Refugees that have temporarily lived in the Yerevan number 16 special school since 1988, during the 22 years brought the already worn and old property to a deplorable state. The last three refugee families living in the school moved out this summer leaving after them tumbledown rooms.

"After they left we repaired what was possible but everything was ruined... It needs millions of drams, the state has to undertake it. The water closet is in a deplorable state: water has flown down from upper floors, all walls got drenched, the stucco fell down... We have applied to the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) several times; they say they don't have money. Children from socially vulnerable families attend this school, should they witness demolished condition here too?" Marietta Petrosyan, deputy director of the school says.

At present 188 students with slight sight problems study in the special school number 16; 80 of them stay overnight. The school was built in 1967 and has not been overhauled since then. It has been partially repaired due to the efforts of benefactors and administration.

In 1988 some 40 families that migrated from Baku and village Talish from Martakert region took refuge in the school. The families from Baku during the next several years received the status of refugees and were provided with housing by the state. Those emigrated from Martakert have no status until today.         

"I have applied to the Refugee Committee many times. All employees there knew me and my problem very well. They would tell us: "Martakert is liberated area, let them return. Go and evict them, it is your right," Marietta Petrosyan says.

Some of the families over a period of time found new places of residence, others persistently refused to return to Martakert. "They are mainly elderly people who had no relatives, no place to go. Some of them died. Together with the pupils we buried 9 of them. During the last 3-4 years only 3 families remained occupying 6 rooms," the deputy director says.

She assures that they were having explanatory talks with them, persuading them to free the territory, getting angry at them but all in vain: "They were coming and crying and begging: we have no place to go, no money, where shall I go with kids? And I would give in."

For 22 years the refugees have been using the property of the school - beds, book-cases, tables and chairs as well as water and electricity. They lived and slept in the section of the school where the bedrooms were located.

In 2010 the group of observers of Ministry of Education and Science that monitored educational institutions detected the refugee families and raised the issue at the Ministry. 

"Those families lived next to the pupils, they would use natural gas in the corridors, cook their meals which was dangerous for the children. They even tore and burnt the parquet of classrooms for heating, forgetting that it was the property of the school," Varuzhan Sedrakyan, deputy chairman of the monitoring group, president of Children's Association of Armenia NGO, says.  

The problem was given a final decision with the help of the monitoring group. The Ministry gave a written instruction to the school to apply to the police and evict the refugees.

"The notice sobered them up. We gave them time, helped them to find a place and move. An old woman was taken to Vanadzor by her brother. A young family moved to one of their relatives' house. Another old woman had moved to her daughter, after some time they just came to take her belongings," Marietta Petrosyan says.

She says that with the assistance of the monitoring group they intend to apply to the RA Government. "We took care of 40 families for 22 years. How much would they have used if the state had rented housing for them? After all, we accepted those people by the instruction of the Government. Isn't it possible to provide some money for repairing? Or maybe the Government could take the repairing of the school upon itself," Petrosyan says.

The deputy director of the monitoring group too says that the building is in very bad state with the priority tasks being the installment of heating system and changing doors and windows.    

Mary Alexanyan

Source - www.hra.am