The interview took place in August 2022.
Seda was born in 1942 in Shushi. She was the fourth child out of nine children in the family. Her father was a constructor, her mother was a weaver.
Seda studied at Armenian school in Shushi from 1949-1959. She got a job at the Shushi branch of the Stepanakert Silk factory after leaving school and worked there for three years. Then, she got married in 1962 and moved to Baku. She had two sons.
In 1970, Seda’s family moved to Russia. Her life seemed to be well arranged: she had everything: a well-equipped house and a happy family. However, her life stopped in 1980, the family had a car accident and she lost her sons and her husband.
Seda entered the Railway Institute in Russia to continue her studies, however, she left it incomplete because of the accident.
She couldn’t accept the loss and find her place in life. She finally moved to Shushi in 1994 to take care of her elderly mother. In 2001, Seda’s mother also died and Seda was left alone in her parental house.
Seda was forced to leave her native Shushi and move to Armenia on October 24th, 2020, during the third Artsakh war to live with one of her sisters, whose family had also moved to Armenia because of the war. Shushi was lost during the war and all the people had to leave everything and move out. Nevertheless, Seda moved to Stepanakert with her sister’s family on December 2nd and lived with them for a while until she was able to find an affordable apartment for rent. She now lives in a semi-basement apartment with very poor utilities. Seda prefers living in those conditions to living with her relatives, because she is already used to living alone and quietly. The rent of the apartment is 50,000 AMD, of which 40,000 AMD is reimbursed by the government.
Seda has been a beneficiary of Hanganak since October 2016, when Hayastan All-Armenian Fund started financing Hanganak’s Shushi program.
From January 2021, by the decision of the Board of the Armenian Women’s Welfare Association, the Stepanakert program was expanded. It was agreed to involve the single elderly people displaced from different regions of Artsakh and living in Artsakh, particularly in Stepanakert. Therefore, Seda rejoined Hanganak from January 2021.
Seda is one of the active beneficiaries of Hanganak. She can be seen in both photos and videos of all the events that were organized by Hanganak before the war. Even today, she actively participates in the psychological sessions organized in Hanganak’s office.
Her pension amounts to 50,000 AMD, of which 11,500 AMD is a single pensioner allowance.
Seda suffers from hypertension, she had two heart attacks, she has a vision problem. She had an eye surgery; however, the surgery did not give any results according to her. She receives Noliprel forte N30, Cardiomagnyl 75mg N30 from Hanganak. She expresses her deep gratitude to her nurse Elsa Nersisyan, who keeps Seda in the center of special attention, visits and talks to her often.
Seda expresses her gratitude to the benefactors of Hanganak and the entire staff who are able to put aside their everyday challenges and live with the care of each beneficiary in the face of adversity.
We have also told about Seda in the section of “The Crossroads of Destinies” on our website.
