Children in Armenia deprived of basic rights since birth
Thirty-four year old Eteri Mamudova has struggled for nearly a decade to obtain birth certificates for her five children so that they can receive medical attention and education in Armenia. With World Vision’s help, she is finally making progress.
Eteri has been living in Stepanavan, Armenia, 150 km north of the capital city Yerevan, for almost 15 years. However, neither Eteri nor her children officially exist.
Eteri and her children possess no papers that prove their identities. The children’s father, Khato Khatoyan, 45, is the only person in the family who has a passport. However, no evidence exists that he is the children’s father since he is not married to Eteri.
When Eteri gave birth to her five children, the only document she got from the hospital was a scrap of paper stating that on a given date, at a given time, Eteri gave birth to a child - boy or girl
Eteri belongs to Yezidi ethnic minority and was born in Georgia, where she spent the first 16 years of her life. “When I was fourteen, I met Khato and we decided to live together. But we couldn’t register our marriage because of my age,\'\' remembers Eteri.
They didn\'t have a permanent place to stay and had to move frequently. They would often stay with Eteri\'s family. Tragically, the house where Eteri’s family lived burned down, and her passport – the only document verifying her identity - was lost.
In search of a place to live and settle down, Eteri and Khato moved to Stepanavan, where Khato had relatives with whom they could stay. At that time, there weren’t actual borders between Georgia and Armenia and it was easy to cross without having a passport.
Once Eteri arrived, the local authorities in Stepanavan tried to restore her documents by liaising with Georgia’s government officials, who sent Eteri a document with information about her and her parents’ birth certificates. While this document was better than not having any evidence of her identity, it did not serve as official identification and did nothing to legitimize her existence in Armenia.
When Eteri gave birth to her five children, the only document she got from the hospital was a scrap of paper stating that on a given date, at a given time, Eteri gave birth to a child - boy or girl.
This paper usually serves as a basis for a birth certificate. However, each time Khato tried to obtain birth certificates for his children, the registry office in Stepanavan refused claiming that his paternity could not be recognized. The alternative route for obtaining birth certificates is through Eteri’s identity, yet she has no passport by which she can be identified and claim citizenship.
The new child benefits system in Armenia entitles families of newborn babies to a one-time payment of 40,000 drams (US $120) upon registering the birth of their children. However, Eteri never received this payment for any of her children because they do not have birth certificates and remain unrecorded in any official statistics.
Without official registration, the children have no access to Armenia’s free medical care and haven\'t even been vaccinated.
Without official registration, the children have no access to Armenia’s free medical care and haven\'t even been vaccinated. As a result, the children have serious health problems and are in need of medical examination and treatment.
Five-year-old Alissa, the youngest in the family, was recently observed by World Vision Armenia’s Child Protection Programme multidisciplinary assessment team and scheduled for an in-patient treatment. However, despite the fact Alissa needed urgent medical intervention, the hospital did not accept her because she did not have any identification.
Thankfully, through the mediation of World Vision social workers, a doctor from Yerevan children\'s hospital examined Alissa and diagnosed her with epilepsy. He prescribed medicine to alleviate her headaches that keep her from sleeping. However, Alissa needs additional examinations to determine the cause of her seizures in order to treat her epilepsy.
\'\'She suffers from terrible headaches that keep her awake at night. And her body often jerks. The doctor says she needs serious treatment and a special diet in order to significantly improve her condition,\'\' says Eteri, her face expressing despair.
Alisa has recurring seizures that cause violent muscle spasms, and sometimes even a loss of consciousness. She needs urgent medical treatment otherwise the illness can cause serious complications such as mental disability.
...despite the fact Alissa needed urgent medical intervention, the hospital did not accept her because she did not have any identification.
The children suffer from malnutrition and are deprived of vitally important vitamins and microelements for their normal growth and development. Fourteen-year-old Marianna tries to hide her nails, which turn black and can be easily broken. Ten-year-old Manana looks six years old because her growth has been stunted.
Khato works irregular jobs that do not provide substantial income for the family. His last job was street cleaning, but he didn’t receive payment for months. He is now earning a small sum of money working as a shepherd every few days.
Eteri has brought a little money home by cleaning a cowshed in the neighborhood.
