A group of US-based Armenian students have addressed the Government of Armenia with the request to provide diplomatic and organizational assistance to help them travel to Armenia. The text of the request was written by three of the students and posted on the Facebook page of one of the students, and another ten students signed under the text.
“8 reasons why we want to return to Armenia and right now
1. We all live in the US, the country with the most expensive medical care in the world, and most of us can’t afford to pay that much for medical insurance.
2. Three days ago, the US recorded the most cases of COVID-19.
3. Most of us were told about the closure of universities three to four days ago, and so we didn’t know what to do.
4. Universities are gradually depriving most of us of nutritious food and forcing us to live by ordering from stores that lack food.
5. Universities are forcing us to eat at public diners where we are at a high risk of being infected.
6. All the other students at universities are transported to a shared hostel.
7. Most of us relied on our jobs for income and financial assistance, but since jobs have closed, we don’t have funds to earn a living.
8. This situation also has a serious psychological impact on us. We are far from our families and relatives, and we are concerned about each other’s health and safety. This stressful situation also has an impact on our physical health, weakening our immune system and making us even more vulnerable to the coronavirus.
We understand that everyone is in a crisis and is facing a difficult situation and that there are people who are in much more critical conditions. We wouldn’t like to cause our country financial difficulties since we know that there are more urgent expenses. Therefore, we are ready to cover our travel expenses and ask and hope the government to provide only diplomatic and organizational assistance. We also understand the risks of bringing the virus to Armenia with us and are ready to stay under quarantine for two weeks until we are safe so we can join our families.
Authors:
Tatev Gevorkyan
Eliza Melkonyan
Seda Bagiryan
Signed by:
Inna Sahakian
Elina Sargsyan
Manana Hakobyan
Hovhannes Aleqyan
Anush Mehrabyan
Ofelya Baghdasaryan
Kristina Aleksanyan
Rob Ert
Tamara Kocharyan
Julieta Serobyan,” the text reads.