"I can get used to anything, except for one thing: it seems to me that I am imprisoned, I want freedom. It makes me nervous when they say outside "This is one of the children from the colony", says eighteen-year-old G. The pursuit of freedom unites all the children in the Vardashen Educational Complex. They dream of being free, they look for ways to escape everyday. They can't stand being walled in. They feel lonely and abandoned. They stare out the window and fill up with envy and vengeance. "Why should other kids my age be free and not me? I am not a baby, you know", continues G.

People think of the children in this institution as criminals, dangerous and immoral. "In general, the children at Vardashen are orphans or children of parents who are in prison, divorced or married a number of times. Maybe that's why there is such a perception of them outside, " says the director. The Vardashen special educational complex has a 43-year history. In the beginning it was a special school for fourteen to eighteen year old boys, where boys who committed petty crimes were sent. Being at the educational complex wasn't considered being deprived of freedom, but many people came to think of it as a "prison colony", and of spending time there as "serving a sentence". In 1996 the school became a special educational complex. During our first visits the students were not talkative. After two months of meetings they have become more friendly. Students say they are often beaten. Being shouted at, shaken and slapped in the face by teachers is an everyday occurence. They related how one of the teachers banged the head of a ten or twelve year old girl against a cabinet.

"They don't beat the children in the complex anymore. But it sometimes happens that the teachers lose patience and slap them in the face. We should not blame them either, they have thousands of worries. Not to mention that many children cross the line all the time", says Larissa Sargisian, director of the complex.

According to the statutes of the educational complex, it is an institution for under-age children with behavioral problems. But the director thinks that the complex is not for children with behavioral problems, but for children in difficult situations. Recently, however, a boy on probation was sent to the complex from Gyumri. And this is not an isolated instance.

Doctors without Borders in Vardashen

Since 1997 the educational complex has cooperated with the French organization Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières/MSF). Larissa Sargisian says that in the beginning MSF wasn't trying to reform the institution, but to close it. But thanks to the organization's innovations, the institution has become more open. The complex now provides psychological, medical, social and legal services. Social workers try to gather information on the family situations of the children. They meet with parents and persuade them to take children home if possible. "We explain to the parents what conditions their children are in, what the right things to do are", says Rima Harutiunian, a social worker from MSF.

We went with social workers from the educational complex and MSF to Gyumri to meet with some families. The parents or guardians were given this alternative-- either they keep the children with them, or the children follow the rules and regulations of the complex. MSF representatives did not allow us to take part in subsequent visits.

The legal service operates only partially. Generally the property rights of children are not protected. "How can I force the parent to sell the house and to give a share to his child. Especially when the families live in difficult conditions", says Ashot Hakobian, a lawyer from MSF. But thanks to this service, the courts sometimes lighten the children's sentences. Recently a girl from the complex was arrested for theft. Through the efforts of the MSF lawyer, she was sentenced to few months instead of two years. According to Hakobian, there haven't been any cases of rape registered in the educational complex over the last several years (according to the director there were two cases in 1998-1999). However, an officer of the court of the Erebuni community informed us that two cases of rape were also registered over the last two years.

In institutions like this there are frequent outbreaks of contagious illness. According to the director, diseases occurred more often in past years, mainly because of the children's lack of access to personal hygiene. Gegham Kedikian, a doctor from MSF, assures us that there are no children with sexually transmitted diseases in the educational complex today, but periodic checkups are not carried out. "We try to respect human rights, we do testing at their own free will. Even minors have the right to sexual activity. We can only give them advice," says Kedikian. Usually those who escape from the complex are examined. They have frequent sexual relations outside, and the possibility of contracting sexually transmitted diseases grows.

Many children in the institution suffer from bedwetting. Most of them developed this problem in the complex. According to the doctor, these children have functional disorders. However, it is more likely that beating or fear is the cause. "When we came to Vardashen, an unhealthy atmosphere reigned here. We had to work with the staff. I think there is tangible progress today", says Hasmik Hakobjanian, a MSF psychologist.

I don't trust anybody

Almost all the children in the Vardashen educational complex are psychologically unstable. Even insignificant problems seem like the end of the world to them. Sometimes they attempt suicide by slitting their wrists. "These children do not want to kill themselves. Their main objective is to get people's attention", says psychologist Hasmik Hakobjanian.

