A 15-year-old girl usually pays more attention to herself, to her clothes and looks. Syuzanna Martirosyan a 15-year-old from Ejmiadzin doesn’t have time to spend on herself. At her age she has to take care of her first degree disabled 69 years old  blind grandmother Jemma Chamchian. Since her birth she was doomed to face hardship. Her father left the family, when she was only 18 months old. Later, in 2005 her mother died of lung cancer.

At present, the teen age girl lives with her grandmother and has to pay for not only her school textbooks and copy books, but also for utilities and food at the market herself. In the conversation with Hetq Mrs. Jemma told that they survive on her pension of 31 thousand drams ($85) and Syunazanna’s monthly orphanage benefit of 12 thousand drams ($32). “We can hardly make both ends meet. We have to be constantly in debt, as we can pay the grocers, only after we get my pension. If only someone could help us pay our utilities, we could spare my pension for buying food and covering the needs of the child. I don’t know how we can survive when the gas, electricity and water prices rise on April 1st.  As soon as we get the pension we immediately pay for gas and electricity not to live in a cold and dark home,” Mrs. Jemma said. She burst out crying when telling about the hardship her granddaughter has to face at her young age. “I have already lived my life and I don’t need a thing, but I feel that I am burning alive when my child says that her shoes are worn out and her trousers are torn. Every time I get my pension we buy her something so that she doesn’t feel ashamed and humiliated in front of her friends at school. They spared her of paying for textbooks at school this year, but buying even copy books and pens is a luxury for us. Nevertheless, I will never let her miss her classes. She studies well at school, she is a good child. We’d rather eat less or sleep hungry than deprive her of her textbooks and copybooks,” Mrs. Jemma said. The disabled grandmother was concerned about the fact that her granddaughter could never feel the sweetness of childhood or carelessness of youth. The girl was immediately involved in everyday routine of hardship. She doesn’t think of spending time with her friends, when she comes back from school, she has to immediately start cooking for her blind granny. “It’s hard for me, too, but I can combine the duties of a housewife and a schoolgirl. Sometimes I envy all the children of my age who live with their parents and do not have to think of how to get food or how to survive,” Syuzanna said. She said that she feels the necessity of having a parent. She misses her mother a lot and feels that she needs her much. “I have no warm feelings for my father, as there is not communication between us, we are like strangers. He visited me once after the death of my mother and I haven’t seen him since that meeting. If he comes and offers to live with him, I will not agree. I can’t accept him as my father,” the girl told us. Though Syuzanna has to deal with problems that the adults face everyday, she still has dreams peculiar to her young age. According to her, she has a perfect command of English, she wants to enter a university after school and become a translator. “Now I dream of having a computer,” the girl shared her dream with us. The government hasn’t envisaged any assistance or benefits for this family. Only the Mayor’s Office gave them a gas heater this autumn and helped with several thousands of drams some years ago. They considered they had done enough for this family, dooming the girl and the old woman to the caprice of fate. The neighbours appreciate and respect Syuzanna for her being a modest and smart girl. “Any other child in her place would have already compromised her reputation, yet we haven’t seen Syuzanna even play in the yard. She constantly stays at home with her granny and takes care of her. She is a very good girl, It’s a pitty that her life is so difficult,” one of the neighbours said. Grisha Balasanyan Translated by Anoush Mkrtchyan