Lilit started a new profession to succeed
Lilit is a young mother, who lives with her husband and two sons with a temporary residence permit. An active woman with many interests, proudly tells about her children, her beloved husband and her dreams, always putting aside the difficulties. Her husband’s income was based on daily wage and now he is abroad for a temporary work.
“I guess there are difficulties in every family, everyone has problems, but when you have a good job, many issues can be solved. I did not get a higher education due to the financial difficulties, but I try to fill the gap with self-education. I always wanted to become a nail artist and finally my dream came true. My son Grigor was involved in World Vision Armenia’s support programmes. When their specialists came to make the assessments of our needs, I asked them to help me master in manicure,” - says Lilit.
After assessing the family needs, World Vision Armenia’s specialists involved Lilit's family in the organisation’s Poverty Reduction Programme. Social worker Gyulnara Papikyan says that Lilit was very happy and inspired with the opportunity to attend three-month courses for manicure.
“My goal was to find a job after finishing the courses. World Vision Armenia’s representatives gave me tools and necessary devices, and I was able to start my own small business. We rent this house, and had no furniture here; they even provided us tables and chairs, and I furnished my working corner,” says Lilit.
Now she earns money as a nail artist and she is very happy as she can do what she likes. Her customers initially were from their neighborhood, then their acquaintances started to come. They all are satisfied with the quality of Lilit’s services. She works at reasonable prices, because she understands that not everyone has money, but everybody wants to be well-groomed.
The Poverty Reduction programme is a series of multi-sectoral interventions to help extremely poor families to combat poverty. The support includes social work with families, financial assistance to meet the most urgent needs, vocational training for family members, and training in the field of parenting skills, provision of knowledge on healthy nutrition and hygiene of children, assistance in the solution of the employment issues.
“World Vision has been by our side in the most difficult moments of our family. I was especially impressed when they gave us food during the Coronavirus lockdown, as it was forbidden to work at that time. When the child went to school, they helped us to buy clothes and a schoolbag. I also attended courses on hygiene; the professionals explained many important nuances, and we received a variety of hygiene items. I realised that we need to learn from the experience of the qualified people,” says Lilit.
Lilit attended World Vision Armenia’s positive parenting courses to improve her parenting skills.
“My son is six years old, but even he shares my joy when I tell him not to disturb me during my job. He says, ‘OK, mom, keep working, you can take us out to play later’,” Lilit says with a smile.
The effectiveness of the programme is sustainable; 48% of the participating families have overcome extreme poverty, 90% have increased their annual income, 77% of their children have improved their health and 82% of the families have had a significant change in their quality of life.