Nane Makuchyan

A few months ago, we wrote about the fate of a homeless girl named Mariam who had even been denied transfer to the mental hospital by ambulance (See: The spectre of homelessness). But this was just one of the dramatic stories that take place before our very eyes almost every day.

No one knows for sure how many homeless people there are in our country. All we know is that every spring their number has declined.until their ranks are replenished by novices. And so it goes.

The homeless people in Armenia are an informal community. Though they live in different places, they are always aware of each other. Many of them spend every night in places that no one else knows about. Aram, homeless himself, is a kind of liaison between the homeless and the outside world. Aram graduated from the Yerevan Conservatory, but since he suffered several strokes has been unable to play music. He has a daughter and a son who live with their maternal grandmother. His wife died ten years ago. He can't stay at the house but from time to time his mother-in-law lets him use the conveniences - to wash, shave, or make phone calls. Ten days ago he told us over the phone that two homeless people were in very bad condition, almost dead. They had frozen while sleeping in the streets.

"Everyone is infested with lice. We can't even solve this problem," Aram says.

In an attempt to help these people we applied to the Yerevan office of the Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR). We knew beforehand that FAR has a special facility for minors to get rid of lice. We asked them to make an exception for our homeless people, but met with a rude refusal instead. They remained unmoved, even after we told them that it was necessary in order to transfer two homeless people to the hospital as soon as possible. We applied to other organizations as well, but none of them wished to help the homeless.

"All over the world shelters exist for homeless people like us, where they get a plate of hot food, a corner to sleep in, but in our country you can't even get an aspirin for free," Aram says.

A few days ago Vova, Tamara and Toma froze to death. Toma left her only son homeless, just like she had been.