Child Portraits Uncovered

Every Child Needs a Family

Around 4900 children in Armenia are still in orphanages and special boarding schools, away from their families. 80 percent of them have at least one parent and were placed there due to socio-economic hardships their families are facing and good conditions that orphanages offer for children.

• It is imperative to ensure that every child enjoys the right to live in a family. For that purpose, funds allocated for maintenance of orphanages should be rather directed to support socially vulnerable families or expansion of foster care, while orphanages and other care institutions where children live should be transformed into family support centers.

Implementation
"Every Child Needs a Family" PR Campaign

From the January 2011 APRA starts implementation of PR campaign of the project “Every Child Needs a Family” conducted by UNICEF. The goal of the project is orientation of public opinion towards the adaptation of basic ideas of the reform of social protection of children. The main objective of the project is to support the Government of Armenia in implementation of child protection reforms and, particularly, its de-institutionalization strategy, by raising public awareness about different aspects of the reform and by popularization and promotion of the messages that “A child has a right to have a family” and “A child should be brought up in a family”.
During the campaign a round table-discussions with participation of the representatives of UNICEF and State Agencies, experts of the field, famous political, cultural actors will be organized; TV commercials and documentaries will be created; concerts with participation of Children’s Chamber Orchestra of UNICEF will be organized; experts involved in the project will participate in on-line forums, TV interviews and talk-shows; in one of the most popular radios a series of reportages will be broadcast and etc.
The project will be implemented in close cooperation with mass media representatives.
Duration of the project is 1 year.