My Journey to Armenia: Day 5
We visited a father and mother (Artyom and Haykanush) with six children. Before this family was sponsored, Artyom and Haykanush didn’t have jobs and struggled to provide food, clothing, winter boots, and school supply needs. This isn’t the case now.
With World Vision’s help, Artyom now has tools to work odd jobs. He even renovated the living room. Haykanush received a machine for knitting sweaters, so she can now provide the family with warm clothing and earn some extra income selling them (and they were quite beautiful).
This family was a true success story. I have no doubt that they will thrive with these resources from World Vision and will no longer need assistance in the very near future, which is World Vision’s goal for every family they serve.
The next family we chatted with had a more tragic story. Yerazik has 6 kids, but her husband is in Russia working (this is common among Armenian families due to the lack of job opportunities). Yerazik’s children were “social orphans” at one point, meaning that these children were so vulnerable at home that they were better off living in an institution. As you can imagine, Yerazik ached for her children when they were away and would even sneak into the institution to give them a quick hug or kiss.
photo by Laura Reinhardt
In 2010, World Vision created a program to deinstitutionalize children that included education to parents about their rights and basic parenting skills. With this help, Yerazik was able to bring her children home and her husband was able to receive tools to earn more money in Russia (to send back home to his family).
One of Yerazik’s children present at our meeting, Julia, had such inspiring words and hope, despite her traumatic childhood. She participates in World Vision’s ART program (youth group program) and dreams of being an actress. World Vision even organized a TEDEx Talk that included Julia as a speaker.
photo by Laura Reinhardt
I’ll be back with Day 6 next Thursday.
A big thank you to World Vision for sponsoring my travel, accommodations, and meals during my trip to Armenia.
For 16 years, I have been the creator & full-time blogger of Mom Spark. I’ve also created content for numerous outlets such as Good Housekeeping, Better Homes & Gardens, & Huff Post.