“I cannot leave my children alone for a long time. When I am gone, my oldest daughter usually takes care of them. But she is afraid to stay alone since Alissa often has fits that scare her a lot,” says Eteri.
Eteri cannot collect social welfare for her children from the government because their existence is not recognized without proper identification.
Eteri cannot collect social welfare for her children from the government because their existence is not recognized without proper identification
To make matters worse, the family appeared on the streets since Khato’s relatives sold the house where they were staying.
Thanks to World Vision’s intervention, the community administration of Bovadzor village, some seven km from Stepanavan, provided the family with an abandoned house.
Though Bovadzor village is small, it is home to ten Yezidi families. The Yezidi community is the largest ethnic minority in Armenia; nearly 40,620 Yezidis live in the country.
Without birth certificates, the children are also deprived of education. However, after the family moved into their new house, World Vision helped the children to be enrolled in the village school. Marianna, 14, Manana, 10, and Edik, 7, went to school for the first time in their lives. They are learning the alphabet and how to read and write. Milena, 15, will enroll soon, as will Alissa once she is old enough.
In the meantime, little Alissa attends speech and art therapy at the World Vision Community Center to assist her pronunciation. She also attends handicraft and painting lessons.
World Vision has supported the family with warm clothes, hygienic items, and stationary for the children to attend school. However, more is needed to ensure to the family’s long-term well-being.
Without birth certificates, the children are also deprived of education
Through the Economic Development Project, World Vision is planning to provide the family with a cow or potato or wheat seeds to enable the family to provide for its needs.
\'\'We believe that both of the parents can do seasonal agricultural work in the community to earn more money. We are eager to help them find a job,\'\' says Liana Sargsyan, regional assistant of World Vision Armenia’s Child Protection Programme.
Still, all efforts to obtain birth certificates for Eteri’s children have been thwarted since Eteri’s identity has yet to be restored.
World Vision is consulting a lawyers’ association to learn the most effective way to attain birth certificates for Eteri’s children. The association claimed this could be achieved in two ways: by restoring Eteri’s identification or establishing Khato’s paternity. Since the first option could take several years, World Vision is in the process of writing a letter to the local Child Protection Unit to support recognition of Khato as the children’s father.
“We are asking all parties involved to cooperate to bring about positive change in the life of this family,” says Liana.
Eteri has been living in Stepanavan, Armenia, 150 km north of the capital city Yerevan, for almost 15 years. However, neither Eteri nor her children officially exist.
Eteri and her children possess no papers that prove their identities. The children’s father, Khato Khatoyan, 45, is the only person in the family who has a passport. However, no evidence exists that he is the children’s father since he is not married to Eteri.
When Eteri gave birth to her five children, the only document she got from the hospital was a scrap of paper stating that on a given date, at a given time, Eteri gave birth to a child - boy or girl
Eteri belongs to Yezidi ethnic minority and was born in Georgia, where she spent the first 16 years of her life. “When I was fourteen, I met Khato and we decided to live together. But we couldn’t register our marriage because of my age,\'\' remembers Eteri.
They didn\'t have a permanent place to stay and had to move frequently. They would often stay with Eteri\'s family. Tragically, the house where Eteri’s family lived burned down, and her passport – the only document verifying her identity - was lost.
In search of a place to live and settle down, Eteri and Khato moved to Stepanavan, where Khato had relatives with whom they could stay. At that time, there weren’t actual borders between Georgia and Armenia and it was easy to cross without having a passport.
Once Eteri arrived, the local authorities in Stepanavan tried to restore her documents by liaising with Georgia’s government officials, who sent Eteri a document with information about her and her parents’ birth certificates. While this document was better than not having any evidence of her identity, it did not serve as official identification and did nothing to legitimize her existence in Armenia.
When Eteri gave birth to her five children, the only document she got from the hospital was a scrap of paper stating that on a given date, at a given time, Eteri gave birth to a child - boy or girl.
This paper usually serves as a basis for a birth certificate. However, each time Khato tried to obtain birth certificates for his children, the registry office in Stepanavan refused claiming that his paternity could not be recognized. The alternative route for obtaining birth certificates is through Eteri’s identity, yet she has no passport by which she can be identified and claim citizenship.
