Violeta Baghumyan is a fourteen-year-old student of Armenian Caritas’ benevolent social organization, the Emili Aregak Centre, where she receives an inclusive education.
Violeta likes to dance and paint. She paints postcards with the help of the art-therapist Mariam Vardanyan, which are either dedicated to Centre visitors or put up for sale at auction. Violeta has a Down Syndrome and an additional 5 children with Down Syndrome also attend Emili Aregak. Violeta and her friends know that March 21 is World Down Syndrome Day and every year since 2012, the United Nations has observed it. Its main purpose is to raise public awareness concerning Down Syndrome and to help contribute to the development of a more inclusive and barrier-free society.
Nowadays many people who are not well-informed keep their children isolated and out of sight but the truth is children with Down Syndrome can walk, speak, ride a bicycle, read and write; they are vivacious and their liveliness is infectious. Children with Down Syndrome often times look similar to each other but each one has a unique personality. On March 21, an informational meeting was held at the Emili Aregak Centre, during which specialists presented information about Down Syndrome and a film was shown. At the end of the meeting, the children with Down Syndrome surprised the attendees with dancing and Michael, an Emili Aregak student, treated everyone to the cookies he had made.
At the event, many people were in colourful stockings, now a symbol of making people aware of World Down Syndrome Day. Colourful stockings are a type of ice breaker; as a means of attracting people’s attention to start a conversation about Down Syndrome. English doctor John Langdon Down described the condition in 1862 and as a result, Down Syndrome bears his name. Down Syndrome is innate genetic disorder in which the total number of chromosomes are 47, instead of 46. In the body of the children born with the syndrome, the twenty-first pair of chromosomes are presented by three doublets instead of the regular two ones.
