inclusion

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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.

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

Disability

Support for Georgia’s blind and visually impaired has all but dried-up

by Volodymyr Soboliev

•8 min read

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Georgia’s economic struggles, infrastructure and support for people with visual impairments has all but evaporated. This — exacerbated by a lack of understanding — has created serious barriers in education, employment, and in life. She could not see the world around her Esma Gumberidze did not learn that she was blind at any one given moment. Growing up, she certainly felt that she was different, as she was left out of the games that other chi