gegharkunik

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Armenia

Armenia’s blind struggle to find a livelihood

by Manya Israyelyan

•5 min read

Faced with ignorance and discrimination, finding work as a blind person in Armenia can be a difficult task. Rafayel Keveyan, 23, lives in Gavar, a small town east of Yerevan. He lost his sight at the age of four after being given the wrong drugs while being treated for measles. Along a journey that did not lack challenges, Rafayel found his passion in music and devoted himself to it. Rafayel began playing the piano at the age of seven; soon after, his parents sent him to a musical school.

Armenia

The missing children — absenteeism in Armenia’s schools

by Armine Avetisyan

•6 min read

There are hundreds of school-age children in Armenia not attending school. While some work to help support their families, others have fallen victim to attitudes towards gender. In villages where there are only one or two girls — a result of of sky-high sex-selective abortion rates — parents sometimes insist that their girl should not study alone in a classroom full of boys. Thirteen-year-old Davit (whose personal details have been changed) last attended school three years ago. He manage

Armenia

Armenia’s seasonal children

by Armine Avetisyan

•6 min read

With Armenia’s soaring labour migration rates, working-age men have become a rare sight in many villages. Their wives have grown used to seeing them only once a year, if at all, and raising the children alone isn’t only a matter of necessity — it has become a fact of life. According to official statistics, the permanent population of Armenia has dropped by 30,700 in the last 2.5 years, falling below 3 million in July 2017. The regions most affected by migration are Shirak, Lori, Gegharku

Agriculture

Thirty years as refugees in an Armenian highland village

by Gayane Mkrtchyan

•6 min read

At over 2,000 metres above sea level, in the last village before the northern mountain pass from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, life in Sotk can be arduous. The village, which until 30 years ago was inhabited by Azerbaijanis, is now home to Armenians who fled their homes in Azerbaijan, though most of these have also moved on to greener pastures. [Read in Armenian — Հոդվածը հայերեն կարդացեք] A new life in Sotk Sixty-three-year-old Zemfira Hakobyan’s hands show traces of heavy agricu