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Father of Four Boys Living in the Back of a Barn: “I’ll accept any work for my kids”

A small bakery used to operate in the back of the barn. It’s now the home of Marat’s family.

There’s a large bed in the small room. The couch and baby’s cradle barely fit. Armineh, Marat’s wife, says the animals’ smell permeates the room, even sticking to the clothes. She then asks if we’re bothered by it. “At least it’s warm in the room. If not for this bakery, we’d be out on the street,” she says.

Armineh has only praise for Anto, who gave them this place to stay in Norashen, a village in Armenia’s Gegharkunik Province.  She says that Anto brings dairy products for the kids every day.

Most of the furnishings in the room –  rugs, cradle, table – are gifts from neighbors. Marat counts the items they brought, a small closet, beds, and plush toys, on the fingers of one hand.

“I apologize for not having any chairs. Sit on the bed,” says Armineh. We all sit down somehow. The children sit on the couch next to Alvina, Marat's mother, who’s come to visit.

The kids don’t talk, looking at us attentively. Their eyes are teary. The parents say they’ve cried for not being allowed to play outside in the yard. It’s cold outside and the kids are sick.

31-year-old Marat Karyan is from the town of Toumanyan. He’s says the roof of the family’s house he lived in there with his brothers collapsed, forcing him to leave the village. “It was a tough life. We raised animals. There was no money. One day we ate, one day we didn’t,” Marat says.

Marat decided to find work elsewhere and to save money to repair the family house in Toumanyan. They estimated it would take $3,000 - 4,000.

He found work in Arzni and met Armineh there. She was working on a dairy farm milking cows. After marrying, they lived on the farm along with twenty other families.

“My Rafo was born there,” says 30-year-old Armineh.

“They didn’t pay us cash, but in eggs and chickens. Also some meat. 90,000 AMD worth each month. We’d sell the stuff. We sold eggs for 40 drams to the store. We stayed on the farm for two and a half years,” Armineh says.

After Arzni, they moved to the Kotayk village of Ptghni, where Armineh is from. Her father’s family no longer lives there.

Marat and Armineh looked after the animals of a Yezidi family. They lived on site and made 120,000 AMD monthly. The Yezidi family moved to Europe last November. They were out of a job.

“There was this girl from Abovyan who assisted needy families. She placed our details on Facebook and Anto contacted us. He gave us that former bakery to live in. He told in advance that the place was small, but we were welcome to spend the winter there,” says Marat.

Now, Marat cleans out barns and other odd jobs. “I’ll do whatever work is needed, just so long as my kids have a normal life. We didn’t,” says the father of four. “We can go hungry, but our kids have to eat.”

Armineh says there have been days when there’s been nothing to eat. Her children have never cried. It’s as if they understand the family’s plight.

Edward is not yet forty days old. He’s sick. Armineh places the baby on the bed. On the day we visited, Marat had brought medicine from Sevan. Armineh says it’s a tradition not to turn off the lights in the room before the baby’s fortieth day.

Armineh came down with pneumonia after moving to Norashen. She says she’s better now.

The parents receive a monthly allowance of 37,500 AMD ($78) for the children. They didn’t receive it for three months after moving to Norashen. There’s was some bureaucratic hang-up.

“We went to Housik Yenokyan for help. We went back and forth for three months. There wasn’t any food in the house. We had to pay 500 dram to take the bus to Sevan. Later, they told us that we had to pay a three-month deposit to fix the allowance issue. Yenokyan said we had to pay him a gratuity to get it processed. We refused the proposal,” Marat says.

The next day after relocating to Norashen, the family registered in order to receive the allowance. They never received the allowance for the past three months.

They also don’t receive money for Edward, envisaged as maternal care. Marat says the Sevan social security office told them that Armineh isn’t a civil servant and not eligible.

Marat proudly looks at his four children – Rafayel (5), Kamo (3), Garik (2), and baby Edward. The father says he’s raising four soldiers under one roof.

Rafayel (Rafo)

Armineh says that even though there are days when there’s no food, the boys don’t steal anything from the table when guests arrive and the family’s meagre pickings are on display.

She looks at Rafayel and says: “Rafayel is very quiet. He’s already helping his father at this young age. He says he wants to become a veterinarian. He goes to the barn and feeds the animals. He hugs the lambs.”

Kamo

Later, Rafayel goes with his father to the barn. Kamo runs after them.

Garik starts to cry. Armineh removes some bread from a pink dish. “He’s the only child who doesn’t eat dry bread,” she says. “Here’s some bread. Look inside,” she urges Garik, placing the bread on the bed. The boy looks and seeing nothing inside, tosses it away.

Garik

Armineh places some tinder in the stove. “You’re not cold?” she asks.

The room is warm. In walk Rafo and Kamo, and a cat.

“My four children are my joy,” says Marat. “This country isn’t a place to live. But I’ll live here for my boys.”

P.S. Hetq will write later about the family’s allowance troubles.

Photos: Saro Baghdasaryan

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