Cell phone, big car, dog, and computer – these are the material gifts of the children of “Marie Izmirlian” children’s home from Santa Claus. The administration of the children’s home, along with the well-doers, tries to show individual attitude toward the kids and put the gift a child asked from Santa Claus under his pillow at least on the New Year’s Eve.
However, there is an issue, concerning which neither the administration, nor else the richest well-doer is able to help. They cannot make the biggest dream of an inmate of the children’s home, to embrace his mother, come true. When we asked little Narek which cartoon character he loves most, he tried to picture with legs and two hands an appearance that, in Narek’s words, “rescues children from bad guys and brings them to their mothers.”
Our visit to the children’s home today was at the request of Artur Grigoryan, the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs. Disabled children are also taken care of at “Marie Izmirlian” children’s home. They also, along with the others, sang, danced and recited poems for the guests.
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Let us mention that in 2011 the government of the Republic of Armenia declared unloading the children’s homes a priority. Aravot.am inquired from Miniter Grigoryan how many children’s homes had been unloaded during the past year and how many children had returned to their families. According to Mr. Grigoryan, this project has been implemented in the framework of only one children’s home so far, “When we started the process of unloading ‘Zatik’ children’s home, there were 63 children, today 37 children are left.”
Mr. Minister assured that children’s homes didn’t need charity anymore, as they were taken care of by the state “in every respect”, he urged well-doers, politicians and MPs to help poor families, “Times have changed, no more standing in front of a camera and uttering complex sentences, they should help our poor families, our people, in particular, poor children, be useful in terms of protecting children’s rights. They shouldn’t pity for disabled children or children with health problems, they just have to support and lend a hand.”
Lusine BUDAGHYAN
