...Twenty children, many also suffering from physical disabilities, attend a school run by volunteers at the union each day. The number is higher in summer, but many stay at home in winter because of the cold of the unheated classroom.
Abandoned by the Government, with only their families for support, the children often spend their days at Prkutyun learning to read, write and pronounce their own names. Some draw nice pictures; some can sew very well.
According to the Ministry of Health, there are 8,000 disabled children registered in Armenia. But there is no unified State program to help them - depending on the degree of disability, their families qualify for assistance worth between 2,300 Drams ($4) and 3,400 Drams ($6) per month.
Prkutyun, founded in 1997, is housed in a damp building that was formerly a kindergarten. The ceiling and walls are crumbling, the roof leaks, and the floor is cracking - repairs are needed urgently, but there is no money.
Most of the children at the school have spinal problems, which make it hard for them to move. Parents of other youngsters cannot afford the cost of transporting them to the center each day.
The union has 600 children registered on its books in all, and acts on behalf of their families to try to get them basic help. Perhaps one child needs a wheelchair, another some surgery or special treatment.
Arpine Abrahamian, the director of the center, spends her day lobbying different organizations for assistance. Mostly, she gets refusals.
But she admits she is very persistent and cannot relax until she has succeeded in helping a child.
"Once we asked a prominent Armenian businessman, who is also a deputy in the National Assembly, for assistance," Abrahamian says.
"He replied that the Government had neither the money nor the time to take care of healthy children, let alone disabled ones."
She says these words characterize the attitude of the State in Armenia toward disabled children.
In Soviet times, there were institutions to assist disabled children to which the parents were also able to make contributions.
Today, the parents are unable to make even the smallest contribution because of poverty, while neither the State nor the Armenian Church provides assistance to the union....
<http://www.armeniaweek.com/feb082002/children.html> -- Yoshie
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