Report from BHW Armenia Partnership Facilitator Following Visit

Key person:  Hratsh and ACM 

Recent Events

The local representative of ACM, Mardun (on the right in photo), regularly heads up to Vanadzor from Yerevan, usually every two weeks. He visits the families in the area and delivers various things to help them. He is very meticulous about recording the visits and what is delivered. 

ACM has purchased a house in Gymuri that was owned by a Cypriot Exclusive Brethren missionary. This place will become a base for ACM in the north which is where they see themselves operating predominantly in the future. 

They also have an old school they purchased about three years go which they hope to turn into a community centre. 

I visited in October and visited 11 of the 13 families that are being supported. On the particular days we were there two of the families were not available, the children were at school and the mother was working. We heard stories about the circumstances of all those we visited. All were pitiful and it is hard to imagine how life could be harder for them. 

Personal Stories

We visited one family to assess their situation as they have been constantly hassling Mardun to join the programme. They are a young couple, late 30s, with two young children. The husband has had a stroke and is bedridden. The wife used to work in a sewing factory but cannot now. However, she is such a good sewer that the company has given her a sewing machine and she stitches one dress a week for which she gets paid $8. This is the sole income for this family, $32 a month. 

None of these families have much hope. They live in desperate circumstances and with winter coming the next few months will be bleak. 

One family has been given an apartment in a tower block. They are the first ones to get an apartment in this building but there is no water or sewage and no heating in the building. And they have nothing to move into the building like carpets or the like. They would be living in a concrete box, exposed and freezing so they prefer to stay where they are for the time being. Mardun will look at the possibility of getting the place to a livable standard. 

The day we were there, one of the families we support had been given somewhere else to live by the Orthodox Church. The local priests were there as was a camera crew. The exercise was a PR stunt basically with the church being the hero. Mardun will need to go and find them now to see what will happen in the future. To be fair, the most urgent need for many of these families is better accommodation. And an income so they can live. 

I saw the dossier of every family and met 11 of them. I have photos of the ones we visited and heard some of the issues they are facing. 

One family was very interesting. I met the two girls of the family at a meeting run by CEF in Vanadzor. One has qualified as a school teacher but cannot get a job, partly because of where they live, so she helps out as much as she can with CEF clubs and has three going around the area. The younger one is in her first year of University, doing pharmacy, sponsored by ACM. She also works seven hours a day, six days a week and gets paid $2 for seven hours. The mother is unwell and the father sells vegetables. But the local town is run by the Mafia and he’s not one of them so he has to travel about 30 kms in an old car to make about $1 a day. And if the car breaks down!! Their house is an old, two storey wooden building that is a death trap, freezing and full of huge rats. 

Partnership's Influence within the Community

The families that are supported are all very thankful for the help, they say it would be impossible for them to live without the assistance. Many other families are requesting support. Wherever we walked around in the communities, people were asking Mardun to be added to the programme. Some were very animated and desperate. It is tough to be in his position and not able to help them all. 

There is huge stigma for the families that live in these containers. They are discriminated against at school and even in church. People mock them, they are not invited to events and many people won’t send their children to a programme if the container children are involved. One girl came home from school crying the day we visited because people were teasing her on the way home. 

The majority of the 13 families BHW is involved with live in close proximity to each other. Alongside where they live there is a stream with a damaged bridge over it. Some houses are on the brink of collapsing into the stream. Across the bridge are a number of much better places that are for sale. Most cost less than $1,000 for a house and piece of land. I encouraged Hratsh to look at buying those blocks of land and we would consider helping the families with a cow or other small animals to make them self-sustaining. It seems like a much better option that keeping them in perpetual poverty. 

Plans for the Future

The intention is to continue supporting these 13 families. At the same time, research is being done to assess each family and to see if there are ways they can be shifted out of the relief situation. 

Current Issues and Challenges

All of the families have borrowed from banks and money sharks to live. They especially have to do this as emergencies occur, illness, accident and suchlike. Of course, the poor living conditions mean that there is chronic illness in all the families. Some of it is entirely due to their housing conditions. 

Winter is coming and you can almost sense the dread in their demeanor when they start thinking about it. They are all busy gathering combustible materials for winter. Every house has a wood burner at the centre of the main room. Already they are using the burners as autumn turns to winter. 

These families are so desperately poor and uneducated that there is little they can do to help themselves. Many of the women are still in their 20's, some with five children. They left school not able to read and were married and having babies at 14 or 15. They have no idea about life and work and responsibility. Their men have run away because of the children, many to Russia to find work and they never come back. 

The major issue is housing and ACM needs to come up with a plan to shift people out into better accommodation, there is no other alternative. It is not our problem but if they are serious about helping these people, that has to happen. 

Prayer and Praise Points

1) That 13 families are being supported and are appreciative of the help. They constantly praise God for the help.

2) It is very obvious that they love Mardun and they pour out their hearts to him. He is able to console and counsel them and they love him. 

3) That ways will be found to assist these families to find their own way out of poverty. This is not easy as most are widows with young children. There are few jobs around that people can go to and earn a wage that will support them. 

Comments

It is important to remember the context of this project. This city was hit by a devastating earthquake in 1988. At that time Armenia was part of the USSR. Temporary accommodation was brought in to house those made homeless. They were container sized boxes with a wooden floor and made of tin. 30 years later they are well past their used by date. 

The other important thing to understand is that the country is controlled by the Mafia. One family has a greenhouse. Last season he had a wonderful crop and went off to sell it. The Mafia said he couldn’t take it to sell it and they said they would buy it at 1/3 of the price. ACM finally bought it and distributed it to those in need, they were going to buy food for them anyway.