Last week, during our visit to the Aghavnadzor nursing home, we found 7 of our beneficiaries, but later it turned out that there were two more elderly people there, but their data had not been registered. Unfortunately, we have not met them in person, but we are already in contact.
This time we headed towards Vanadzor. Already known, that more than 2,000 forcibly displaced Artsakh residents have found shelter in Vanadzor. We had some data that needed to be adjusted. On the way, we contacted Geghani Hakobyan, whose private number was given to us by the administration of Lori Мarz, and it was stated that she is currently dealing with issues related to the people of Artsakh.
It was not difficult to find Geghani Hakobyan in the Vanadzor municipality. A lot of people had gathered in front of her office, patiently waiting for their turn and as we later realized, everyone received an answer to their question. We skipped the line and asked Geghani. We were invited to sit at an empty desk near the window and wait, they promised that Geghani would meet shortly. Our wait of about 10 minutes made it clear what these people were waiting for.
These were obviously forcibly displaced people from Artsakh, mostly young women and men. They didn’t wait too long, they were invited into the next room and given a parcel, after which they immediately left. Mostly they got baby diapers.
All this time, the phone was constantly ringing, and the employees patiently answered all calls, carefully wrote down addresses, assuring that the products would be delivered to the specified address and there was no need to show up there.
They asked about the specific needs of people: beds, heaters, bedding, dishes… In this short period of time, we felt how organized and focused the work was. There were also volunteers to answer phones, take notes, classify needs, etc.
Geghani came up and apologized that we would have to wait a little longer. Meanwhile, we identified the names of the beneficiaries we were looking for in Vanadzor. Despite the heavy workload, Geghani patiently began searching for our beneficiaries in her database. Then she was urgently called and another employee came to our aid, who, as it later turned out, was one of the volunteers.
As a result, we found 8 of our beneficiaries in Vanadzor, three of them were sheltered in the “Huysi Tun” (House of Hope) center for the elderly, the rest lived in rented apartments. We thanked this wonderful team for the work and the information they provided us. We were extremely impressed with their caring, attentive and organized work. Like us, everyone who applied there received comprehensive answers.
We then visited the House of Hope. We will talk about this center separately, because it really deserves a separate and detailed report. At this point just note that at the House of Hope we met with our beneficiaries, with whom we had lost contact since the first days of their forced displacement. It was a very touching meeting after the tragic events.
In the end, we decided to visit one of our beneficiaries, who was forced to leave Shushi and took shelter in Stepanakert for the last three years, and now has been evacuated from Artsakh. She treated us to honey brought from Artsakh and fresh walnuts from Vanadzor. It was a very warm meeting. We found out that renting in Vanadzor is much more affordable and, therefore, more attractive for Artsakh people.
To date, we have managed to find 265 of our beneficiaries, and we are continuing our efforts to find the last 55 beneficiaries from the Hanganak list. Unfortunately, most of them have not registered at any checkpoint, which further complicates our efforts to find them. It is worth noting that 9 of the identified beneficiaries have already moved to the Russian Federation.
The next destination is Gyumri.
If anyone has any information about lonely elderly citizens of Artsakh, please contact the responsible employees of Hanganak by phone 097770900, 097201125 or 093248087.