A neat and light house seemed a place where an energetic and still young couple with grown-up children live a happily-after life. But that was unfortunately an illusion which immediately evaporates after one enters the distant room, where a 69-year old woman with swollen abdomen and hyper blood pension was confined to bed for over 6 years, alone, just in the company of her old books and her daughter-in-law’s few pieces of outdated furniture.

Ms. Roza, formerly a happy wife, mother of 5 children, a strong woman with almost 30-years of work experience in the former Soviet Gyumri sock factory became a senile and abandoned weak woman who has no one to be cared of. Her husband passed away quite recently, the children grew and migrated to Russia like a lot of Gyumri young families to survive… Few neighbors were the only caregivers. But the occasional visits could not solve the health problems.

“Armenian Caritas” could not stay aloof to the sufferings of Ms. Roza and enrolled her into the Primary Health Care project yet in 2004, but after the woman’s stroke made its efforts more intense and extensive, providing specific medications, specialized care and moral support.

The long, almost 6 month-long Gyumri winter evenings would have been unbearable if Ms. Roza spent her miserable pension on medications and food commodities. “Armenian Caritas” support spares her scares resources so that she can make the basic needs meet and survive. “AC” is the anchor or rather the torch that keeps Mr. Rosa and hundreds of people like her alive and ready to struggle.

Prepared by Marina Bazayeva