There are eight state and five private orphanages in Armenia and more
than 1150 children living in the orphanages. According to the Ministry
of Labor and Social Security, 43 children have been adopted as orphans
in the beginning of 2005. Seventeen of them have been adopted by
foreigners. An average of 100 children gets adopted yearly.
A Story
On May 30 of this year, Armen suffered a hemorrhage of the lungs. His
mother took him to the #1 orphanage’s reanimation room. She has made
visits to the orphanage for only 5-6 days, after which she has never
set foot there again. The orphanage’s reanimation department helped
cure Armen, but the child hasn’t seen his mother since the hemorrhage.
The mother’s name is said to be Monica A., and she has given birth to
the child in the city of Abovyan. Armen’s birth has been registered at
the hospital, however, since Monica has not presented her passport for
identification, she has not received any official documents. Due to
this, Armen has no birth certificate. Monica has not even shown any
identification at the #1 orphanage. She has only filled out her address
on the application sheet, which is as follows: City of Abovyan, 1
Barekamutyun Street, Apt. #26. The hospital has informed the local
authorities and they have confirmed that there is no such person living
there. One of the doctors of the orphanage, Igor Nalchajyan, believes
that Monica has given a false address so that nobody can find her. It
is quite possible that the child was born as a result of a premarital
relationship because until now not one relative has come to the
orphanage. The child has been taken care of by the doctors working at
the orphanage. All the doctors working at the orphanage are happy to
have five year old Armen there. As a matter of fact, one of the senior
nurses Elmira Bagirova is very close with Armen. She practically takes
care of him by herself.
“I want to take him home at least for the weekend, but they don’t let
me,” says Mrs. Elmira. “They say that if the child goes home with me,
maybe during that time his mother might come by asking for her child. I
am very connected to Armen. I feed him, bathe him, buy him clothes. He
sleeps with me, in other words, I love him very much. I feel that he
loves me too. I can not imagine a day when I will come home and see
that my little Armen is not there. I will go crazy. I will quit my
job.” Besides that, it was clear to see that the child loves Mrs.
Elmira more. Perhaps the reason for this is that Mrs. Elmira doesn’t
have children of her own, yet some inner voice has made her get close
with the child. Mrs. Elmira wants to adopt Armen, but she is afraid
that the orphanage will not allow that. “They tell me that there are
many people waiting to adopt children from the orphanage,” she says. “I
am not married and I am already 52 years old. I have not applied for
adopting a child simply because of my age. But I have a house, a job, I
can take care of myself and earning a living is not a problem for me.
Despite all of that, I don’t think they will allow me to adopt Armen. I
don’t want them to take Armen to the orphanage. I want to take care of
him all by myself. If one day his mother comes to me asking for her
child, I will give her child back. But I don’t want him to be someone
else’s.”
Reality
“What kind of psychology does a five year old child have?” asked head
of the Department of Family, Women’s and Children’s issues at the
Ministry of Social Security Lala Ghazaryan. “The important thing for us
is to see that the child be in good hands.”
One of the department workers informed us that a 52 year old woman may
not adopt a newborn, but rather an older child. Generally, adopting a
child is a very long process.
“If the citizen wants to receive any information about adopting a
child, he or she can apply to the regional council or the
municipality,” says Mrs. Ghazaryan. “Both the regional council and the
municipality have a special section where matters like these are dealt
with. The applicant must provide documents stating health, income, job
location and information regarding family members. The applicant must
also present a certificate claiming that he or she has not committed
any crime. Once the application is filled out, it then goes through
further investigation of living conditions and documents. Specialists
figure out whether or not the person wanting to adopt the child lives
in normal conditions and if he or she is capable of taking care of the
child. After that, the board leads a discussion with board members and
decides whether or not adoption will be granted to the applicant. There
is also a state board which works for foreigners. After coming to a
conclusion, the citizen is considered as a candidate for adopting. His
or her documents are then sent to the Ministry in order to summarize
all the information. The citizen applying for adoption now has the
right to choose which child he or she wants to take care of, after
which, the applicant can appeal to the court for a final verdict.
According to Mrs. Ghazaryan, the number of people wanting to adopt
children exceeds that of the children being adopted. Of course, there
are more than a thousand orphans in the orphanages, but most of the
children have single or married parents who don’t agree to depriving
their right to take care of the child. In order for someone to adopt a
child, both parents must come to terms. Let’s not forget that there are
orphans who are ill. The adopter obviously wants to adopt a young and
healthy child whose parents will not be a major problem in the future.
“Some of the parents actually go and visit their children from time to
time,” says Vice Director of Zeytun’s “Orphanage for Special Children”
Hasmik Mkrtchyan. “You feel that the parents can not take them home and
take care of them due to a heavy social/economic status. Many of them
even disappear for months and years, but, it doesn’t matter. They don’t
allow their children to be adopted. However, there are also parents who
come to the orphanage, pick up their children, take them outside and
force them to become beggars. When we see how they treat the children,
we bring them back to the orphanage. The fact remains that very few
parents actually let their children be adopted.”
According to the “Family Code”, “Agreement between parents for adopting
the child is unnecessary if the parent is unknown, considered missing
or unemployed by the tribunal. If the parent does not live with the
child, does not take care of the child for more than a year, the
tribunal has the right to deprive the parent of his or her parental
rights.” The Ministry of Social Affairs has accurate information
regarding the number of children ready to be adopted in the orphanages.
Another reality
A woman (anonymous) wishing to adopt a child tells her story. She spent
nearly $3,000 dollars in order to get permission from officials and a
final decision to adopt a child from the orphanage.
”True, everything goes in order, but until you don’t pay a certain
amount of extra money to the doctors, you can not adopt a child,” she
says. “They will just take your documents and just keep you waiting.
You also have to pay extra money at the orphanage in order to adopt a
healthy child. Just like all state owned organizations, the orphanage
also charges fees. So, we leave laws on one hand because what really
matters is how much money you pay them. I know that foreigners pay more
than the locals. They come here, rent a lawyer and tell the lawyer that
they want a healthy child so that there will not be any complications.
They give the money needed and wait for the job to be taken care of. It
turns out that you are buying a child.” As we can see, Armen’s destiny
is in the hands of different departments. They are the ones that decide
who should raise, discipline and take care of the child. Mrs. Elmira
really wants to take care of the child, but she is old and has no money
to adopt the child.” Armen is going to transfer to the Nork orphanage.
If the child’s mother does not appear in the course of one year, then
the child will most probably be taken care of a young and wealthy
couple, perhaps, in other countries. The officials who deal with these
kinds of issues guarantee that they will continue to follow up on the
child until he or she reaches the age of 18. They guarantee that they
will bring the child back, but he or she will not feel at ease. “There
have been no complaints until now,” says Mrs. Ghazaryan. In any case,
168 hours promises to follow up on Armen’s destiny.