Poverty and access to health care in Armenia

Sometimes I really hate my job. Having first been inspired by the potential for photojournalism to effect change some 27 years ago, the situation in regions such as the South Caucasus can be depressing. While there have been some successes such as managing to get the Armenian government to finally admit there was a homeless problem in Yerevan and to open a shelter, by and large the media is pretty impotent in countries such as Armenia. So, when I had to today photograph 34-year old Naira Thomasian, a kidney dialysis patient living in poverty, for the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, I was dreading the question she would of course end up asking.

That is, will this interview and photographs help to change her situation. Of course, I couldn’t say that it would, only that I hoped so. A few years ago, statistics showed that only one in three Armenians sought medical care when they needed it thanks to a system of informal payments or a lack of resources at hospitals themselves and I doubt the situation has changed much since. Thankfully, Naira mostly has free treatment, but what about some of the other problems she faces? Problems, for example, such as living in poverty, being unable to work and a lack of money in the State budget for sufficient social assistance?

“I was first diagnosed 10 years ago and I didn’t know what to expect. I wasn’t working then as I was married and had my child to look after, but when I was diagnosed with this illness my husband left me. He didn’t understand or want to help. My son was just a baby and life has been hard ever since.

[…] by law they have to provide the medicines, but what happens if they don’t have them? It’s not their fault and they have the main medicines I need.

[…]

We don’t even have enough money for food so I don’t eat properly either, but what about the health of my mother and son?

He’s 11 and she’s 71 and they never go for treatment because we can’t afford it. Nobody is working and the 16,000 AMD (about $43) we receive in social benefits on top of my mother’s pension is not enough to cover much more than renting these rooms.
Of course, they say they’re healthy, but my mother has constant headaches. She says has to look after me so can’t find the time to even think about looking after herself. We have no money for food and so she spends a lot of her time going out to find herbs to bring back to cook.”

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