Today, there are 15 special schools in Armenia where orphans live and study in those schools. When you look at the faces of those children, you immediately understand that we are too far from considering ourselves a civilized country. Thousands of children today suffer knowing that their birth has caused a problem for their parents. That is why they are not able to see them and are forced to live in a night school. These children have a longing to see their parents. At the beginning of every week, they impatiently wait for the weekend so that they can get a chance to see them.
Ofelia, Anahit and Gor study at the #10 special school in Yerevan named after Petros Duryan. Anahit’s parents are divorced. Her father left for Russia and forgot about his family. As for the mother, since she could not take care of the child on her own, she sent her daughter to a special school. Gor’s eyes say everything. Gor is not an orphan. He has a mother and father, brother and sister, but when night falls, he separates himself in one corner and cries: “Gor is in this school for the second time,” says owner of the #10 special school Marine Aghajanyan. “He used to study here for a while, but then the parents signed him out saying that they were taking him to a different school.” After Gor left the school, some of the teachers saw Gor begging for money on the streets. Today, Gor is once again in the school. According to the teachers, Gor is very smart, he understands that begging for money is not a good thing. He is happy to study again, but still, when night falls he finds himself a corner where he can weep in sorrow. The mother of Ofelia and her sister has also abandoned them. The children have contact with their father, but the latter sees them only on Saturdays and Sundays.
We found out about all of this from the teachers. The children, on the other hand, have invented totally different stories with which they try to justify what their parents have done to them. In some way, they are making their parents’ lives a little easier. There are many stories like this at the school, around 160. The ordinary day at the school starts at 7:30 a.m. The children start out with exercise, then lessons, games, lying and relaxing in warm and cold beds where their mothers do not come to them to wish them a good night. The school is not open on Saturdays and Sundays because that is the day when the children go “home”. There are times when the parents or the guardians forget about picking the children up from school. When that happens, the nannies take the children to their house. It is also possible that that same parent forgets about the child the following week. In any case, the children do not remain on the streets. As for the food, according to owner of the school M. Aghajanyan, the school has a variety of food to offer because there are many organizations supporting the school. The children’s day is not limited to lessons. There are certain clubs where children spend quality time. “Last year, the members of the Ararat youth branch came to the school and organized law, gobelen, art and dance groups and those groups function until now,” says M. Aghajanyan.
The state primarily takes care of the orphans. The state pays each child 500-600 drams for food, clothes, etc. and 470 dram for children who do not spend the night at the school. Food is served four times a day. “The state pays a rather expensive amount on these special schools. Don’t be surprised when I say that the expenditures made for these schools are ten times bigger than the regular schools,” says special education professor of the supervising section of the Public Department of the Ministry of Education and Sciences Artsvik Arshakyan. It is said that 800 drams will be paid for each child instead of the usual 500 starting from January of next year. Some businessmen also provide financial aid to the special schools from time to time, but then again, that happens only when we approach the New Year.
The special schools have doctors, teachers and nannies. The nannies and teachers receive 45-46 thousand drams a month. What’s amazing is that the special school named after Petros Duryan does not have a psychologist. Just by looking at the faces of the children, you can see that they need to express themselves and share their thoughts and feelings with somebody. The owner of the school claimed that the reason for not having a psychologist was lack of finances.
The schools foreseen for orphans and the children from the neighborhoods are fifteen in number in Armenia, however, according to the new resolution passed by the government, starting from 2007 these schools will turn into centers for security and care. There will be 6-7 centers functioning, instead of having 15 schools. “If there are orphans, then they will be staying in those centers. The state will not pay 600 drams a day for each child, but rather, each child will receive three dollars a day. The state will take care of all the expenses,” says Artsvik Arshakyan. The children staying at the center will not receive education; instead, they will study at a regular school with other children which will help in the integration process. As to how ready society is to welcome these children, only time can tell. For the time being, we just want to be optimistic and hope that there will be teachers and psychologists, who will, in some way, try to help these children get over their psychological stress and try to give the love that they never received from their parents.