The community of Sasounik in the Marz of Aragatzotn lies only a few kilometers from the capital of Armenia. Despite its proximity to Yerevan, many of the residents of this large village couldn’t even tell you how to get to the capital. Life is so difficult in the village that most can’t afford a trip outside. Sasounik has about 3,400 residents of which 700 or so have taken up permanent residence outside of Armenia and rarely return to their native village. Sousanna Hakobyan, secretary at the Sasounik municipality, told “Hetq”, “The socio-economic situation of the residents in Sasounik is only getting worse. Maybe this is due to the global financial crisis; I don’t know. A good barometer of how bad things are is the tax collection process. Before, residents would willingly pay what they owed. Now, it’s become more like an unwanted obligation. Our employees are only able to collect taxes from those with government jobs. Today, the villager can only make ends meet by having an animal or two and working the land. But the rents are so steep that residents can’t afford to cultivate the land. Our land isn’t that fertile despite our favorable geographic location. There’s no profit to be made from the land. A few years ago the villagers plowed their grape vines under and planted wheat, thinking it would be more profitable. When the harvest turned out to be paltry, they stopped working the land all together. The amount of land that is cultivated gets smaller each year.” The village has 1,600 hectares of land of which 600 are tillable. Only 130 hectares is now under cultivation, mostly wheat, rye and alfalfa. The land is so depleted that residents don’t even have small vegetables plots to tend. Animal husbandry is about the only sector that is fairly developed in the village but most residents can’t afford the purchase of large farm animals. Sasounik’s women are the ones who mainly are employed. Large land owners from Etchmiadzin come to Sasounik to hire laborers. It’s no longer profitable to work the land “Our village women get paid 2,000-3,000 drams a day to work in the fields of those land owners. It’s more profitable than working the land yourself. Let me give you my example. I had land once and planted the field one year. I couldn’t even cover my costs with the harvest I got. I haven’t worked the land since. Irrigation water charges are steep. As of April 1, the rates for electricity, gas and drinking water have also increased. It’s really a burden for the villager. Fertilizer is quite expensive and there’s no farm equipment. How can you work the land in these conditions? Those in retirement don’t bring any of their pension money home. Most of what they get goes to pay off the utility bills and other taxes,” Mrs. Hakobyan said. She says that most of the village residents are unemployed. Due to the crisis, the number of those leaving for work abroad has also decreased. You can see the signs of this when you walk the street of Sasounik. The men sit around playing backgammon or cards to kill the time. No wonder that many villagers rummage through the village garbage dump from dawn to dusk, looking for something they might be able to sell to make a bit of money. Many forced to rummage through garbage “I’m ashamed to say it but certain families in Sasounik make a living from that garbage dump. They collect bottles and bits of metal which they turn in for cash. Some even pull out bits of food from the dump. It’s a tragic situation. About twenty families get by in this fashion. I know it’s embarrassing for us but it’s the truth,” said Mrs. Hakobyan. Those rummaging around in the garbage dump didn’t want to talk to us. Only one of them shouted out, “What are you doing here? Go back and walk on your nicely paved streets. You’re the lucky ones. Are we really human beings that you’ve come here to talk to us?” Sasounik is also a village that is aging. The youth jump at any opportunity to leave. This year, however, a small bump in the population has been registered. “This is probably due to the one-time monetary payments given by the government to encourage new births. These awards are like an incentive to young families,” said the village secretary. Turning her attention to cultural life in the village, Sousanna Hakobyan pointed out that the new mayor, Arman Margaryan, has started to make some progress in this direction. “We now organize a number of different functions in the village and celebrate all the holidays. The villagers directly take part in these events. Sadly, the cultural center is in bad shape. The center was built in 1968 and hasn’t been repaired since. All the benches are broken. When an event is scheduled we have to carry in benches from the school. We recently celebrated the one year anniversary of our dance group. We put on quite a show but half the audience had to stand because we didn’t have enough seats. This year we’ve increased the number of municipal workers in the cultural field. We have poetry classes and groups devoted to sports and dance. The village library has opened its doors. We are now making preparations to celebrate “Children’s Day on June 1. We want to make it a grand affair.” Mrs. Hakobyan said proudly.