World Vision Armenia Child Development Center

As mentioned in a previous post, The Caucasian Knot has now started to work on shooting images for an exhibition on disabilities and especially the need to integrate handicapped children into mainstream education as well as support them in preparing for later life as adults. As part of this project which will likely last until the spring, The Caucasian Knot today returned to World Vision’s Malatia Child Development Center.

Although World Vision came to Armenia in the aftermath of the 1988 Earthquake, the Center opened in 2002. However, the organization also works with socially vulnerable children and those with special needs in 17 community-based centers and 21 inclusive education kindergartens scattered throughout the country. Last September, 71 children with special needs were thus able to enter the first year of school thanks to services delivered by the organization.

[…] They were treated by a speech therapist, an art therapist and a psychologist; participated in performances organized by World Vision. They learnt to communicate with other children, and were taught to read and write.

Speaking to The Caucasian Knot, Tigran Tshorokhyan, World Vision’s Technical Support Team’s Child Protection Specialist, describes the Malatia center as just one part of the organization’s work in the area of child protection. The main objective is the provision of relevant services to children with special needs in order to integrate them into mainstream education whenever possible. It also serves as a resource center for the other community centers, 10 of which have been handed over to local government.

We also undertake our own awareness raising campaigns which offer the real possibility to change the mentality of society and to make it more inclusive when it comes to children, and especially those with learning disabilities or special needs.

World Vision Child Development Center, Malatia-Sebastia, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

Of course, with integration in mind, the center is not just for children with special needs. There are also clubs which not only offer services to children with disabilities, but also to those from the local community. The children are aged from 3 to 18 years of age and the majority is enrolled in mainstream schools. Amalia Martirossian, the center’s coordinator also says that it produces training and methodological materials for parents, teachers and children.

This is very important because these materials are in Armenian.

World Vision Child Development Center, Malatia-Sebastia, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

Next year the center will be transformed into a single legal entity and a foundation with a board of trustees although World Vision will provide financial assistance for the first year. Martirossian says that about 600 children have benefitted from services provided by the center although about 50 received long term assistance. Special development toys were also designed to assess and aid children with and without special needs at the center.

World Vision International Humanitarian organization with the funds raised by the Burns Committee in conjunction with the British Embassy presents a series of unique toys designed by World Vision Armenia specialists for the physical and mental development and rehabilitation of children with special needs.

During the coming two months World Vision Armenia will distribute these toys to inclusive kindergartens, schools and other inclusive, special, rehabilitation facilities in Armenia.

Home visits by the center’s social worker are also part of its function. Today, for example, Anna Aslanian took The Caucasian Knot to visit two cases of special interest. Living in the Malatia-Sebastia district of the capital, 12-year old Levon has Down’s Syndrome and does not attend school although his younger sister, Lusine, does. His parents have been absent and working in Europe for four years now so the two children are brought up by their grandmother. Aslanian will visit a special school and attempt to have him enrolled there.

Levon, World Vision Home Visit, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

Lusine, World Vision Home Visit, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

Later, Aslanian visits 14-year old Nareg as he recovers from a recent operation on his left leg in the hopes that he will later be able to walk without problems. The operation was made possible thanks to the support of a donor found by World Vision. Nareg’s mother abandoned him after he was born when it was obvious he was disabled. His father, however, refused to do so and brings up his son alone. “He’s a very good man,” says Aslanian who has also brought paper and pencils for Nareg to draw with while he recuperates.

Nareg, World Vision Home Visit, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

The adolescent is a remarkable artist for his age and it is not hard to imagine him working as an illustrator or animator in the future. “Our main goal, however,” says Aslanian, “is that Nareg will one day be able to walk unassisted.”

Nareg, World Vision Home Visit, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

And the work of the center is not just confined to World Vision’s own program. The organization has also made available its premises to another local NGO, Nrani, which works in the same area of children with special needs. The organization takes The Caucasian Knot to meet one of its beneficiaries in the Zeytun district of the city. Abandoned by his father, David, aged five, has cerebral palsy and his mother brings him up in her mother and grandmother’s home.

David’s musculoskeletal disorder is complicated by a deformed rib cage. Breathing is difficult, but his personality shines through.

David, Nrani Home Visit, Zeytun, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

Attentive and aware of everything around him, the love between mother and child is unmistakable although she admits that even at his young age he is pleasantly becoming a “handful.” “Even though he’s surrounded by women, he likes watching TV programs about cars,” she says. “He likes all the things that most boys his age would.”

David, Nrani Home Visit, Zeytun, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

World Vision Armenia has a website at http://www.wvarmenia.am and there’s a World Vision Armenia You Tube Channel here. Nrani has one at http://www.nrani.org.