New life, new business …

At the Armenian Red Cross Society Office, we met with Zvart Hakobyan, who has just come to Armenia. She told us that she moved here with her whole family in May and, as many Syrian Armenians, managed to take only basicthings with them.

-I have 7 members in my family. We are renting a house. Every month we are paying 100 thousand dram, it is hard, no plates, items for cooking, we didn’t manage to bring anything with us,- said Mrs. Zvart mentioning that she came to Armenian Red Cross Societybecause she had heard they can help her by giving the needed items and equipment for cooking.

-I will prepare and cook something and then will sell as well, thus at least I can help my family.

Another respondent was a woman named Siran. After the Syrian war she decided to live in Gyumri.

-I know sewing, but it turned out that we came to Armenia having only one bag. I asked for a sewing machine, if they approve, I can take orders and keep my family.

Mrs. Zvart and Mrs. Sita are the beneficiaries of a programme implemented by the Armenian Red Cross Society and by the financial support of UNHCR.  Within the programme, the required equipment for staring a new business is given to Armenians who had to leave Syria because of the war. As a result, only for this year 154 Syrian- Armenian families received support and, thus now have an opportunity to see their future in Armenia.  During the second phase it is planned to support 125 more families.

As mentioned Hasmik Khachatryan, Project Coordinator of  Disaster Management department, Population movement direction, the Income- generating component of the project has started since 2013.

-We need to provide job for these people, but we don’t have places on the labor market. But a lot of Syrian Armenians who came to live in Armenia are very talented,  know many crafts and if they have appropriate tools, they can create a job place themselves and thus solve some social problems,- said  Hasmik Khachatryan, adding that for this year the fund grew and  they can afford to pay from 500 to 1000 dollars.

– The needed equipment and tools are given to them as a donation, they have special guarantee and we are monitoring as well, having some visits, calls, to see how useful and well targeted the help was. For now we are in this stage, she said.

Khachatryan mentioned that the most demanded products were repairing tools for a car, computer, phone, as well cooking utensils, sewing machine.

-We had as well very original request from our beneficiary, who asked for a special equipment for making soaps and now he has achieved great success on this field. Generally, I want to mention that at the beginning, the number of women participants was very low, I think culture has had its influence. But now women are becoming more active and we are supporting their participation, mentioned Hasmik Khachatryan

…I met Mrs. Seda and Haykuhi at Armenian Red Cross Society, they are also waiting for their turn to have an interview. They are remembering how in Syria they are organizing charity dinners to collect money for poor families.

–  We were gathering money so that children would have the opportunity to study at Armenian schools, but now we are in need. I have children, but even some elementary things, such as towels and an iron, I don’t have.

It is already 3 months that Kachaur  Kachatryan with his wife and a child moved to Armenia. He used to repair cars in Syria and earned money this way.

–  Now I work at a car washing center, but if I  have the needed tools for repairing cars, I will continue my previous job, which I used to do in Syria. I applied for this  programme, let’s see what result it will give.

This project is only a small part of the larger one which is being jointly implemented by Armenian Red Cross Society and UNHCR.  It also includes counseling and psychological assistance provision to asylum seekers and refugees, border crossing points monitoring, training of border crossing points’ officials, sex and gender based violence prevention and response. All these components are aimed to solve refugees’ problems concerning their integration and acceptance.

Lilit Kochinyan