ARMENIA: MY SON, MIKHAIL
By Onnik Krikorian
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
Oct 5 2005
TAVOUSH, Armenia, 5 October 2005 – When Mikhail Simonyan’s mother,
Rouzana, noticed that her son was having trouble walking, she thought
the three-year-old had simply taken a bit of fall, and thought nothing
more of it. But a trip to the doctor proved her wrong: it seemed that
Mikhail had contracted measles and the infection had spread to his
inner ear. The infection caused by his bout of measles had spread to
the muscles that keep his spinal cord straight.
His mother was devastated by the news. “It wasn’t until I approached
various non-governmental organizations and public organizations [to
ask for advice and help] that I began to come to terms with Mikhail’s
condition,” she says.
“I met many children who were able to live with their disabilities,
some of whom were in a worse situation than my son. This somehow
filled me with hope that there was a way for Mikhail to live with his
disability as well. I gave this hope to my child and told him there
would be a day when he would be able to walk normally. Together,
we’re still living with this hope.”
Mikhail, now seven, is getting help and remains full of hope that
someday he will walk again. He attends a UNICEF-supported centre
called the ‘Bridge of Hope’, which operates also with a community
administrative centre, Vulnerable Families in Ijevan. These centres
play a critical role in bridging the gaps in services for children
with disabilities and their families.
To date over 300 children with disabilities have been assisted by
the centres.
“The establishment of alternative services offered by community
centres is a way forward for these children to become fully-fledged
members of their communities,” says Naira Avetisyan, UNICEF’s Child
Protection Officer in Armenia.
“This is why these community centres are perceived by the government
as a strategic model for the integration of children with disabilities
into society and into mainstream education. They are acknowledged as
the alternative to institutionalization,” she adds.
A day in the life
Mikhail’s daily routine is far from easy, but thanks to Bridge of
Hope, he has managed to attain a certain degree of control over his
own life. In the morning he washes and dresses himself before eating
breakfast and then sets off for school.
Ijevan is one of the most scenic towns in Armenia, but it is also
the most difficult for those with disabilities to live in.
“Ijevan was not designed for disabled people,” says his mother.
“There are no ramps, and public transport is a problem. If it’s
raining, it’s almost impossible to take him to school and in the
winter when there’s a lot of snow, it takes much longer. A journey
that should take 30 minutes instead takes fifty.”
After school Mikhail goes to the Bridge of Hope Centre to receive
rehabilitative therapy, learn computer skills, to play – he likes
art classes where he can draw – and interact with both children with
disabilities and those without.
Mikhail says that he likes mathematics and wants to become an
astronaut.
He wants to go to university when he gets older, and while most
children in Armenia might draw pictures of their homes or the biblical
Mount Ararat, Mikhail has won prizes for his chalk drawings of the
solar system.
Centres like those established by Bridge of Hope and can help make
lives of those with disabilities better, but unfortunately, prejudice
still exists in society.
“The community is very helpful,” says Mikhail’s mother. “In school
they care about him, although, of course, there are some children who
still don’t understand. He explains to these children that he was sick,
that he is now going to a rehabilitation centre, and that very soon,
he will be walking just like them. And because he’s still young,
he doesn’t go out alone and so he’s spared a lot of problems.”