Nina M.

The interview took place in August, 2019

Nina was born in 1932 in the village of Astghashen. Her father worked in the village collective farm and her mother was a teacher in local kindergarten. There were three children in the family, two boys and a girl. She was barely 10 years old when her mother died suddenly. In order to ease the family’s burden to some extent Nina had fled her studies and began working in the village carpet factory. She moved to Stepanakert after working for some time and continued working in the carpet factory in Stepanakert. She became a skilled carpet maker and had many students. Later, she moved from a carpet making factory to Stepanakert Textile Factory. Right at that time her grandmother introduced her to a young man named Daniel and they got married. Soon they had a daughter, although, their marriage was not successful and they divorced in a year. Nina has overcome a lot of difficulties. She raised her child alone.

Ira, her daughter, got married and moved to Pyatigorsk, Russia. She has two children. She has visited her daughter for several times and enjoyed her grandchildren. Life was too severe towards Ira. She died very young. Her husband died several years later. Her grandchildren live in Pyatigorsk now.

Once, after her daughter’s death, she lost consciousness in front of Hanganak office and the people passing by brought her to Hanganak to provide first aid. She remembers that day with excitement; Hanganak staff was very caring and friendly. That was 2007 and the incident became a reason to include Nina in the organization. Her life has changed after that. She used to visit Hanganak very often to talk to the team members and beneficiaries and take part in various indoor and outdoor events organized by Hanganak. Unfortunately, it has been almost five years she does not visit Hanganak because of health problems and two years of isolation at home.

She has hypertension and suffers from Parkinson’s disease. She does not attend the polyclinic because of health issues. Doctors from polyclinic and Hanganak visit her upon request. She is very pleased with her Hanganak nurse Elza Simonyan. Elza pays her frequent visits and takes the prescribed medicine such as Captopril 25 mg N30, Cardiomagnil 75 mg N30, etc. The rest of needed medicines she gets from the City Policlinic.

Nina is registered also at the Home Service of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. Social employees of the Ministry visit her and help her with any kind of housework. They take Hanganak food provision to Nina’s place every month. The food is almost sufficient for the whole month. Her pension is 45000 AMD. In addition, from the International Committee of the Red Cross he receives 6000 AMD monthly allowance.

Nina lives in her small apartment that she received from the Textile factory. She uses an electrical heater in winter and pays the bill from her pension and Hanganak’s heating compensation allowance.

She is very grateful to all the benefactors and Hanganak team.