Tag: disabilities

There is a school in one of the greenest neighborhoods of Yerevan where children of all ages speak in the indescribably beautiful language of gestures.

When parents have a child born with a disability, it is usually healthcare professionals who often apply social pressure on them to reject their baby. This White Paper argues in favor of targeted intervention, that is, retraining medical staff, among other things, about their responsibility to communicate with parents professionally and without bias.

Every child has the right to live with a family, whether it’s a biological, adoptive, foster or guardian family. However, every child also has the right to live a life of dignity and tranquility. Kushane Chobanyan looks at some of the successful and not-so-successful cases of foster families in Armenia.

No child should be abandoned and no child should live in an institution. This is a story of a group of mothers whose concern, love and compassion is changing the lives of children with disabilities and their families.

Dismantling decades of prejudice and perceptions about people with disabilities is not an easy task. The inclusion of children with disabilities and special needs in public schools is not an exception, however, attitudes are slowly changing.

Being born with Down Syndrome has not stopped Tigran Gevorgyan from pursuing his dreams. From winning gold medals at the Special Olympics to finding love, Tigran is not only breaking stereotypes, he’s creating a life of joy, fulfillment and meaning.

“There are no invalids in the USSR!” This much heard expression exemplifies how people with disabilities were stigmatized in the Soviet Union. How pervasive is the exclusion of people with disabilities in post-Soviet Armenia? Anais Bayrakdarian talks to experts working in the field and writes that the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable.