Mariam, a second grade schoolgirl from Sasounik village, Aragatsotn, rushed into the house and began searching, opening and closing the lids of the pots and pans spread in one of their rooms that resembles a kitchen. The girl was hungry and she looked for food. Noticing that she was being approached, she gazed downwards and tried to leave the room. Perhaps, she felt that it was obvious what she was looking for and said, “I have lost my ball, I am trying to find it.”

But her mother, Shoushanik Antonyan said that they didn’t have anything to eat at home and the children had to go hungry for several days. “We live in extreme hardship. Our only income is 30,000 drams and that doesn’t last even for half a month. Masis, my husband, took care of our family, earning a living, but now he is in prison and we have to survive only on a meager monthly benefit,” Shoushanik said. Shoushanik Antonyan told us that her husband together with his friends stole wheat from the house of their neighbour. The owners of the house caught them and took them to the police. It is not known yet how many years he’ll get for his crime because the trial is still in progress. “He had to steal, because we couldn’t feed our children. We have to make ends meet on 30,000 drams. I borrow money, then pay back my debt, and have to borrow money again. We can’t make ends meet. Two of my children are attending school. Fortunately, the school’s on vacation for several months and the children will stay at home. I wish it was like that because very often my daughter went to school in torn shoes and felt ashamed. I didn’t have money to buy her new shoes,” Shoushanik said. Four children are being reared in this family. The house is rather damp and that’s why four month old Erik is constantly sick and is under doctor’s supervision. This family has 5,000 square meters of vineyard that they can’t cultivate due to a lack of finances and assistance.

A father is arrested and there’s no one to work the fields

“Who can work in our vineyard? My husband has been arrested. I am at home with my children who are too small. I need to take care of them. When my youngest son hadn’t yet been born I would go and work in the fields of others for daily salary of 2,500-3,000 drams. It was a bit of money that helped us make both ends meet. But now I have to stay at home for the sake of my little boy and I can’t afford going there and working. As a result we go hungry for several days. I can’t say that we constantly go without food because my parents help us survive somehow. We have plenty of debts. We need to pay for electricity, water, to the stores. What else shall I say?” Mrs. Shoushanik added. We tried to find out whether the regional administration of Aragatsotn showed any interest in their situation. She said that she turned to them for help but that she didn’t get any practical results. “I went there last year. They promised to help us, but as yet they haven’t done a thing to solve at least one of our problems. I am going to go there this year too. I am going to write an application to the head of the regional administration and take it to him. Let’s see what they do this time,” Shoushanik said. Sousanna Hakobyan, Staff Secretary at Sasounik’s Municipality, visited Shoushanik’s family with us. She said that the family really faces extreme hardship because they can’t count on any other income but the monthly benefit of 30,000 drams. “Just their land rent arrears to the village administration amount to 200,000 drams, but we feel ashamed to ask Shoushanik to pay it. They live in our midst.  Don’t you think we can’t see that they are hardly surviving? They can’t pay the debt. Naturally I don’t approve that her husband stole the flour, but they are lost deep in debt. This is perhaps the reason why he did what he did. Before being arrested he would go to the village garbage dump, collecting copper, aluminum and other colored metals that he sold to earn some money for bread. Now they don’t have anybody to help them,” Sousanna Hakobyan told “Hetq”.

“We are sick and tired of all those applications for help”

According to Karen Shahazizyan, Head of Aragatsotn Regional Administration’s Social Assistance Department, they are ready to help this family if they again submit a written application. “To tell the truth, we are sick and tired of all those applications. You don’t know how many people apply to our department,” he said with an air of indifference. When we told him that Shoushanik Antonyan had already written an application to the regional administration and hadn’t received any assistance, the department head explained the situation. “I am not the only person who receives those applications. Their application might have passed through other departments and didn’t reach me. Tell her to come to me and I will try to help her somehow,” Karen Shahazizyan said. It’s worth mentioning that this not the only case when the residents of Aragatsotn have complained about the work of their regional administration.