SOCIETY MUST BE ATTENTIVE TO THEM

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
18 June 2004

In all countries there are orphanages which operate through the support
of the government and benefactors. The boarding school in Kashatagh has
been operating since 1996 and accommodates 30 children. In Kashatagh
there is one child from Stepanakert, two children were admitted to
the orphanages of Armenia. At the department of problems of family
and children under the Ministry of Social Security we learned that
there are 64 parentless children in the republic presently who are
mainly taken care of by their relatives and guardians. They receive
monthly state benefit of 3 thousand drams. According to the head of
the department Samvel Dadassian, parentless children also receive aid
from sponsors one of which is the German charity organization “Image
of Hope”. The organization provides food and clothes to parentless
children and single pensioners. The aid is given twice or three times
a year. Touching upon the aid provided by benefactors, S. Dadassian
also stated that for improving the material state and quality of life
of the parentless children in the republic the NKR Ministry of Social
security and “Karabakh Telecom” have worked out a joint program of
providing financial to children under 18 in 2004. “The program is
financed by Karabakh Telecom and once in three months these children
receive 10 thousand drams on the bank accounts in “Artsakhbank” opened
in the name of their guardians,” said S. Dadassian. The program will
be implemented up to January 1 of 2005. At the department of problems
of family and children we were informed that all the 64 children have
received their sum for the first trimester of 2004 and the payments
for the second trimester are currently made. Recently the government
of Armenia adopted a decision according to which the children who have
left the orphanage will be provided with flats. Speaking about the
housing conditions of parentless children living in our republic the
head of the department noticed that mainly living with their guardians
the children do not have the need for flats except for a family
(three children) who are homeless. Presently a survey is conducted
and in the future this problem will also possibly be solved. The
birth of a child is the beginning of a fairy tale. Unfortunately,
there are children for whom the fairy tale ends as soon as it starts.
Sometimes by fate and sometimes because of the careless attitude of
their parents a group of children today are parentless. The duty of
our state and the society is to do so that these children believe in
the existence of happy childhood.

ANAHIT DANIELIAN. 18-06-2004