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HUNGRY AND HOMELESS PEOPLE GO UNNOTICED IN GYUMRI - NGO CHIEF CONCERNED AHEAD OF NEW YEAR
22:15 * 29.12.14
In an interview with Tert.am, the head of the Gyumri-based NGO
Shirak Center expressed his concerns of the continuing indifference
to residents living in temporary shelters.
Vahan Tumasyan, who is in daily contact with families living in wagons
since the 1988 earthquake, said foodless and homeless children and
people often remain ignored even in the New Year holiday period.
Asked whether the well-to-do class does anything at all to offer aid to
the impoverished, Tumasyan said he thinks that the public celebrations
they annually organize in the second largest city only add to the
expenses, without fundamentally solving any problem. He said those
celebrations are held normally by people for whom every single day
of year seems to be a holiday. "Let alone the authorities and the
people in government whom I do not even feel like criticizing at all,
and the ordinary Armenians who do not even notice the vast number of
children needing bread, those living in poverty and the people who
are hungry as a matter of fact," he noted.
Tumasyan said he feels that the kind of active campaign their NGO
conducts towards raising publicity on the impoverished population's
living standards would have produced a completely different outcome in
any other nation and society. "Those tremendous activities work only
for 10%; but even for that 10% of people it is worth continuing it,"
he added.
Asked to comment on state assistance projects, Tumasyan said they
now have an agreement over assisting the needy with firewood. "The
Gyumri municipality recently participated in the 'firewood' project,
and the regional governor [of Shirak] has now joined it too. So
they will offer aid to 100 families after the holidays," the NGO's
president said, adding that they still need to do far more to call
for savings by the local authorities for directing resources to the
population's social needs.
http://www.tert.am/en/news/2014/12/29/shirak-tumasyan/1549640
From: Baghdasarian
22:15 * 29.12.14
In an interview with Tert.am, the head of the Gyumri-based NGO
Shirak Center expressed his concerns of the continuing indifference
to residents living in temporary shelters.
Vahan Tumasyan, who is in daily contact with families living in wagons
since the 1988 earthquake, said foodless and homeless children and
people often remain ignored even in the New Year holiday period.
Asked whether the well-to-do class does anything at all to offer aid to
the impoverished, Tumasyan said he thinks that the public celebrations
they annually organize in the second largest city only add to the
expenses, without fundamentally solving any problem. He said those
celebrations are held normally by people for whom every single day
of year seems to be a holiday. "Let alone the authorities and the
people in government whom I do not even feel like criticizing at all,
and the ordinary Armenians who do not even notice the vast number of
children needing bread, those living in poverty and the people who
are hungry as a matter of fact," he noted.
Tumasyan said he feels that the kind of active campaign their NGO
conducts towards raising publicity on the impoverished population's
living standards would have produced a completely different outcome in
any other nation and society. "Those tremendous activities work only
for 10%; but even for that 10% of people it is worth continuing it,"
he added.
Asked to comment on state assistance projects, Tumasyan said they
now have an agreement over assisting the needy with firewood. "The
Gyumri municipality recently participated in the 'firewood' project,
and the regional governor [of Shirak] has now joined it too. So
they will offer aid to 100 families after the holidays," the NGO's
president said, adding that they still need to do far more to call
for savings by the local authorities for directing resources to the
population's social needs.
http://www.tert.am/en/news/2014/12/29/shirak-tumasyan/1549640
From: Baghdasarian