her parents and eldest brother, Vartouhi had a promising future. In 1990, she enrolled at Yerevan State University and was in her third year studying linguistics when her future husband kidnapped her, a tradition that is still sometimes practiced in Armenia.

After they married, the newlyweds moved to Russia but when their relationship failed seven years later, Vartouhi Petrosian returned to Gyumri. Unemployed and penniless, she arrived with her two children, Svetlana, now aged 13, and Emma, aged 11.

"When we came back, my daughters could speak only in a mixture of Russian and Armenian," she says. "They couldn't attend school because we didn't have any money to buy books or even clothes. When my children were hungry and there was no food, I beat them out of desperation. I wanted to commit suicide. We couldn't even heat our home."

However, when it was discovered that Svetlana and Emma weren't attending school, Geghanush Gyunashyan, Director of the Shirak International Association's Community-based Care Center for Children at Risk, acted immediately to assist the family.

The Center was established in 2002 with the assistance of UNICEF to support families with children found unaccompanied and working on the streets or who are unable to attend school simply because they are poor. Fifty children aged between 6 and 15 are registered at the center although more attend on an irregular basis. Like Svetlana and Emma, twenty of the children come from single parent families.

At the Center, a staff of two social workers, two teachers, a nurse, doctor, psychologist and ten volunteers cater for the children's needs. They learn handicrafts and receive assistance with their school work.

"The Center is the only reason why we survive," explains Vartouhi Petrosian. "In order to receive food my children attend a boarding school but they don't like it there. After classes finish at 2pm , they go to the Center and stay until 6pm . They like spending their time at the Center. Geghanush is like a second mother for them."

When Svetlana and Emma first visited the center, however, they couldn't even read. Now, thanks to access to equipment at the center, Svetlana says she wants to become a computer programmer. But although Svetlana and Emma now receive an education that is not to say that the family's overall situation has otherwise improved.

In April, Vartouhi Petrosian was admitted into hospital after the psychological pressure of living below the national poverty line took its toll. "She was beating her children and walking around with a knife," says Gyunashyan. "We took her to the psychological center and they said that she was dangerous and had to be taken to hospital."

One month later, after Vartouhi received treatment, Svetlana and Emma were reunited with their mother. Without support from the Shirak International Association, the experience might have torn the family apart. Like many other children in the same situation, thirteen-year-old Svetlana has already aged beyond her years.

"I am ready to work to look after my mother," she says. "My dream is to have a strong family. I don't want to be a burden to my mother because I know how difficult it is to find food."

Gyunashyan says that none of the children in her care have otherwise been separated from their families. Because of poverty there has been a significant increase in the number of children from vulnerable families enrolled into specialized boarding schools and children's homes originally intended for children with disabilities or those without parents.

"Now, the main issues are those of job creation and income generation. If we faced up to the reality and had more assistance from the government," she continues, "we could overcome everything."

"This initiative is essential for the development of a state strategy on alternative care to prevent the institutionalization of children at risk," adds Naira Avetisyan, UNICEF's Child Protection Officer. "The role of the local authorities and community must be encouraged to ensure the sustainability of such initiatives as part of a state policy on children and families at risk."