“We will overcome, we have had worse days.” Jasmen Avagyan

As in the whole republic, the established rules of quarantine are observed in our village, – assures Jasmen Avagyan, a member of the Council of Elders of Ptghni village, Kotayk region. The villagers are wearing masks, gloves, they don’t go in and out much, they mostly shop in the village, fortunately we don’t have any cases of infection.

Those working in Yerevan go to work by taxi, and the villagers only go out when necessary. Especially now it is spring, there is agricultural work, everyone is busy with their farms on their land and there is no time go out.

Many people are locked up at home these days and don’t work, but Jasmine didn’t even have time to rest or get bored, on the contrary, her work has only increased: home, family, garden work. She has been a primary school teacher in the village school for 25 years, spends most of the day in quarantine online classes, is in constant contact with both pupils and the village administration, and always tries to be aware of what is happening in the village, to understand what is going on outside. In that case she will be able to be useful to her fellow villagers. Most of the time is devoted to distance learning, this type of education requires double effort from teachers.

“Right now I’m checking the homework on Viber sitting at home,” she told WomenNet.am. “I have third grade pupils this year with  26 students.” Every day I record, explain and send the lesson. I often feel from the answers that someone didn’t understand, I record and explain again. I try to do everything to make it as easy as possible for the children, I explain as accessible and understandable as possible. In the distance learning option, there is a lot of suffering, work, the result is not visible, we suffer so much while checking homework, it is wrong to write something, correct it, and at school we collected notebooks every day, checked the child, explained that you made a mistake, this is how  Jasmine is presenting the lesson in the new situation. She says that it is more effective to have lessons with the child immediately in the classroom, when questions arise, as soon as you answer on the spot, you can find out whether the child understood or not. It is good that the parents are actively involved, and I am very happy about it, without the help of my parents I don’t think it would work.

Although many children are more passive due to the closure of semesters and often avoid attending classes, the teacher approaches with understanding.

“Those who know that the semesters have already closed are joining the classes late, if  I don’t call them, they don’t join,” she says. The summarization of the semesters earlier prevented the children from being active, many children have become indifferent, but I understand that in September, if this situation does not exist, everything will be back to normal, we will be able to restore what was missed” –  she assures.

In these tense and difficult days, Jasmine has a good reason to rejoice, and finally it seems that the issue of irrigation water in the village is being solved. She has repeatedly raised this important issue for the villagers at the meetings of the Council of Elders.

After the restrictions were eased, the council member noted that the movement of people have become more active. If in the past only those working in Yerevan used to leave the village, now many people are going for various problems. And although people’s activity worries her, she admits that she can’t live without a job and sets an example for her daughter’s family.

I always think that the restrictions were a little longer, it would be better from the point of view of health, the infection would not spread much, but on the other hand, people do not have the opportunity, they have to work to be able to live, specifically in our family, my little girl is married and has 2 children. According to the 9^th program, one of the children received the money, the other, not yet, people also want to live, we support and help as much as we can, but they are a young family, if the husband does not work, what can they live on,” she said. It seems to me that we will overcome, we are not the people who will not overcome, we have had worse days, we are the generation that will overcome.