The “mission Armenia” Ngo Has Closed Three

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The news regarding the closing of a number of charitable soup kitchens has come as a blow to those used to getting their meals there. These people now face the prospect of going hungry. One month ago the Mission Armenia NGO, a charitable organization founded in 1993, closed the doors of three of its 32 soup kitchens operating in Armenia. The no longer functioning soup kitchens were located in the cities of Gyumri, Vanadzor and Vartenis. There have also been cuts to the remaining 29 located in Yerevan and eight of Armenia’s Marzes (regions). Three more soup kitchens are slated to be shut down by 2009. From the start the soup kitchens were intended to provide nourishing meals only to the needy elderly. Thus the unemployed, large destitute families and children from one parent households (usually the mother) have been the first to be cut from the registers. Today, pensioners over the age of 60 and the disabled of any age are the only ones entitled to take advantage of the soup kitchen program.At the Mission Armenia’s Shengavit community center a wide range of social and health related resources are distributed to area residents but most come to get a hot meal. A month ago some 145 daily would be provided with a meal, today that number has dropped to 125. The administration was obliged to tell 20 meal recipients that they could no longer get their daily meal here due “to a lack of funds”. The Director of the center, Liana Hovsepyan, doesn’t know if the decision is temporary or not.Some of the elderly don’t eat what is provided them at the center. Rather, they pack the meals away in containers brought from home so as to share it with family members. Amalya Ayvazyan, an 84 year-old pensioner, shows us the dish on which is placed the one meal a day she receives here. This food will be taken home to be shared amongst four people. A month ago her two grandchildren aged seven and twelve also received meals here and she says the food was a big help to her. “The only one working in the family is my daughter, but she is ill. The only work she sometimes gets is doing chores for the other residents of the building. No one wants to give her a permanent job due to her illness.” explains Mrs. Amalya. The family’s entire income consists of a monthly social benefits payment of 22,000 drams and a pension of 24,000 drams.The soup kitchen operation is completely funded by entitlements of the USAID (United States Agency for International Development). This entitlement program is scheduled to end as of February 2009 after which all the soup kitchens are threatened with closure if additional funding isn’t secured. Hripsime Kirakosyan, President of Mission Armenia, states that, “We believe that we will be able to provide hot nourishment to all our 4200 beneficiaries without any cutbacks until the program ends but presently we are forced to end our assistance to a certain group. In 2003 when our organization signed off on the program one U.S. dollar was fetching up to 500 Armenian drams, today it only fetches around 305. We tried all possible cost-cutting measures but the recent price increases were the last straw. As of the middle of last year we’ve been forced to sign new contracts every month with our food suppliers due to constantly increasing prices. Yesterday, due to the increase in the price of flour, we were forced to review the contract we had signed twenty days ago with our bread supplier.”Given that it’s been some time now since the Armenian government has been publishing data regarding double-digit growth, international donors are now saying that the time has come for the government to take responsibility for seeing to the social welfare of its needy. Thus donors are today more inclined to make earmark contributions for development purposes rather than for strictly charitable ends.Hripsime Kirakosyan states, “We’ve been in contact with the USAID administrative board and it would appear that they are agreeable to extend the program if additional investors are found. Regardless of all the talk about economic development here the fact remains that there are many families who only eat a meal when they come to our soup kitchens.” 45 year-old Mariam Arshakunyan is the only provider for her children. For five years they were getting there meals at their local community soup kitchen. A month ago they were told to no longer show up. Mariam says her kids would only eat once daily, at the soup kitchen. Mariam, a mother of two boys, aged 10 and 11, doesn’t work She receives a monthly social stipend only amounting to 15,000 drams. She fears that, “If my kids can’t go to the soup kitchen they will go hungry.” Mission Armenia has contacted Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, requesting that the government allocate some $30 million in funds to prevent any more cuts in the program and to sustain it for the long-term. Attached to their written application were numerous requests from individuals that there children once again be allowed to receive a daily meal at the soup kitchens.Janna Hayrapetyan wrote that, “I’m a mother of four young children. One year ago my son had foot surgery. Right now I’m in very dire straits. Those meals kept my kids from going hungry. Please see to it that we are once again entitled to those meals.”Karineh Teryan, another beneficiary, states, “I’ve been taking advantage of the soup kitchen at the Ajapnyak community center for two years now. It’s the only resource available to keep my family from starving. I have seven children of which two are married. The other five are still minors. My husband is unemployed. The only income the family gets is a 40,000 dram monthly stipend. I really can’t make ends meet.”Anush Khnkoyan states, “I’m the only provider for my four young children. I have no job. When we were able to go to the soup kitchen my kids didn’t go hungry. Now I don’t know how I’ll take care of them.”Hetq.am