Children

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Inga Sindeeva. Photo: Tata Shoshiashvili/OC Media.

Children

Voice | ‘They love each other very much’

by Tata Shoshiashvili

•4 min read

Fifty-six-year old Inga Sindeeva has been a foster mother for eight years and is raising three foster children. She told OC Media about the joys and the challenges of being a foster parent in Georgia. ‘I’m the birth mom of two adult children and a foster mom for three kids. Over the past eight years, two boys and one girl, abandoned by their parents, have joined our family.’ ‘They are in my family under a contract with the state. They will officially live with me until their eighteenth birth

autism

‘We’re caught in mid-air’ — Raising a child with autism in Georgia

by Tamuna Chkareuli

•9 min read

From individual therapy to special education teachers in schools, parents of children with autism in Georgia are facing a constant battle with the authorities to provide the services their children need. Keti Nebieridze is a single mother. Her son Sandro, who turns 16 this year, was born at a time when there were no basic services for children with autism — Nebieridze recalls how, after being forced out of several kindergartens, they found one on the opposite edge of the city with a psychol

Children

In pictures | The gravel is grayer on the other side: no sports fields in Khevsureti

by Ian McNaught Davis

•10 min read

In the mountain village of Barisakho, in Georgia’s northern, historical Khevsureti region, children at the local school have nowhere to practice sports. Seconds after a teacher opens the window of the staff room of Barisakho Public School to clang the school bell for a break, the 54 children that comprise the entire rush outside to play football, dodgeball, basketball and badminton. While these sports are played with great enthusiasm at this central school in Khevsureti, none of them can

baron

‘Democracy came and the baron disappeared’

by Gita Elibekyan

•6 min read

Georgia’s Roma people have gradually withdrawn from a number of their traditions, rejecting the baron, historically the strongest figure in the camp. While many Roma people have hailed the changes, there is also some concern over the community’s future. The baron, who was historically an influential person in Roma communities across the world, is now losing his authority. A number of Roma people in Georgia told OC Media this is because people want to live freely, without reporting to anyone

Aghdam

Children with disabilities are being left behind in Azerbaijan’s frontline villages

by Seymur Kazimov

•6 min read

Children with disabilities in Azerbaijan do not always have the chance to benefit from their right to an education. Special education facilities are not available in most regions of the country — and this is no exception in the villages along the frontline. ‘No, no, what are you talking about? Disability?! I have one child, I cannot agree that he has a disability, even his inclusion in a disability group. My son will be healed!’ Tarana Zeynalova is a secondary school teacher in west

Armenia

‘Begging is also work’: street children in Armenia

by Armine Avetisyan

•5 min read

In the streets of Yerevan, children begging for money is not an uncommon sight. While parents can face time in prison for child neglect, many join their children in the streets, finding an income any way they can. ‘I will grow up and find a normal job’ Early every morning, 13-year-old native of Gyumri, Karen (not his real name), walks out of his house towards the city dump. Even though he goes with his mother, his face is too serious and too mature for his age. He does not attend s

Azerbaijan

Might makes right — bullying in Azerbaijan’s schools

by Volodymyr Soboliev

•5 min read

In the Internet age, discussions of bullying are becoming more global. In Azerbaijan, such discussions shed light on attitudes in the country towards violence, masculinity, and honour. The toughest lessons in these are often forced on children on the school grounds, and can lead to lasting trauma. In December, the story of American teenager Keaton Jones gained international headlines after his mother posted a video of the boy tearfully recounting his experience of being bullied in school