The “Lullaby” was reborn. Families with newborns in the border communities of Tavush received support

Back in 2002, the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund and 30 women’s non-governmental organizations jointly launched “National Neonatal Care. The “Lullaby” initiative, which provided support to infants and young children. The program was in high demand for many years, but in 2015 it was suspended due to a lack of funds. And in the most difficult year for Armenia in 2020, the program was re-launched on the initiative of the Association of Women with University Education.

In a conversation with WomenNet.am, Jemma Hasratyan, President of the Association of Women with University Education, said that the “Lullaby” project implemented in 2020 aimed at alleviating the difficult social situation of the population of Tavush region, especially the border communities, which worsened because of the impact of COVID-19. The situation of socially vulnerable families with newborn children is especially difficult.

According to her, within the framework of the “Lullaby” reborn in 2020, 250 families were supported. She says that they applied to different places to implement the initiative, at the initial stage only the “Open Society Foundations-Armenia” organization responded and allocated money to support a total of 250 families in the Berd-Noyemberyan region.

The first packages were delivered within the framework of the program on August 5 to the families with 4 months to 1-year-old children in the border settlements of Noyemberyan community, and on August 10 the packages were delivered to 61 families (63 children) in Berd community. The lists of children were provided to the Association by the relevant regional units of social assistance.

“If we take into account that the factory mainly employs women, the implementation of our program to some extent also contributed to alleviating another acute social problem – the creation of jobs for women,” said Jemma Hasratyan.

And then the war started in Artsakh, some programs within the framework of the “Lullaby” had to be postponed in that period, they resumed in November-December.

Will the program be continuous? Mrs. Hasratyan mentioned that their visits show how great the need is to continue the “Cradle”, but at the moment it is difficult to say whether they will be able to implement it in 2021 or not.

Full text in Armenian