Who will support single mothers?

Isabella Abgaryan, a member of the “My Step” faction of the Yerevan Council of Elders, is conducting a study on the issues of single mothers to understand how the community can help those women who have been ignored and often face difficult situations in many issues. At this stage of the study, especially socially insecure single mothers are in the spotlight.

A member of the council notes that in connection with this issue she applied to the corresponding departments of the four administrative districts of Yerevan asking to provide a specific number of single mothers living in those districts. However, the exact number is only given by one administrative district, and it turns out to be wrong. Meanwhile, Izabella Abgaryan points out that the social divisions of the administrative districts are working with the target groups.

I got the necessary numbers from the municipality’s social club. There are 1033 single mothers registered in Yerevan in the system of vulnerability assessment. The largest number is 183 in Shengavit, the smallest in Nubarashen, where there are 8 needy single mothers. My approach is that these women have to work first in order to ensure their family’s well-being, and their children should be admitted to the kindergarten as snapshots.

During a talk with WomenNet.am, she presented some details about possible solutions to this painful problem. In our interlocutor’s opinion, solutions exist and they can be offered not only by the community, but also by the private sector …. If they want…

According to Abgaryan, many beneficiaries only see orphanage, cancerous children, border villages, and socially insecure single mothers, as vulnerable groups, almost never seen. Meanwhile, there are cases where a single mother who cannot care for a child may have to give the child to an orphanage or send him to work instead of the school at an early age.

Another problem is that the society is also not ready to help single mothers, stereotypical thinking still exists,  people are often inclined to blame a woman if she is raising a child alone…

In conclusion, Abgaryan notes that at this stage, she is still studying the number of single mothers and ways to help them, including the issue of regulating this issue with the private sector, even with co-financing. The result, in her words, is largely dependent on humanistic approach of the society. It should be noted that the Municipality of Yerevan allocates 22,000 AMD per child  per month to kindergartens, plus other expenses, heating, utilities, etc.

Full text in Armenian