A newly built apartment building in the front of Gyumri Governor’s office looked very nice and it seemed that all the inhabitants must finally found a refuge after the long post-earthquake years of darkness and cold… A new door was still a hope, but as soon one opens the door a dreadful picture and odor turns back into the old days of disaster and despair. A broken bed is the only place where Mrs. Lyuba spends her days a whole year round without leaving the room. Her altered face and the lost under layers of swollen skin eyes rather resemble a mask.

Any questions on a TV set or refrigerator, washing machine or a vacuum cleaner seem so inappropriate in these circumstances.

 

Mrs. Lyuba had never any family whatsoever as, being abandoned by her biological parents, had to grow up in soviet orphanage. Then, never married, spent most of her life at Gyumri Textile factory as a worker. The last 3 years were a real ordeal and if not “Armenian Caritas” she would just pass into oblivion. The support that the Primary Health Care clinic provides and what is not less, if not more important, moral support, makes the life of the woman filled with hope that she is not yet an orphan abandoned and forgotten but a person that someone cares for.

Prepared by Marina Bazayeva