NGO works to keep children in school and out of orphanages
08.17.2007
ArmeniaNow -The Community Development and Social Support Center Non Governmental Organization is concerned with the serious social, health and educational needs of the children of Gyumri.
The center has previously been acting within the structure of the Shirak international union, and in 2004 it was granted a status of an independent body. The organization cooperates with the government and particularly, the Ministry of Social and Labor Issues. Additionally, it implements numerous programs of social protection of children in collaboration with the United Nations, the German International Red Cross and other organizations.
The center implements also research programs that help to find and to support those children who most severely need help.
Priority is given to educational programs and to those children who have been left out of school because of social needs.
“Gyumri is a small town. The district by district surveys in 2002, mainly in vulnerable districts, discovered nearly 40 children who did not attend school; we achieved their re-acceptance to school,” tells chairperson of the center Geghanush Minasyan.
Minasyan says the surveys have disclosed families where children have not attended schools at all.
“The reason is not only the social hardship but also indifference of the parents,” she says.
There are many similar cases in Gyumri and neighboring villages. The Grigoryans’ five children have never gone to school. The elder son of the family is 20 years old but he has not been conscripted to army because of his illiteracy.
“So, illiterate children are not conscripted. We sent two of the children to school,” says Minasyan.
Nearly 150 children are registered with the center getting permanent care. The psychological and pedagogical work the center does begins in the family. There are families who become able to solve their children’s problems independently after they get support of the center.
Still, in Gyumri there are many families from vulnerable groups. The common case in schools is the bad treatment of children from vulnerable groups that puts even more pressure on them. There have been cases when the center was forced to put students in other schools.
The center collaborates with international and local NGOs, such as the UN and the German Red Cross; owing to their help, the children get clothes and school supplies.
One of the major aims of the center is to keep children out of orphanages.
“It so hard for us when children who have parents appear in orphanages because of social issues, especially as they are taken out of the town,” says Minasyan.
The day care centers opened in Gyumri are meant to prevent those kind of cases. Many parents visit these centers along with their children where there is an opportunity to have at least one meal per day. Hovik Chumaryan, 10, is under his grandmother’s care. The rest of the family (6, besides the grandmother) suffers from mental illnesses. Hovik has never had a father. And though he has had a mother she has never been by his side. (She was abroad, and died this year.)
“I have been taking care after Hovik from the very childhood,” says Greta Chumaryan, 53, the grandmother. “Our life is so hard. I will go and beg bread, but I will never let my child go to orphanage.”
The problems of children protection in Gyumri are numerous. The results of the surveys by various organizations are not collected and there is no statistical data in this sphere. At present a Center for Childcare Protection is being constructed in Gyumri with the support of the Ministry of Social and Labor Issues that will have a separate premise and a state status. The center will have a database that will centralize the data of children with problems.
Back