The day begins normally. Everyone wakes up with his own concerns. One thinks about what he is going to eat for breakfast, another remembers her parents, misses them, yet another plans his escape. They go to classes unwillingly. They come back from school bored, and try to make their everyday life interesting. They attend various hobby groups, go on a field trip. They often go to the psychologist's office. They talk about their problems in the hope of getting help. "Why should I say hello every morning to somebody else besides my parents, why should I live behind bars, why should I fight with my sister for no reason?" These are questions that it's hard for anybody to answer. Some sit silently for a while, or scribble a picture and go away. Not everybody trusts psychologists. There are children who do not visit the psychologist anymore. "I know that whatever I tell the psychologist, the director will find out. I don't believe anybody, I don't trust anybody, I don't say anything," says D. Some of the children have torn up their diaries. "Why should I keep a diary, it's not worth the trouble. They'll take and read it. One of our teachers told me not to keep one, too", says G.

The pursuit of freedom unites even those who aren't getting along. They gather and decide how to escape from the complex. They deceive the teacher and the watchman and break away from the building. Often they escape at night. They tie bed-sheets together and climb out the window. They wander about the streets and parks and spend the night anywhere. Girls usually strike up new acquaintances that often become ill-fated. These children have sexual relations with their friends from outside. Such relations first become a habit, then a need, and thus escape becomes a necessity. The director says they have had two cases of teenage pregnancy over the last two years. The boys escape more often. Their main occupation is petty crime. They have sexual relations with the cheapest prostitutes. At liberty, the children become potential carriers of sexual diseases.

According to the director, they do not commit large-scale theft. However, one of the girls escaped recently and stole a large amount of money from her home. Not having any permanent home, the escapees come back to Vardashen after a while (from a few days to a year). The police too bring the children back to the educational complex. The escapees sometimes appear in court. Some months ago one of the girls from the complex was convicted of being an accomplice to a robbery. One of the punishments in the educational complex is beating. And they punish children for escape by depriving them of field trips and other privileges.

Their fate

"I have been dreaming about my mom for some days now; I miss her a lot, maybe that's why. Although, at least this way I miss her a little less," says M. She has been living in the Vardashen educational complex with her sister for two years (M is seventeen years old, her sister is fifteen). They were little when their father went to prison. Their mother left the children with her husband's parents and married again. And when their father got out of prison he moved to Russia. The children were raised by their grandparents. Unable to support the children anymore, living in abject poverty, they sent the children to the complex.

"I couldn't keep them anymore, they were growing up and wouldn't obey anymore. I thought, let me send them some place where they will be safe, and I will know that they are taken care of, under control, that they don't mix with strange boys, they are not hungry", says the children's grandmother. Today the children are in the Vardashen educational complex. They are somehow taken care of, they are not hungry. But they are hardly under control. they escape from the complex almost every week, meet their street friends, sleep with different boys. Even when the social workers from the complex take them home, they escape again. But it's not only these girls who live like this. Hardly a child can be found in the educational complex who has not escaped from the complex and has not slept outside. Some of the girls become prostitutes. One of them, for example, has become a prostitute since her escape. The children told us that there is a girl in the complex whose mother forced her to become a prostitute - she brings clothes and other things for the daughter and then force her to "pay off the debt" to strange men.

There are girls whose lives were changed in the family itself. They were raped, beaten, neglected and became isolated from society on their own. L. was living in Yerevan with her brother. "I left home because he was treating me badly," she says. Her friends say that the brother raped L. and that is why she left home. She engaged in prostitution. Then she came to Vardashen. Some time later she escaped from here too, continued her business. And returned to the complex only after a year.

G. is eighteen years old. After her mother's death, her father married again. The stepmother played her "traditional" role in the children's relations with their father. She made up different stories, because of which the father beat the children. One of the social workers told us that G. had wandered about the streets a lot with her uncle's wife, and it is not ruled out that she was engaged in prostitution. Not wanting to live with her father and stepmother anymore, she came to the Vardashen educational complex. "In spite of everything I love my father a lot, I even miss his beatings. But I don't want to go home. I am afraid that he will start beating me again. No, I can't live with the new mom," says G. Now G. lives in one of the dormitories in Masis (because she is of full legal age now, she cannot stay in the educational complex). She is working and trying to get used to life on her own.