The new child benefits system in Armenia entitles families of newborn babies to a one-time payment of 40,000 drams (US $120) upon registering the birth of their children. However, Eteri never received this payment for any of her children because they do not have birth certificates and remain unrecorded in any official statistics.
Without official registration, the children have no access to Armenia’s free medical care and haven\'t even been vaccinated.
Without official registration, the children have no access to Armenia’s free medical care and haven\'t even been vaccinated. As a result, the children have serious health problems and are in need of medical examination and treatment.
Five-year-old Alissa, the youngest in the family, was recently observed by World Vision Armenia’s Child Protection Programme multidisciplinary assessment team and scheduled for an in-patient treatment. However, despite the fact Alissa needed urgent medical intervention, the hospital did not accept her because she did not have any identification.
Thankfully, through the mediation of World Vision social workers, a doctor from Yerevan children\'s hospital examined Alissa and diagnosed her with epilepsy. He prescribed medicine to alleviate her headaches that keep her from sleeping. However, Alissa needs additional examinations to determine the cause of her seizures in order to treat her epilepsy.
\'\'She suffers from terrible headaches that keep her awake at night. And her body often jerks. The doctor says she needs serious treatment and a special diet in order to significantly improve her condition,\'\' says Eteri, her face expressing despair.
Alisa has recurring seizures that cause violent muscle spasms, and sometimes even a loss of consciousness. She needs urgent medical treatment otherwise the illness can cause serious complications such as mental disability.
...despite the fact Alissa needed urgent medical intervention, the hospital did not accept her because she did not have any identification.
The children suffer from malnutrition and are deprived of vitally important vitamins and microelements for their normal growth and development. Fourteen-year-old Marianna tries to hide her nails, which turn black and can be easily broken. Ten-year-old Manana looks six years old because her growth has been stunted.
Khato works irregular jobs that do not provide substantial income for the family. His last job was street cleaning, but he didn’t receive payment for months. He is now earning a small sum of money working as a shepherd every few days.
Eteri has brought a little money home by cleaning a cowshed in the neighborhood.
“I cannot leave my children alone for a long time. When I am gone, my oldest daughter usually takes care of them. But she is afraid to stay alone since Alissa often has fits that scare her a lot,” says Eteri.
Eteri cannot collect social welfare for her children from the government because their existence is not recognized without proper identification.
Eteri cannot collect social welfare for her children from the government because their existence is not recognized without proper identification
To make matters worse, the family appeared on the streets since Khato’s relatives sold the house where they were staying.
Thanks to World Vision’s intervention, the community administration of Bovadzor village, some seven km from Stepanavan, provided the family with an abandoned house.
Though Bovadzor village is small, it is home to ten Yezidi families. The Yezidi community is the largest ethnic minority in Armenia; nearly 40,620 Yezidis live in the country.
Without birth certificates, the children are also deprived of education. However, after the family moved into their new house, World Vision helped the children to be enrolled in the village school. Marianna, 14, Manana, 10, and Edik, 7, went to school for the first time in their lives. They are learning the alphabet and how to read and write. Milena, 15, will enroll soon, as will Alissa once she is old enough.
In the meantime, little Alissa attends speech and art therapy at the World Vision Community Center to assist her pronunciation. She also attends handicraft and painting lessons.
World Vision has supported the family with warm clothes, hygienic items, and stationary for the children to attend school. However, more is needed to ensure to the family’s long-term well-being.
Without birth certificates, the children are also deprived of education
Through the Economic Development Project, World Vision is planning to provide the family with a cow or potato or wheat seeds to enable the family to provide for its needs.
\'\'We believe that both of the parents can do seasonal agricultural work in the community to earn more money. We are eager to help them find a job,\'\' says Liana Sargsyan, regional assistant of World Vision Armenia’s Child Protection Programme.
Still, all efforts to obtain birth certificates for Eteri’s children have been thwarted since Eteri’s identity has yet to be restored.
World Vision is consulting a lawyers’ association to learn the most effective way to attain birth certificates for Eteri’s children. The association claimed this could be achieved in two ways: by restoring Eteri’s identification or establishing Khato’s paternity. Since the first option could take several years, World Vision is in the process of writing a letter to the local Child Protection Unit to support recognition of Khato as the children’s father.
“We are asking all parties involved to cooperate to bring about positive change in the life of this family,” says Liana.
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