Three children in need of help

Following home visits by Mission East staff in selected villages of Gegharkunik Region, a number of children had been selected for basic screening by a team of specialist paediatricians from Mission East partner Arabkir Medical Center. The idea is that the specialists spend two days in each of the 10 communities in Gegharkunik included in the project, and early September we participated in a series of such basic screenings, in a local clinic in the village of Hairavank in the province of Gegharkunik. The purposes of these sessions of basic screening is to chart the path for diagnosis, treatment and follow up of the beneficiaries, initially estimated to be a total of 600 children and youths in the two provinces of Tavush and Gegharkunik – but actually thought to be much higher. Working together was a team of a psychiatrist and a child development specialist. The two paediatricians aim to use each of their specialist backgrounds in finding a diagnosis, deciding on possible follow up treatment, short term or long term, and the follow up care needed, be it surgical intervention, medical treatment, or long term rehabilitation in one of the Child Development and Rehabilitation Centres opened as part of the ‘Healthy Start’ project in each of the two provinces.
On September 4, the team of two paediatricians travelled to the village of Hairavank, situated circa 2,000 metres above sea level. Here, as elsewhere in the mountainous region, there is a large proportion of children that have been hidden in their homes and had never been given the correct diagnosis or follow up care needed to change their lives.
With the team of paediatricians were two Mission East staff members, including Managing Director Kim Hartzner, himself a medical doctor, as well as a team of local family doctors and nurses.